Art as Connection in the Keeping Six Quarterly
by Hannah Barrie
“Stories are a way in,” Kelly Wolf tells me. Wolf is the arts coordinator at Keeping Six, Hamilton’s harm reduction action league and a community-based organization that defends the rights, dignity, and humanity of people who use drugs. She runs the organization’s arts collective and its zine, the Keeping Six Quarterly.
Keeping Six was founded in 2018 in response to the opioid crisis. It’s run by and for people with lived experience of using drugs, and serves as an organized voice for these community members. In addition to the arts collective and zine, Keeping Six hosts a drop-in night for food and idea-gathering (on pause due to COVID), engages in outreach, advocates for encampments and their residents, and organizes a local Naloxone campaign.
The zine was first published in 2019, then took a hiatus. Wolf helped to revive it through the arts collective in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. Keeping Six Quarterly’s mission is threefold: it’s a creative outlet for community members who often attend the arts collective drop-ins to work on their contributions; a method of connecting with others who use drugs or are unhoused; and a tool for advocacy, raising awareness, and building understanding for the community of people who use drugs.
The Quarterly’s content is also simply compelling art. In Issue 2.4, from December 2020, Jody Ans’ short story “Rage” offers a visceral and nuanced portrait of an abusive relationship. A triptych of photos by Beth Brock depicting nighttime scenes in Hamilton are interspersed with the “Report Back” segment, interviews with people who had been living in the city’s encampments. Paintings are peppered throughout with vivid linework and bold colour.
The newest issue, 3.1 from March 2021, features the stories and photographs of people from the Wesley Day Centre and the Hub, two drop-ins where Wolf coordinates the arts collective. MJ is an aspiring photographer who writes about déjà vu: “When you’re thinking of somebody, but you haven’t seen them for a while and then the next day – bam – I see them.” By the end of the feature, though, MJ mentions a friend’s death by overdose, and readers are reminded of the lack of safe supply, resources, and support for people who use drugs in Hamilton, especially during the pandemic – “it’s brutal.”
The weekly art drop-ins provide a moment of pause for people navigating one of the most severe opioid epidemics in Ontario. COVID-19 has made it harder to use drugs safely, with services and supports reduced or closed during the pandemic. Wolf notes that when the pandemic hit, basic needs were immediately the priority. “All you can think is where am I going to stay, what am I going to eat,” she says, “and there’s nothing to do, everything’s closed.” Day-to-day life turns into simple survival. In this light, the arts collective has been a key resource in this past year, offering a space to do more than just survive. Wolf says that it “provides people with an outlet to write or draw, or even have a point of contact with someone who says, I’m going to come back, I’m looking for you next week when I come out and do outreach.” In a society that often stigmatizes drug use and homelessness, the art drop-in is a safe space to address the need for connection and creation.
The collective has received funding from the Canadian Mental Health Association to help facilitate mental health through creating art in community. Wolf says it helps provide a purpose in a person’s day. If someone can look forward to a weekly time to sit down and talk to people and make art, and the art goes up on the wall afterwards or gets printed in a zine, it can help get them through the week.
Wolf told me about someone who said he would plan to sit down for just ten minutes, and then end up spending the whole evening there. “For a moment, you can just be there, just drawing,” she says. “That’s what it can provide, that opportunity for people to just take a breath, and remind themselves that there’s more to them than others might perceive, or more than they thought about themselves.”
The weekly art drop-ins move from place to place depending on availability and COVID restrictions. Lately, they’re hosted at the Wesley Day Centre and St. Patrick’s, with art supplies to go available at The Hub. Contributors receive a gift card in exchange for their zine submission, and Keeping Six has started paying peers, just as they do for street outreach, to support the arts collective activities. Paying people for their art and work is just another benefit that the zine and collective provide for the community.
Wolf thinks a lot about the various purposes the arts collective and zine serve. The Quarterly’s revival started with mini-zines called “I Really Wish You Knew Me,” which were essentially blank templates with a prompt for people to respond to (“This is my favourite place in Hamilton,” or “It really bugs me when…”) because Wolf saw the disconnection between people who use drugs and people who don’t, and wanted to figure out how to bridge that gap through little commonalities.
This realization led to her connection with Keeping Six, whose community members were excited about various writing projects, and Wolf figured she could help with the implementation and organization. “It needed to always be driven by their desires, by their interest, by what was important to them,” she told me. “I didn’t go in with my own agenda of what is the story I want to tell; I went in with, what are the stories that come, and how are we going to put it all together and share it.”
Wolf’s background in theatre gave her an understanding of how the public connects with an issue. She wanted an entry point for people who don’t use drugs and haven’t experienced homelessness to build compassion and understanding, and “stories were a way to communicate an idea – they’re different than writing articles. Stories are things that people can connect with.” She built relationships first, and learned from the organization through showing up, listening, and supporting existing projects. Now, she says, she’s found her niche. “I’m committed to being in community.”
The arts collective provides an outlet, a vehicle for self-expression, a part of the day to look forward to. The zine publishes the art that comes out of that space, puts it out into the world for people to share their experiences and others to learn and engage. “There’s a great sense of pride in seeing your work published,” Wolf says. The website and Instagram amplify those stories further, making the art more accessible, spreading the word. The zine is an exciting addition to Keeping Six’s valuable work in Hamilton.
Regardless of the Quarterly’s multifaceted mission, its top priority is serving the community that makes it. Issue 3.1 ends with “The Urban Survival Guide,” by several different contributors, offering tips like “When you are tired of carrying your bags around you can stash them in the yellow street salt containers at a church, school, hospital. Keep in mind this is only a short time solution,” and a list of “Things to buy at the dollar store that are must have when on the road.” Issue 2.4 includes a charter of rights for people experiencing homelessness and a tribute to a community member who passed away. It’s art, writing, and information made by and for people who use drugs, and that’s essential.
Dee Furman’s contribution to the latest issue ends with words that someone gave her when she needed them most: “You are worthy to receive / You are worthy to receive / You are worthy / […] Worthy simply because you exist.” A good reminder for all who might need it.
If you’re interested in learning more or getting involved, you can volunteer with Keeping Six, find the arts collective on Instagram, and get a copy of the zine online or in person at Vintage Coffee Roasters and Church 444.
Send queries or submissions to the Keeping Six Quarterly at arts@keepingsix.org.
Hannah Barrie is a researcher and writer living in Hamilton. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Law and Social Policy and the Journal of International Women’s Studies. You can find her at hannahbarrie.ca.