Cathleen Schandelmeier

Founded in 2005, AREA Chicago supports the work of people and organizations building a socially just city. AREA actively gathers, produces, and shares knowledge about local culture and politics. Its newspaper, website, and events create relationships and sustain community through art, research, education, and activism. *

From the back cover: "Step into the Light" is a collection of poetry that casts a cold, hard eye on the coke-snorting, beer-swilling, pill-popping world of contemporary America as it lurches into the twilight of the twentieth century. This book speaks with a literary tongue that tells the grim story of addiction with honesty and gut-wrenching detail. But it also sings with joy and triumph about recovery, sobriety, and serenity.