Pennie Brinson

"Lost in Darkness" speaks to the voices never heard, the stories never told. The voices of those with no guarantee of hearth and home. Books on housing usually don't make the best-seller lists. Housing isn't "sexy". You won't hear these stories in the late-night on Letterman or Leno. But many of us are just a couple of paychecks away from the street. Recent studies have confirmed it: Twenty-first Century Chicago faces an alarming crisis - a severe shortage of affordable house. This collection captures the real, human stories of housing and homelessness. The words of human beings who shuffle, invisible, through half-lives of bus shelters, viaducts and abandoned basements.

From introduction: "...60 writers take on the on-again, off-again affair between mind and body. They take inventory part by part, feeling by feeling, urge by irresistible urge. They address birth and death and everything in between. The struggle to resist the status quo and take ownership of how we see and think about ourselves is fought in many ways on these pages. Not unexpectedly, the writers prove once again, hilariously, mournfully, tenderly, that the personal is political." Writers for this issue come from St. Leonard's House and from the following Chicago Public Library branches: Bezazian, Budlong Woods, Richard M. Daley, Hall, King, Mabel Manning.

"The Journal of Ordinary Thought (JOT) publishes reflections people make on their personal histories and everyday experiences. It is founded on the propositions that every person is a philosopher, expressing one's thoughts foster creativity and change, and taking control of life requires people to think about the world and communicate their thoughts to others. JOT strives to be a vehicle for reflection, communication, and change. The Journal of Ordinary Thought was founded by Hal Adams is 1991." This edition contains poems, reflections, illustrations and photographs concerning food and the culture surrounding it.

The Access Living Writing Group of 2009 shares their short stories and poems.

Reflections on the lives of ordinary people by writers from a network of adult education centers all over the city