246, Poet Fenton Benjamin on living homeless in Montreal today

This is the first in a series of 4 interviews that will air here on Free City Radio that address the crisis of homelessness in Montreal, Quebec and Canada. This interview series takes place in the build up to a gathering on housing justice taking place from March 7-9, 2025 at Concordia University, for more information on that gathering visit http://housingjustice.now The first interview in this series is with poet Fenton Benjamin, a Caribbean-Canadian poet and spoken word artist, who I first got to know in the context of doing community radio work in Montreal at CKUT 90.3 FM. Fenton and I were both on a community radio cultural morning magazine program, Fenton would come into read poems sometimes on air and also offer social commentary. Today Fenton is living with homelessness in the city and shares a direct first hand experience about the ways that rising rents and the lack of affordable housing units is driving young artists and workers into homelessness. This interview series is supported by the Social Justice Centre at Concordia University. The accompanying drawing is by Stefan and the music track is Passage by Anarchist Mountains. Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!