Transmissions, Chris Bird, Write-London, 2023, £4.98
Transmissions is a short pamphlet made up of poems and drawings by FRFI supporter Chris Bird, chronicling a period in his life when he was homeless, addicted to heroin and battling with then undiagnosed mental illness.
The poems paint a graphic picture using simple language to describe the daily difficulties of street life:
I sat on a folded piece of cardboard;
this was crucial
sleeping in wet trackies is a nightmare
(Even in Summer, Pavements Are Always Chill)
Sleeping in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Chris and his friends lived hand-to-mouth, while adjacent to all the institutions of immense wealth and power. They suffered attack, both from freelance vigilantes giving them a kick for a laugh and from council officials, who binned their tents:
The park warden watched like a cut-price lieutenant
overseeing the eviction. A distracted police officer
stood beside him, they both exuded disinterest
(Our Side)
Interspersed with the poems are examples of Chris’s art, some depicting the auditory hallucinations he was experiencing at the time, all conveying a sense of alienation, both individual and collective. Chris told FRFI that it was this period in his life which has most shaped his political outlook:
‘These events coloured my own political views. High unemployment and social injustice are the background of the story. Homelessness and mental health neglect are also core characteristics of capital. London in 2008 (as it is now) is an immensely affluent city in terms of banking and commerce. Homeless people live near these centres of international capital.’
The pamphlet ends with Chris having spent some time as an in-patient in a mental hospital, now outside attending a soulless daycentre. Fifteen years on, even such facilities as were available at that period have been subject to further cuts, and Camden council is still binning homeless people’s tents. Nonetheless, as the blurb on the back of the book describes, this is ‘a story of resilience and humour’.
Nicki Jameson
