‘With Glowing Hearts’ is a story about hope and one of a community struggling to be heard.  Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), rated as the poorest postal code in Canada, is infamous for its social ills, but unknown to many it is a community full of heart.  Fighting for social justice is not new to this community. Their voice that is continually ignored, now faces its biggest fight as the world comes to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics.  One of the most publicized fights has been for community space in the contentious Woodward’s redevelopment.

“The Woodward’s Squat (video) was an autonomous direct action housing initiative that took place in Vancouver over 92 days in the fall of 2002.”  from woodsquat.wordpress.com

Now in 2010 in the shadow of the Olympics and under the  famous – and refurnished -  ‘W’ the redevelopment has opened just in time for the world to see.

Webisode #3, the story of W2 follows the journey of a community fighting for it’s space in it’s own neighborhood.  During the the Games W2 will be running all kinds of great programming including ‘Fearless City Mobile’ a Citizen Journalist platform, just visit them behind the flames on Hastings St.  ‘Fire with Fire’ is an Isabelle Hayeur installation running through February in the windows of W2.

Video posted under the creative commons license from www.youtube.com/user/kriskrug