Art From Surviving Homelessness

Justin and Denise both turned their pain into art, and their art into a way to help others. Justin, who performs as Surfing Sofas, spent over a decade bouncing between friends' couches, night shelters, and temporary housing before moving into his first flat just weeks ago. Denise built a career as a writer and filmmaker after years battling addiction and homelessness of her own, work that eventually became the award-winning short film This Is Depression.

They talk about what actually happens after the emergency ends, or in Justin's case, what it feels like when it's only just starting to. Denise is years out from her own homelessness and still carries it with her. Justin is brand new to having his own front door and still isn't sure he believes it's real. Justin recites two original poems, including one written from inside a night shelter. Denise opens up about the PTSD that still catches her off guard, and the recovery handbook she wrote for people going through what she went through, which later led her into prison workshops writing a book with incarcerated men that's now shortlisted for two national crime writing awards.

This episode is about the realities of homelessness, why listening to people with lived experience matters, and how art can turn the dark into hope.

Watch Denise's film This Is Depression here: https://youtu.be/loHMurD0jGU?si=kTtI8OOiNZZYCkbt

Order Denise's book Sparks in the Dark here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sparks-Dark-Prison-Project-1/dp/1917061730

The Good Work – a poem by Surfing Sofas: https://homewards.org.uk/the-good-work-by-surfing-sofas

Listen to Surfing Sofas' poem "Till the Day We Meet Again" on the Museum of Homelessness website: https://museumofhomelessness.org/news/poet-in-residence