I’m unsure how to approach a few of the questions that I want to ask Aviva Zimmerman. They all surround her experience working on theatre with the homeless. But the issues seem to be hidden to me. I’m not sure how to start.

Zimmerman breaks the ice by letting me know I’m not alone in that feeling. She herself was not really exposed to it until moving to Toronto to pursue Acting at Ryerson. “It was very visible. Especially where I lived in the east end. I almost became desensitized to it because there was much so much of it.”

You would be hard pressed to describe her as desensitized now. Zimmerman is one of the Artist Mentors of This is Our City, a 12 month municipally funded outreach putting the tools of the theatre into the hands of our homeless population. The goal is to assist them in expressing identity, and creating discussion and awareness of their situation.

The literature that the project circulates is refreshing in it’s honesty. “This is My City does not pretend to be a solution to the homeless crisis. Rather, the project intends to enable homeless citizens the chance to speak on their own behalf.”
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