Loud Mouth Brown Girl

Hi, my friends. It’s been so long since I wrote to you, specifically, but I wanted to share two things with you. One: I’ve created a new line of LMBG Products for Six 0h F0ur N0rth, and then also I did a thing where I told some stories about my hometown, and that got me thinking and now…I present this letter 🙂

Did you know that after every time I was abused or hurt, beaten down and feeling like the world was going to open up and swallow me, Surrey BC was the place I was able to run to.

While it’s absolutely true, I believe I am in a better place now. Surrey, BC, is more home than any place I’ve ever been in. Calgary didn’t treat me very well, and even though it tried to keep me, it failed. Thankfully, I was able to come to Surrey and learn about all the things young people should learn about.

Love, loss, friendship, majick, power, boundaries, strength, life. I learned about all of this back home in Surrey, and while it’s not new, that’s why I created Six 0h F0ur N0rth.

When I was a kid, people made fun of Surrey. Even in Alberta, we heard the jokes; they were so rude I don’t dare repeat them here, but basically, Surrey was the Premier Joke of British Columbia. Hell, of Canada if we’re being downright honest here.

Everyone knew it was full of gangsters and thugs, but no one cared to say anything about it out loud unless you knew for sure they weren’t around. And then there was the drug epidemic, and the streets you don’t dare go down because the boogie man might get you.

On and on, I had valid reasons to be afraid when I found out at twenty that that was where I was moving to. But as it turns out, Surrey is one of the most majickal places in the world. Sure, there’s lots of crime, but that’s because (ugggggggggggg) there were 750,000 cops per 1 million people living in Surrey, the last time I was living there.

There weren’t enough police officers, BUT ALSO ALSO ALSO ALSO, there weren’t and still are not enough community program hubs that take people who are living in some of the world’s most marginalized conditions.

We used to have a ton of programs, but through the city’s restructuring plan, a lot of those programs are gone, and a lot of those people who ran those programs are now folks like me, looking for services to learn how to move on after you’ve spent your whole life doing just one thing. Phew.

Surrey is a growing, beautiful, vibrant city, filled with potential, and if we get it right, we’ll be able to capitalize on that potential before it’s too late. Having cannabis stores in the city is a damned good start, which will prevent people from buying drugs that have been accidentally laced with other drugs. But it won’t stop youth from smoking bad weed.

Vancouver’s programming is almost perfect – because it is ever evolving, people are constantly going there to see what has changed and what’s new. Surrey’s problem is that it wants to evolve, but people aren’t focused on the right issues.

Yes, Surrey needs a nightlife. We need to be able to go to a bar or a club and have a good time, without worrying about gangsters showing up and taking over as they often used to in the old days.

But Surrey also needs programs for youth. When I was in Calgary, we had a club that was for kids. Anyone 12-17 was able to come and listen to local DJs and dance the night away, and it kept us away from using drugs and alcohol because we weren’t allowed to be drunk or high in that place.

They used to have them in BC as well, but they were all shut down for being “illegal.” I am telling you as a former kid who spent an entire lifetime living in crisis if you give youth a safe, alternative option to using drugs and hanging out on street corners, they will fucking take it.

But this whole “Comfort for me, but not for you,” bullshit has to go. You can’t say you want to have a community and then destroy all the parts of the community that make it work. I’m looking right at you, City Hall.

You can’t tell us it’s perfectly fine to celebrate Pride (as it fucking should be) and then not celebrate Pride ALL year long. It’s long past time we added some color to the city. Electrical boxes aren’t enough.

The colors of Surrey are Green, Gray, and the occasional Blue. That’s not enough, there’s an entire spectrum of colour out there to use and we’re deliberately not using enough because the people who run Surrey BC want the world to see it as “Grown up and Professional.” Ahem, Vancouver is one of the most respected cities on the planet, and they have thriving gardens, they have wildlife, they have WILD…LIFE.

And I don’t just mean the animals. They have life, you can walk down the alley and run into a random mural made by some Indigenous, Black, Asian, and or Disabled artist, but you’ll never know who. All you’ll know is the majick of discovering THAT mural as if you’re the first one to ever see one before.

Vancouver has tiny little hidey holes where you can discover all kinds of majick and the world knows it, we’re competing with what the world knows to be true, so why don’t we surprise our audience and throw an art festival where we invite Graffitti artists from around the world, to decorate the city? I bet you we’d make millions on the donations alone.

We have some of the most creative, talented musicians I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing from, living in Surrey, BC. And many of them would play to the audience for free if they had a place to play, but there is absolutely nowhere in Surrey, BC, to grab a coffee and a slice of cake while you listen to the woes and loves of heartbroken, starving artists.

I love coming back home to visit, but I wish there was more to “Do.” I mean I can only handle going to The White Spot so many times in my life. Boston Pizza isn’t much better.

There aren’t many great eating options in the core of Surrey, BC, and there should be. We should be catering to the idea that families – many of which are now moving to my hometown – need places to go and eat that are fun and loud, but emphasis on fun.

Surrey is one of the most beautiful places in the world; all it needs is a little sparkle to help it shine. You can be a part of that, or you can be in the group that hears me say “I told you so,” when someone finally dares to take these things into consideration.

I had the absolute pleasure of taking part in a local storytelling project about Surrey (TBA soon), and while I was being interviewed, I kept thinking about all these majickal hidden parts of Surrey, like the park behind the Scott Road Sky Train station.

From the outside, it just looks like a chaotic mess, but for those who dare to venture beneath the surface, they’ll find an entire world hidden away from the one that stalks us every day.

There’s Brownsville Beach, under the skytrain, from which at nighttime you can see the lights of New Westminster as you party the night away with your closest and dearest.

Bear Creek and Green Timbers Parks, which literally take you out of the city while keeping you in the heart of it, making you forget that the rest of the world exists.

There are many beautiful places, but what is lacking is a place for people to gather, to build safe spaces and community.

Again, these are just a few things to consider. Surrey might be beautiful, it might be filled with potential, but there’s a reason that At Risk Youth run to Vancouver when they are in need: Vancouver is safer.

Sending all my love,

Devon J Hall

If you have thoughts you’d like to add about this post, please leave a message, and let’s talk about them in the comments below

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