Most civic histories celebrate progress, industry, order, and vision. This isn’t one of those.

Vancouver Confidential is a collaboration of artists and writers who plumb the shadows of civic memory looking for the stories that don’t fit into mainstream narratives. We honour the chorus line behind the star performer, the mug in the mugshot, the victim in the murder, the teens in the gang, and the “slum” in the path of the bulldozer. By focusing on the stories of the common people rather than community leaders and headliners, Vancouver Confidential shines a light on the lives of Vancouverites that have for so long been ignored.

This new collection takes a fresh look at the raw urban culture of a port city in the mid-twentieth century. These were years when Hastings and Main was still a dynamic commercial hub, when streetcars thrummed through the city streets, and when “theatre” meant vaudeville and burlesque. Street gambling and illegal boozecans peppered the map, brothels and bootleggers served loggers and shoreworkers, and politicians were almost always larger than life.

This collection of essays and art illuminates aspects of a city that was too busy getting into trouble to worry about whether it was “world class.”

The collection includes essays from Tom Carter, Aaron Chapman, Jesse Donaldson, James Johnston, Lani Russwurm, Eve Lazarus, Diane Purvey, Catherine Rose, Rosanne Sia, Jason Vanderhill, Stevie Wilson, Jim Wong-Chu, Will Woods, Terry Watada, and John Belshaw.