by DerRic Starlight
DURVILE & UPROUTE BOOKS
2026/$34.95/320 pp.
So much of the conversation around homelessness deals with the number of people on the street, the needs of service providers or the reactions of the police. Rarely do we get a first-hand look at life on the street from someone who has actually lived it. Award-winning Indigenous puppeteer, screenwriter, comedian and all-around entertainer DerRic Starlight does just that in See-Me Street. It’s a chronicle of the time when the crowds and the bright lights were gone and he found himself—struggling with addiction and grieving his partner—out on the street.
Starlight is terrified to go to a shelter, but friends convince him to spend the night at the Calgary Drop-In Centre. Entering the building he runs into an old flame, an almost prophetic glimpse at the harsh life of the street. “She was still beautiful, but the street had taken something from her,” he writes. “Her eyes were tired, beaten, carrying stories she didn’t want to tell. I whispered, ‘What are you doing here?’ and she told me quietly about losing her baby, about pain pulling her toward addiction, about how she ended up sitting outside a shelter.”
Over time, Starlight experiences life on the street in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge. The personal stories he tells about the people he meets are a big part of what makes this book so compelling. The reader gets to know many incredible people and see the difficulties and sorrow of life on the street, from exposure to the elements, to a lack of healthcare, to the threat of violence. Even inside shelters tension can escalate quickly, and Starlight witnesses multiple fights, including one at Hope Mission in Edmonton. “The room was still shaking with the sound of fists pounding on the tables. I’d never been to prison, but Razor leaned close and said, ‘This is as close as it gets.’ ”
A member of the Tsuut’ina Nation, with roots in the Blackfoot Confederacy, Starlight is careful not to generalize about what he’s seeing, and to describe only his own experience. Years later, after he got off the street, kicked his addictions and resurrected his career, he reflects on what he experienced. “Poverty turns into homelessness faster than people think,” he writes. “It didn’t matter where they came from. Indigenous, Black, White, Filipino, Middle Eastern—the streets didn’t care about colour or background. I saw the same pain in every face. Once you’re out there, life becomes about survival….”
I would have liked more back story about Starlight’s life before he was on the street. But this is a minor gripe about an otherwise fascinating first-hand look at homelessness. It’s not pretty, it’s not cleaned up, but it provides a valuable perspective on the lives of Alberta’s most vulnerable population.
Justin Bell is a journalist in Edmonton.
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