When AFL team the Sydney Swans swept into Marrickville West Primary School last week you can imagine the fuss and excitement. Working together in partnership with Addi Road, the Swans were all the more popular for offering us a big helping hand at the MWPS’ Breakfast Club that is run at the school by Connect Marrickville.

Mostly people just want to run away. The subject is too difficult, too dark, too troubling to cope with. So it’s something of a surprise to find a crowd of almost 200 people at Addi Road in Marrickville on a cold winter’s evening for the launch of the third season of No Laughing Matter, a podcast dedicated to telling the stories of ‘victim-survivors’ of incest.

Judy is a volunteer for the new Wednesday Night Lights shift at Addi Road Food Pantry. Working in tandem with the Street Side Medics service we are seeing a new kind of customer and many people in need.

We answer inequality and social struggle, environmental concerns and cultural isolation with bread and ideas, with political lobbying and food relief work in tandem with film nights, artist gallery shows, and public events like the Addi Road Writers’ Festival.

Today is May Day. Also known as Labour Day and Eight Hour Day. In Marrickville we will maintain just a little of the May Day spirit in a conversation between the novelist Alan Fyfe and the poets DG Lloyd and Magdalena Ball at our Addi Road Writers’ Festival.