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Tapestry

When debt feels like sin, how do you pay it off?

(Originally aired February 1, 2015) The artist Alinah Azadeh felt as though she had sinned when she fell into massive debt and lost her house.
CBC Radio ·
Alinah Azadeh at the launch of The Book of Debts VIII, Imperial War Museum North, with Arian Sadr. ( Image: courtesy Joel Chester Fildes for Asia Triennial Manchester 2014.)
Tapestry22:06When debt feels like sin, how do you pay it off?

Alinah Azadeh lost her mother in the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. Soon after, she lost everything in a series of bad financial decisions and real estate gone wrong. Alinah felt as though she had sinned.

What do you owe? What is owed to you?

Add your story to The Book of Debts.

But she turned the experience into art. Alinah asks people she meets on the street, or online, to enter what they 'owe' into her Book of Debts. Sometimes her contributors list financial obligations, sometimes they feel spiritually or emotionally indebted to the ones they love.

Alinah says if she's learned something from the whole mess - and from her art - it's that debt is the social glue that holds us together. "If we're not willing to be indebted to people around us, ultimately, we're kind of on our own."

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