In the late 1990s, Vancouver's Downtown Eastside became the setting for three monuments - Crab Park Boulder, Marker of Change and Standing with Courage, Strength and Pride. The monuments were grassroots initiatives that challenged the norms of civic art by claiming a place in public space for society's most vulnerable groups, and each figured in debates about many kinds of violence. Emphasizing the resilience and agency of artists, activists and residents, this vivid account of the creation of memory-scapes offers unique insights into the links between power, public space and social memory. Adrienne L. Burk is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University --