Helena Grande: Night Soil

‘Night Soil’ is a poetry pamphlet by Helena Grande. It includes nine poems about eviction, nightmares and body experiences of isolation.

‘Night Soil’ is an old euphemism for poop. A term that refers to how excrements were collected at night before the sewage system was created. At night, when everybody was sleeping, cleaners collected and transported human waste to hidden places. People woke up to a tidy city, except cleaners who were relegated to stay away from society because they were all night in touch with the collective dirt.

This pamphlet is dedicated to everyone who has ever cleaned other people’s shit.