Editorial note: This is a slightly modified and edited version of an essay that appeared in the author’s personal blog. Directed by Todd Haynes in a Cincinnati, Ohio made over to look like New York and its suburbs […]
In her recently published memoir Good as Gone, about her marriage with internationally renowned Canadian poet, the late Irving Layton, Anna Pottier boldly asserts that “modern Canadian poetry was born in Irving’s living-room” in his “tiny house” on Kildare Road […]
En route to Europe and Asia, I find graffiti everywhere on streets and train stations in Copenhagen. Many words on the graffiti look for peace in an unstable world. Others look for a world without borders or simply a place […]
Like so many artist-creators who felt somewhat suffocated under our country’s last political regime, for me it was like a breath of fresh air when our new government was formed. Cuts to the CBC and the arts gave […]
Le projet des cornets s’est amorcé en 2013 alors que l’artiste avait fixé sur sa bicyclette un petit atelier de sérigraphie. En déambulant dans les rues, cette installation avait pour but de sortir l’atelier des murs et de […]
He drove me in a TATA cab through the streets of Old and New Delhi. The air un-breathable. I heard his bone voice breaking down telling why he didn’t vote for “the man who wears a […]
Portrait of Nina Simone, heart blazing, on Jeanne Mance St., by Montréal street artist (and jazz singer) MissMe, who describes herself as “an artful vandal.” For more on MissMe, go to her website at http://www.miss-me-art.com/. (Photo by Jody Freeman) —– Anonymous mural […]
Municipal Court Mondays were always a low roar or outright chaos. Or maybe it was the other way around as the herd of weekend detainees was packed into the courtroom. The crimes for the most part were of a […]
Ellipse I am the chaos of my father’s order I am the conscience of his delight I am the fantasy of his prison I am the mirror of my father’s light I am the axis of his revolution I […]
I came looking for you on the streets of Montparnasse boulevard Arago, rue Saint-Jacques, rue Mouffetard, boulevard Raspail place de l’Odéon I came looking for a woman solitary not afraid living on coffee and fine on the money men […]
Approximately one hundred and fifty years ago, a remarkable play featuring a Muslim character who hates himself and who embodies what those in power at the time considered to be the villainous opposite of what was considered civilized, true and […]
Nelly Arcand, Breakneck, Anvil Press, 2015, 223 pages. Translation by Jacob Homel Nelly Arcand was a shooting star in Québec’s literary scene. Between her first novel Putain in 2001 (Whore, 2004) and her fourth and last novel Paradis, […]
Canadian poetry The birds are quiet here. They do not shout or bang about the window openings. They are discreet and twitter from a distance screened by shrub and fence, minding their business. Perfume All my life, […]
In the context of the present aggressive globalization, this affirmation – the heart has its reasons – is fundamental. It is not new. Already in the seventeenth century, the mathematician, philosopher, theologian and physician, Blaise Pascal, had written “The heart […]
[Melissa Bull, rue, poems, Anvil Press, 2015, 104 pages] I was handed a copy of Melissa Bull’s debut book of poetry, rue, less than a week after a meaningful exchange with a writer friend. Under late September lamplight, we […]
Woman in the dream of the pink house I listen to you tell, Éloïse. Years before this dream. Perhaps it is taboo because it is ugly. We are stripping corn and talking. I stare at your bruised […]
“She is a liar and a cheat. She is an elephant. She is my wife.” And it was the end of an almost perfect day. She thought of her beautiful daughters and her grandchildren. She counted on her fingers […]
This is an adaptation of the presentation I gave at the launch of the English-language edition of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois’ book, In Defiance. It was translated from the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award winner for nonfiction, Tenir tête (Lux […]
Resilience and Triumph: Immigrant Women Tell their Stories (Second Story Press) is a collection of writings by over 45 women from diverse cultural, linguistic, religious and national backgrounds. Edited and compiled collectively by a group of seven women, it is […]
Yves Engler’s latest book, Canada in Africa: 300 Years of Aid and Exploitation, continues this author’s relentless work not only of speaking truth to power, but also of telling Canadians the truth about themselves. Near the end of his […]
Cope, Karin. What We’re Doing to Stay Afloat. Pottersfield Press, 2015. 96 pages Persephone in Canada Karin Cope, a poet, blogger, photographer, videographer, activist, and sailor works in Halifax, where she teaches, and lives several miles […]
Imagine nomads in quilted alkhallas (long loose robes), strumming ektaras (single stringed drone guitars) in the Sufi-Baul[1] tradition on the streets of Chicoutimi, Québec! “Goley malé goley malé Pirit koro na!” Don’t mess around with love, because it […]
