In the past couple of years, we have all discussed and dissected, with intensity, the man-made climatological changes that have hit our earth. It has become frustratingly clear that it is not enough to debate the science, the […]
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Patrick Barnard
What sustains our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our spirits, our families, our communities, our environment?
Why do we avoid probing the root causes behind a calamity, be it a flood, a massacre, a genocide, or severe environmental catastrophes?
As always, when editing an issue of Montréal Serai, there is a certain FEAR bordering on near paranoia that the theme that was chosen several months ago may not produce potent and relevant pieces. And as always, when we are […]
We (the editorial board) struggled with the theme for some time – Old Age and Youth in a Changing World. We tried to find the balance between keeping the theme open and general enough to allow for interpretation and limited […]
[Mara Grey explains the origin of her interview, carried in this issue of Serai, with Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) the world-famous Argentinian writer of fiction, poetry, essays and translations. In Grey’s words: “I returned to Buenos Aires in 1980, after […]
Sometime in the third week of February this year, a physicist friend and teacher from Brooklyn, pondered the probability/possibility/paradox of locating an event (perhaps even as an alternate reality) at a distance using mathematical relationships between space, time (and […]
The Monarch butterfly can travel up to 2,500 miles across “borderless” lands to seek warmth and nourishment for its larvae. The wildebeest journeys through the Serengeti forming part of the largest mammalian migration in the world. And the Arctic […]
[Editors’ note: We are publishing Patrick Barnard’s essay “The Ladder is Gone” in two parts: the first installment in this issue of Montreal Serai and the second in the next issue this coming Spring. In this first part of the […]
This edition of Montreal Serai is about “Class, Caste, and Cultural Labels.” Once again class has become a central social issue both in the industrialized world and in many other countries. The “Occupy Movement” in New York City made the […]
Yes, this is a Literature issue and it was always destined to be one. I was going to talk extensively about Literature as we have all known it to be, in the mainstream and alternative sense. The thematic title was […]
Sociological (and sometimes mischievous) terminology like identity gap and cultural appropriation, accommodation and even assertions like Euro-centrism and Orientalism and political programs based on multiculturalism and interculturalism are very simply losing their edge. They have been overused, misused and abused. […]
For the past several years, we have been justifiably looking out and beyond the city we originate from—-Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Our self-imposed mandate has been to look beyond borders and fences and peep into cultural worlds that surround us in […]
THE ISSUE: This summer Montreal Serai focuses on the environment through a variety of viewpoints. Jacqueline Fortson, who has moved to Canada from Mexico, gives us a contemporary photo-essay “Montreal – Nature and the City: What makes Montreal a […]
Montréal Serai aims to stretch beyond colonial mindsets with thoughtful essays, interviews with artists, elders and activists, reviews, commentaries, short stories, poems, artwork, videos, music, and much more. Neither strictly local nor focusing on current affairs, our magazine gives space to […]