Editorial

Only when we all flourish can we hope for collective peace.

Resistance, as the Wobblies used to say, should be the polite response to oppression.

A flash protest at the MoMA shows that what is happening in the world and within art spaces is intrinsically linked.

Is it an aspiration whose unattainability is borne out by the divisions of our present moment?

Our guest editor shares his take on blues, jazz and beat as fugitive literature and an array of contributors, from DJs to sound artists.

This edition honours Maria Worton, a cherished Montreal poet and activist from Eau Secours and Échec à la guerre.

Against a global backdrop of discrimination against transgender, non-binary, and queer individuals, the late Rana Bose proposed our latest editorial theme.

Struggles over recognition of personhood are rooted in the history of colonialism and private property. Indigenous worldviews of “Our Relations” –­ the land, and mountains and waters; the sky, sun, moon and stars; the trees, plants and rocks; the birds, […]

When the Editorial Board framed the theme statement for this issue of Serai on Nationhood, we asked in the opening paragraph, “What does nationhood mean today for the First Nations and other Indigenous peoples, who strive to navigate forward in […]

Admittedly, vigilantism may not be the first thing that comes to mind for most when thinking of pop culture, but that doesn’t make the two any less intertwined. From movies to comic books and beyond, the theme of justice is […]

    Over a year ago when our editorial team gamed out our upcoming issues, we decided that the theme for this April 2022 issue would be “Out of the Ashes.” The concept was based loosely on the idea that […]

    “Just Food,” the theme of our current issue, slyly downplays the power of food by dishing it up as utterly ordinary. The very idea of “just food” may, in fact, be an oxymoron. The humbleness implied by “just” […]

a thread of history, a thread of legacy, a thread of continuity in cycles, rhythms, tradition and culture

This repudiation does not go as far as rescinding the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which is what many Indigenous leaders have been demanding.

    A group of oil-on-canvas camel herders in Rajasthan, a number of plants sent from different parts of the Middle East and Africa to Montréal by mail, a black-and-white photograph of the longed-for “velvet hush of a foggy evening,” […]

In this significant departure from the beaten path by our editorial board, we chose to dispense with the “theme statement”

    There is a vital energy pulsing through this winter issue of Montréal Serai. It radiates off the landing page, with the vibrant art of Leah Kanerahtaroroks Diome, who is from the unceded Kanien’kéha:ka Territory of Kahnawake. In her […]

Globalization, as a phase of capitalist mutation, received a punch in the face from COVID-19.

There is the disease, and it’s scary enough, but even scarier are the underlying policies, and those that are improvised as we go.

    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 […]

    Perhaps scientific understanding and artistic imagining are different aspects of the same impulse. And humanity’s great understanders and imaginers are inspired from similar sources. Jack Klein That science informs art is patently obvious: painters and sculptors studying anatomy […]

Is there a contradiction between performance as entertainment, performance that is essentially an esthétique of form, beauty and years of extraordinary cultivation of skills, and performance that is by itself an act of change, designed to disturb? For a moment, […]

  Québec has just passed Bill 21, which bans many Québecers from holding positions of authority in the public service ostensibly to extend the appearance of ‘neutrality’ of the state. There has been a loud cry of praise for protecting […]

    Veteran war correspondent, Robert Fisk, speaking to a packed house at St. James United Church in Montréal in 2015, reflected on ISIS and the colonial history that has fomented justifiable resentment across much of the Middle East and […]

Territorial integrity is not the only marker of independence

  This issue of Serai, “Beyond the Pale” (Vol.31, Issue 3), is one that resonates with me deeply. Hence, I am very happy and honoured to write this editorial. The issue looks to the many changes in cinema across both […]

  At the beginning of the year, I was invited to act as guest editor for the current issue of Montréal Serai on “Populism and the Erasure of History.” I had to ask the editorial team to clarify what that […]

  Acts of dispossession, ethnic cleansing, genocide, discrimination, erasure of cultures and languages go back to time immemorial. But the backdrop of events of the past two decades, looming catastrophic climate crisis, Trumpism and the rise of the “alt-right” across […]

    Well, this is our annual ritual, so to speak. The literature issue. And the theme is spirit. Geist. And we shall be blunt about it. For several years, we have enforced a self-discipline so that we must, at […]

There is nothing benevolent or beautiful about the forces of Nature mercilessly unleashed on Texas, indiscriminately flooding its precious oil refineries and destroying its population’s homes and livelihoods.