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 […]
On October 29, hundreds of men and women packed the public square at Place des Arts in Montréal for a vigil saluting the courage of the Native women of Val d’Or who have spoken out against police abuse, and honouring […]
“It was on a Sunday afternoon that the portraitist came to me, not in search of any ransom, but out of pure admiration. I peered through the parlour window and squinted my eyes to clear my vision of the […]
José! The Migra, José, the Migra! Hurry up, just as you are, don’t even dry yourself off! What? The Migra! Come on, butthead, hurry, there’s no time for you to dry off! They’re on their way up to Doña Cira’s […]
‘In a way of living where fear and loathing is aided and abetted, the subtleties of wonder and contemplation are in the general weight of things, lost. Within a society that is just that, a conglomeration of a big group […]
Bombardier and refried beans The Québec government managed to pull $1 billion U.S. out of the ethers to bail out Bombardier, but for the 400,000 workers who “woman” our public education system, health and social services and the public service, […]
Love by Gaspar Noé “Can you show me how tender you can be?” Electra in Love Reading philosopher George Bataille’s Eroticism can practically be an erotic experience as he outlines the discontinuity humans have come to experience and our search […]
The 11th Edition of the Montreal International Black Film Festival [Sept. 29-Oct. 4, 2015] has chosen Martin Luther King III as recipient of the 2015 Humanitarian Award. This is a fitting tribute to the son of the man who led […]
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 […]
Tech and media workers for justice, and vice versa Director and filmmaker Laura Poitras has made another film worthy of award nomination by an elite ceremony honouring cinematic achievements. This past February, said latest documentary of Poitras’, Citizenfour, won an Oscar […]
They say everything happens for a reason. That’s what they say, but what they really mean is that you only know the reason why something happened when it’s too late. Take accidents, for example. If you turn your car to […]
There is a remarkable scene in Laura Poitras’ film Citizenfour, her prize-winning documentary on whistle-blower Edward Snowden. In the film, Poitras, the investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, and the defense and intelligence correspondent of the British newspaper The Guardian, Ewen MacAskill, […]
If there is any truth to Bruce Cockburn’s line that “the trouble with normal is it only gets worse,” the great enabler of our deteriorating normality is the country’s sterile media consensus. Media then serve as a loudspeaker for a […]
The Amadou Diallo Diptych is a memorial divided between a section of darkness and violence, chaos, and a section devoted to Diallo’s suffering. A bleeding hole drips with his blood from the unwarranted barrage of police bullets that killed him in front […]
DISCONTENT AND ITS CIVILIZATIONS. Dispatches from Lahore, New York and London. Mohsin Hamid, Penguin, 2015. Discontent and Its Civilization, the title of this collection of essays by Mohsin Hamid, is a take-off on Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents, published in […]
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
">
