Archives: Articles

IssueM Articles

The Cat’s Table

Canadian literature is as rich as its native children such as Joseph Boyden, who, Through Black Spruce, has allowed city folk to breathe in the heady scent of aboriginal life in the north, Hugh MacLennan, who bridged […]

“IN THE WRITERS’ WORDS…”

IN THE WRITERS’ WORDS Conversations with Eight Canadian Poets, Laurence Hutchman, Guernica Press, Toronto-Buffalo-Lancaster (UK), 2011 The1950s in Canada were energized by a group of young poets who were on a mission to create a national literature. Their hard […]

Varnam

A deluge of water filled up the Sunday morning I went to see Varnam at the 35th edition of Montreal’s World Film Festival. On the way to the theatre, I biked and waded through meandering streams coursing through the […]

The “SCULPTURED WATER” (A not so imaginary tale)

Los Angeles, February 1972 Dear children: When I myself was a child, in Italy, and toured the country with my parents, we would visit churches, basilicas, and cathedrals. Either for religious fervor or as a cultural duty I […]

This Us and Them isn’t going away so easy….

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. […]

Teaching “the Other”

Dawson – The New “Other” as The New “Us”? Most writers and journalists who have grown up with the contemporary world and have puzzled about it are also people who think about the perennial divisions of “Us” and “Them.” That […]

">

Looking in and looking out

Jason is a 36 year old male.  Thoroughly addicted to pushing charcoal and ink around paper, he is also the co-creator and director of EN MASSE, a large-scale collaborative drawing initiative based out of Montreal.  Graduated from Alberta College of […]

The Multicultural Panic

The mass shootings in Utoya, Norway seemed to have shocked the average person, who has never noticed the trends and the blunt comments on television made by politicos in which racism camouflages itself as snide commentary. Society has become complacent […]

Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa: Revolution Rap

Rola Harmouche (RH): Thanks for letting me know about the show. Prasun Lala (PL): Well I needed someone to understand the Arabic….so my pleasure. What does “Tadamon” mean? RH: Ummm…“to stick together”….um…“to join forces” [Googles]….“solidarity!” On June 9th, 2011 – […]

“When did Canada…”

When did Canada become the country that it is today? Only a few years ago it was seen as a bastion of freedom and democracy, a place where people from around the world could look to, they thought, in order […]

“Where I can cry me a river….”

** Editor’s note:  We rarely re-print essays of a recent pedigree, but in this case, we found this essay particularly relevant to the theme of this issue.  Originally published in 2008. When I return from a trip and open the […]

Reprieve, This is also that & Golden Afternoon

Reprieve Back again in Brooklyn, where it’s hot.Coffee upstairs in McDonald’s withA.C., at eighty-sixth and twentieth.Music piped, that’s not unbearable.The subway, elevated here, in view,And people, people, people, everywhere.For this is home, Calcutta in the West… The NY Times: a […]

Another Earth

The low-budget aesthetic lends itself best to local, intimate settings. Bedrooms, backseats of cars, unfinished basements are the places where people, most often young people, get to know each other and themselves. Science fiction and the ultra-low budget indie are […]

Profoundly Banned: A Story

Their love was banned. He was secular and she was religious. Mais l’amour était profond comme un puit dans le desert, un puit avec tous les permutations de l’eau qui coule. . . Lui et elle/l’amour/les gens qui voyagent/qui traversent […]

An Interview with Guy Rodgers

Guy Rodgers, writer and scenariste, has been a tireless campaigner for English Language Artists in Montreal Quebec.

Sympathy for a Sadhu

A fictional rendition of the story of King Dasharatha from the Ramayana Dasharatha could hear the mynas and macaques above him mixed with the squawking peacocks. The young king could not remember this large pond and was happy […]

Budapest Suites & More

Budapest Suites, I (from Grand Gnostic Central:  DC Books, 1998) “Apply what you know to what you feel that’s more than enough” On Váci utca, mongrel pigeons, flapping, Mount American-style shopfront windows. Grey cops in pairs […]

Mumbai Blood

[audio: Mumbai Blood.mp3] [soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/montreal-serai/mumbai-blood[/soundcloud]

Captain America

There are twenty-seven sequels being released this year. The fourth of  Spy Kids, the fifth X-Men, the eighth Harry Potter. Studio executives are trying to mitigate risk, the way a hedge fund manager might. This results in the investment […]

Montreal World Film Festival – Daily Reviews

******** August 27, 2011 What a Beautiful Day. Italy. Director: Gennaro Nunziante. What we have here is what Italians know how to do best: a comedy that will make you laugh and tons of love, art, religion and […]

Editorial

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 City Limits

Artist Statement: The expression “motion photographer” came to me spontaneously since movement is the basis of my work: I am constantly in search of a perspective that will transmit both the beauty and the speed of the world in which […]

Montreal Notes

I – Wings in The Dust Le vieux Paris n’est plus (la forme d’une ville Change plus vite, helas! que le coeur d’un mortel… –“Le Cygne,” Charles Baudelaire, 1857 The old Paris is gone (the form of […]

A Photo’s Worth

Jean Talon Market is without a doubt one of the most popular spaces in Montreal. Located just North of Little Italy, it offers a wide variety of goodies that everyone can enjoy. On any given day you are likely to […]

Montreal

  I love Montreal, tu sais because English  here is charmant and French  c’est cool because locals  know that a ridge is really a mountain because tortillas &  chapattis &  pitas & bagels have no quarrel with pâté chinois because […]

From Montreal to Paris – A Memo

Spring days are very much here.  Both the sunny warm days and political hopefulness is everywhere. My sojourn in Paris was an experience to absorb in many ways. I was invited to attend the international council meeting of the […]