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September-October 2018

Prose

Works by Kai Minosh Pyle

Kai Minosh Pyle

THE MYTH OF THE ATOM i am learning not to be alone. kinship is a practice: it is performed through repeated actions. is it queer to be alone? is not the same question as, is being queer lonely? but i might be forgiven for not knowing the difference. my language has no word for queer; […] More »
September-October 2018

Interview: Ziibiwan Rivers

On music, toxic masculinity in the industry, and the importance of community

Gwen Benaway

Genre hopping from ambient experimental electronics to hip hop, trip hop, R&B, and more, Ziibiwan Rivers is an electronic musician with a no-holds-barred approach to production. Beautiful and tension-filled soundscapes follow dense, calm, trap-inspired epics where land, sky, and deep sea meet. Ziibiwan is Anishinaabe from Wiikwemkoong, based in Tkaronto. When I first heard Ziibiwan […] More »
September-October 2018

End Violence Against Trans Women

Visual art by Fallon Simard

Fallon Simard

This piece is part of a collection of works by trans and queer Indigenous writers and artists. Explore the rest of the feature: Prose by Kai Minosh Pyle ● Interview with Lindsay Nixon ● Interview with Ziibiwan Rivers ● Prose by Jaye Simpson ● Poetry by Arielle Twist More »
September-October 2018

Interview: Lindsay Nixon

On writing, motivations, and futures

Gwen Benaway

Lindsay Nixon is a Cree-Métis-Saulteaux curator, award- nominated editor, award-nominated writer, and McGill Art History PhD student. They currently hold the position of editor-at-large for Canadian Art. Nixon has previously edited mâmawi-âcimowak, an independent art, art criticism, and literature journal, and their writing has appeared in Malahat Review, Room, GUTS, Mice, esse, the Inuit Art Quarterly, Teen […] More »
July-August 2018

New Ottawa exhibit offers a peek into Canadian children’s pasts

Inside A Little History, at the Canadian Museum of History

Allyson Aritcheta

A freestanding wall decorated with blue motifs frames a glass case. Inside the case sits a brooch inscribed with a person’s name and dates of birth and death. On the other side of the wall, the front of the brooch is exposed: a portrait of a little girl, Alice Walker, the daughter of Canadian artist […] More »
July-August 2018

This art series is a post-capitalist fantasy

Artist Dana Prieto seeks to hold Canadian mining executives accountable for extractivism in Argentina

Jillian Morgan

Glazed in black, the beauty of Dana Prieto’s hand-crafted ceramic vessels forces the viewer’s attention—but what they wouldn’t be able to tell at first glance is that the artwork may contain traces of arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. Prieto, an Argentine visual artist based in Toronto, describes the vessels as an “inhospitable gift,” made with soil from […] More »
July-August 2018

This Vancouver dancer wants to teach you to vogue

Ralph Escamillan's VanVogueJam encourages people to strike a pose

Victoria Chan

While dance has the potential to break down barriers, Vancouver-based dancer and choreographer Ralph Escamillan says it’s not always easy to find free classes to train and practice in the city.  So he created one. After starting a community organization called VanVogueJam in 2016, the 25-year-old has been teaching vogue, a dance-based art form originating […] More »
July-August 2018

When it comes to representations of OCD in media, we can do so much better

We shouldn't have to rely on stereotyped characters to see ourselves in the shows and movies we consume

Lisa Whittington-Hill

I am quite open about the fact that I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD. Talking about it comes easy to me. More difficult to handle are the reactions I get from others. “So are you like that nerd on The Big Bang Theory?” someone in a work meeting recently joked after I mentioned my […] More »
July-August 2018

Drag-inspired storytelling teaches diversity and kindness to Toronto kids

Inside John Paul Kane and Kaleb Robertson's queer spin on storytime

Celie Deagle

In a ballroom in Toronto’s LGBTQ Village, long-time drag queen Fay Slift smiles down at a young child dressed just like her. Both wear ice-blue wigs, bright patterned dresses, and long pink evening gloves. Around Fay’s look-alike sit more children, listening as she and Fluffy Soufflé, dressed in a navy muumuu and bracelets made out […] More »
May-June 2018

Nine Canadian LGBTQ artists you need to know this Pride Month

Writers, poets, singers, and more!

Madi Haslam

In honour of Pride Month, we’ve compiled a brief list of LGBTQ artists from across the country who are changing Canada’s arts landscape. Know someone who should be on the list? Tweet us @thismagazine! DAYNA DANGER is a queer, Two-Spirit, Métis/Saulteaux/Polish visual artist based in Montreal. Danger’s medium shifts to capture her ideas, whether that […] More »
May-June 2018

New B.C. museum exhibit seeks to preserve Indigenous languages

Inside the First Peoples' Our Living Languages exhibit at the Royal B.C. Museum

Trisha Cull

Language is a living, breathing phenomenon that informs culture. Individual and societal identities are forged through the spoken and written word. It is a unifying force, “an invisible line from the heart into the past,” as Art Napoleon, a First Nations cultural educator of the Cree Nation, describes it. Warm greetings in a variety of […] More »