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September-October 2021

Finding community on screen

Queer television characters have helped me feel part of something bigger

Mira Miller

I was 14 years old when I first kissed a girl—and there were more after that—but it took a global pandemic and months of self-reflection to get to a place where I felt comfortable calling myself bisexual. I’m far from alone. The pandemic presented an opportunity for many closeted queer people to look inwards and […] More »
September-October 2021

A bold statement

Ami Sangha showcases her signature style in ceramics

Heather Taylor-Singh

Over a decade out of art school, Vancouver-based artist Ami Sangha has found her niche. Sangha is the owner of Ami Like Miami, an online shop where she sells handmade ceramic dishes, painted with funky patterns and bright colours. During her undergraduate degree, Sangha studied printmaking. In her late twenties, she fell into a deep […] More »
September-October 2021

Post-apocalyptic prose

Premee Mohamed explores the future at a local level

Kate Heartfield

In These Lifeless Things, by Edmonton writer Premee Mohamed, a character looks at her partner in a post-apocalyptic landscape. “We could make love right here!” she thinks. “Who, in this dead city, would stop us?” Amid pandemics, rising fascism and climate disaster, science fiction writers are imagining new futures in new ways. Mohamed is a […] More »
July-August 2021

A no frills approach to poetry

Victoria Mbabazi's poems feel like a conversation with a friend

Jo Ramsay

Black lesbian poet Victoria Mbabazi’s poetry collection, chapbook, was published by Anstruther Press in January 2021 and is now in its third printing. Their poetry’s No Name Brand design and style was inspired by the advertisements they saw commuting to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus last summer, a time when they were also searching […] More »
July-August 2021

Broadcasting books

Glass Bookshop Radio amplifies marginalized voices

Michaela Stephen

The magic of a bookstore arises not only from books and stories, but from community and conversation. Glass Bookshop Radio, the new podcast from Edmonton’s Glass Bookshop, founded by Jason Purcell and Matthew Stepanic, celebrates its first year this fall. Purcell, Stepanic, and podcast producer and co-host, Makda Mulatu, have built their working relationship on […] More »
July-August 2021

True crime as a love language

A mother and son bond over sensational stories

JP Larocque

The other night, my mother sent my partner Jason a text message. It was an innocuous check-in—warm greetings, a few updates on quarantine life, and a request for some items from our next grocery run. But sandwiched between the mundane details of life and the odd joke was an itemized list of true crime documentaries. […] More »
May-June 2021

End game

Avery Alder’s game Dream Askew is playable art for marginalized people in apocalypse times

V. S. Wells

Out of all the games made by queer designer Avery Alder, Dream Askew feels the most like 2021. Table-top roleplaying games like Dream Askew are a medium where game designers invent systems and worlds, and players inhabit them. Think of them like movies: Avery Alder creates the set, the costumes, and the basic outline of […] More »
May-June 2021

Emotional eating

Hungry Zine sets the table for radical food writing

Megan Cole

Everybody eats, but not all experiences are reflected in food media. When Kyla Pascal and Kathryn Gwun-Yeen 君妍 Lennon started hanging out in 2018 they bonded over critiquing food magazines and television. As activists and organizers in their communities of Edmonton and Vancouver, and with long histories in the food industry, Pascal and Gwun-Yeen 君妍 […] More »
March-April 2021

In pursuit of Muslim representation

My dream of becoming Hollywood’s first hijabi talk-show host

Aishah Ashraf

Growing up in a traditional first-generation Muslim-Canadian family, I constantly struggled to determine what career I wanted to pursue. For years, I faced the dilemma of whether to satisfy the vision my parents had created for me or to go out on a limb and pursue my own interests of joining the entertainment industry, ultimately […] More »
March-April 2021

Making space for pain

A new era of pop stars are rejecting resilience

Rosie Long Decter

Pop singer Halsey begins her 2020 album, Manic, with a quote from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: “I’m just a fucked up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind.” It’s hard to imagine Katy Perry or even Lady Gaga starting a record the same way 10 years ago, but in today’s music […] More »
March-April 2021

A well rounded film

New documentary explores fat liberation

Amanda Scriver

Body positivity can be a harrowing but joyful process. Shana Myara made it a life goal. “I gave myself a project where I could fully explore fat liberation with other queers,” says Myara, director of the documentary, Well Rounded. “Particularly from the lens of racialized queers who might also have a critique of how bodies […] More »