Dear stand-up comedy, I almost threw up all over you the first time we met. I was 18. My then-boyfriend took me to a Just for Laughs showcase in Montreal. Mascara ran down my face as I watched one of the performers, Jeremy Hotz. You and I were still getting to know each other then. […] More »

In the absence of access and recognition comes resilience and creativity. This became apparent to Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk scholar and art historian, as she researched the presence of Labrador Inuit artists in Canada’s history during her years of doctoral research at Ottawa’s Carleton University. What she discovered was the near absence of information on […] More »

Hana Shafi’s Instagram feed is a burst of bright colours and thick lines interspersed with the occasional selfie. The Toronto-based artist, who goes by Frizz Kid, posts images of her digital art almost every day. From the playful—an anthropomorphic pizza slice placed around the words “Thick as hell”—to the serious—a person, closed-eyed with purple hair, […] More »

I am reworking my reality.  How does a tranny coexist    with lust,       being told of an    “unattainable” touch even with the saliva of a man    dripping off of my chest   how he bites at my soft parts       and kissed me    rigid. I think this man    could love me,   fuck me       outside of glory holes       a […] More »

EXPLORE THE FEATURE: Editor’s note by Gwen Benaway ● Prose by Kai Minosh Pyle ● Interview with Lindsay Nixon ● Visual art by Fallon Simard ● Interview with Ziibiwan Rivers ● Prose by Jaye Simpson ● Poetry by Arielle Twist A note from the editor: When I was asked to guest edit an Indigenous-specific supplement for This, my first instinct was […] More »

how do i explain my queerness to the gatekeeper of my blood line when she flushed hers out with communion wine and holy water? how do i explain my ever-shifting body to the woman who prayed for damnation for me, rather than my absolution? my grandmother who held me at birth, has prayed for my […] More »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »