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November-December 2017

REVIEW: Canisia Lubrin’s first poetry collection tackles pop culture, science, and news on race

Inside Voodoo Hypothesis

Jessica Rose

Voodoo Hypothesis   By Canisia Lubrin Buckrider Books, $18 Voodoo Hypothesis, the first collection of poetry by Canisia Lubrin, is a stunning debut that acts as a “rejection of the contemporary and historical systems that paint Black people as inferior.” Each of Lubrin’s finely crafted poems is timely, as she infuses them with pop culture, science, […]

REVIEW: New book explores Canada’s oil industry

Inside Kevin Taft's Oil's Deep State

Andrew Reeves

Oil’s Deep State: How the Petroleum Industry Undermines Democracy and Stops Action on Global Warming – In Alberta, and in Ottawa By Kevin Taft Lorimer, $29.95 The disturbingly incestuous movement of fossil fuel executives between government, academia, and industry is a rotted and oil-slicked family tree. In Oil’s Deep State, former Alberta Liberal leader Kevin […]

REVIEW: Author’s debut English novel explores love and consequence during the Somali Civil War

Inside Fartumo Kusow's Tale of a Boon's Wife

Allyson Aritcheta

Tale of a Boon’s Wife By Fartumo Kusow Second Story Press, $19.95 Facing tribalism, sexism, and love in the years prior to and during the 1991 civil war in Somalia, a member of the Bliss tribe, Idil, elopes with Sidow of the Boon tribe. Knowingly marrying beneath her, Idil is adamant that her love for […]

Third Eye

New poetry by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Souvankham Thammavongsa

My mother had given birth a few months ago. I thought it was odd, as she just turned sixty recently. I had not seen her pregnant. But there it was in the room, all formed. A baby boy. I didn’t know what his name was, only that she told me I could have him, if […]

Generation Too Much Information

Children raised in the internet age are bound to share their lives—the good, bad, and ugly—on social media. What happens when they run for public office? Inside the world of online privacy laws, bitter political mistakes, and changing attitudes

Alisha Sawhney

In August 2015, Ala Buzreba, then the Liberal candidate for Calgary Nose Hill, was giving up her candidacy. Just 21 years old, Buzreba was trying to unseat Conservative Michelle Rempel. But that dream crumbled when a few less-than-savoury comments posted to her Twitter account during her high-school year surfaced—four years before she entered the political […]

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians share some of the world’s greatest genetic similarities with one another—and scientists are racing to study them

Genomic information from the province could help one company develop new medications and treat illnesses

Terri Coles

Newfoundland and Labrador’s unique culture has endured in part because its people are, in many ways, remarkably similar. But the Atlantic province faces a paradox: As its population shrinks, its shared ancestry will have to change significantly in order to survive. Now, a small group of scientists and entrepreneurs on the island are jumping on the […]

Combination

Poetry by Gary Barwin

Gary Barwin

in the end they say all poems are about hope but out of money I took this poem’s hope and pawned it I spent the money on a rhyming dictionary went home and looked out the window from my apartment you can see Hamilton mountain which is really just an escarpment like a mountain without […]

Meet Canada’s abortion doulas

The assistants help break down the stigma for Canadians terminating their pregnancies

Sara Tatelman

In March 2012, Shannon Hardy came across dozens of headlines about Prince Edward Island’s abortion policy. The Island hadn’t offered in-province abortion services for 30 years, and those seeking terminations at private clinics had to travel to Nova Scotia or New Brunswick on their own dime. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe […]

An ode to old technology

In defence of the big-ass cellphone in our pop culture favourites

Lisa Whittington-Hill

Dear pop culture, You know I love you, but you really need to stop making me nostalgic for the technology of days gone by. Please, I beg of you, stop reminding me of the good old days like I am Lindsay Lohan and you are 2004. In Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, Adam Driver’s character Paterson refuses […]

Inside Edmonton’s first Indigenous art park

Carrying the theme “the stories of This Place,” each piece will showcase different ways Indigenous people connect to the land

Brandi Morin

A unique endeavour to transform an undeveloped area of land within Edmonton into an Indigenous art park is the first of its kind in Canada. Slated to open in the fall of 2018, the Indigenous art park named ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞, pronounced (EE-NU) River Lot 11, is a partnership between the City of […]

Why Canada is doing television revivals the right way

Homemade reboots are finding a way to successfully connect with new generations

Sara Black McCulloch

Theatre air conditioning once beckoned crowds during heat waves, but this year, even that couldn’t lure people to the movies. This summer, the film industry struggled as the North American box office recorded its lowest-grossing summer quarter in 10 years. In all fairness to moviegoers, the summer movie choices were anything but new: mostly remakes, […]