WINTER 2013 READERS

amaL RANA

Amal Rana is a Jeddah born, mixed race, Pakistani Muslim activist, femme and queer poet and also the proud daughter of former migrant workers. She draws inspiration from the works of warrior poets such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pat Parker, Kishwar Naheed, and many others who may not yet be widely recognized but whose words are no less powerful. She is grateful to come from a heritage where poets are revered, especially for bearing witness and provoking change without apology. In a time when even exhaling while being Muslim seems to have become a crime, she sees poetry as an act of sedition and collective resistance. Her work has been published in various places but fits best in grassroots zines and on the streets. Amongst other things, she spends her time helping make street art that reflects the true nature of dictators and other evil doers while working with other Pakistanis to seek real “hope” and “change” in Pakistan instead of democracy “Amreekan” style and is currently involved in glitter filled campaigns against the pinkwashing of Israeli apartheid in local queer communities. She can also often be found terrorizing Islamophobes and other fascists with weapons of mass destruction such as glitter, kebabs, spirit gum and giant puppets. She believes humour and love are an essential part of any revolution and she is always guilty of being irreverent but never of being apologetic for it.

MELISA PEDROWSKI

Designer

NOBU NAKAMURA

Chief Architect

WINTER 2013

Poster by Nat Marshik.

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AMAL RANA

TAYLOR BASSo

Taylor Basso writes plays and fiction. He is originally from Surrey, BC.

NISHA ESWARAN

Nisha Eswaran is a queer, brown, sort-of femme who has recently moved back to Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories, after many years away. She spends most of her time doing youth and lgbtq organizing work, learning about nail art, and looking for dogs to adopt on Petfinder. After years of theorizing other people’s writing in university classrooms, she’s finally trying to write some things of her own. This was her first public reading ever.

ERIN FLEGG

MEG TORWL

Erin Flegg is a freelance writer and journalist from Ontario. She recently graduated with an MFA from UBC, and her work appears regularly in the Vancouver Observer, Xtra!, and This Magazine. Since losing her bus pass, she spends much of her free time dodging transit cops.

Sugar le fae

Sugar le Fae wears many (gaudy, glittery) hats, including poet, teacher, photographer, musician, and queer activist. An MFA student in poetry at UBC, his current manuscript explores the seemingly limitless, fascinating avenues of personal identity and expression. His poems transcend the expected in favor of the queer, whether written from the point of view of Biblical characters or meditating on familiar faces from comic books.

Meg Torwl is an interdisciplinary artist, working in Video, Radio, New Media, Writing/Performance, and Arts Advocacy. Her work has been screened, broadcast, exhibited, published, and performed in New Zealand, Canada, USA, and the UK. She has produced 4 films, and 3 new media projects. She has worked with Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture as a Community Outreach Coordinator, and is a commentator with the NZ Disability Media Collective. She has a degree in Social Policy. Meg was commissioned by Balancing Acts 09 to create and perform a solo interdisciplinary show. She has worked in radio, producing and presenting 50 half hour programs for One in Five, Radio New Zealand Nationals, disability focused program, for which she developed a profile featuring youth, art, policy, and multiculturalism. Her website is http://integrialmedia.blogspot.com/

LEE WILLIAMS BOUDAKIAN

d lee williams is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and facilitator working towards social, political, emotional, and healing justice – their artworks and writings are methods of documenting the journey. currently identifying as a queer gender-critical feminist of mixed ethnicity and varying skin tones, their preferred gender pronouns are ‘they, them, theirs’.