Born and raised in Tkaronto with a diverse cultural background that grounds her in her poetry and life is Shahaddah Jack. The 17-year-old bilingual spoken word poet, performer, emcee, human rights activist, arts facilitator and student of life takes a poetic stance on human rights and social justice in her work. Her poetry speaks to […]
Read more »
Khiem Hoang (he/they) is a writer, community facilitator, researcher in training and wannabe musician with an obsession for shawarma and counterculture. His work seeks to question our realities and ponder radical possibilities. He cares deeply about celebrating a multiplicity of perspectives, improving our conditions and being “heavy metal” (whatever that means). You can find him […]
Adrian Todd Zuniga is the author of the debut novel, Collision Theory (Rare Bird Books, 2018), a Foreword Indies Finalist for Fiction and a St. Louis Post-Dispatch best-seller. He’s the host and creator of Literary Death Match, now featured in over 60 cities worldwide, and host of LDM Book Report on YouTube. A WGA Award-nominated screenwriter, he co-wrote Madden NFL […]
Ifrah Hussein is a Somali-Canadian award-winning poet and author of An Anthology of Grief or the ways a Somali Woman Loves. Ifrah was the recipient of the Best Spoken Word Artist award by the ByBlacks People’s Choice Awards 2019. Ifrah represented Canada in Paris, France and was named among the top four countries at the […]
Scott Gabriel Knowles is a Professor in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He is a historian of disaster worldwide. Knowles is the author/editor of six books—including The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America; Legacies of Fukushima: 3.11 in Perspective, co-edited with Kyle Cleveland and […]
Amy Nam is a 17-year-old from Toronto, Ontario with a deep passion for educational activism, storytelling and mental health. As the co-founder and executive director of The Reclamation Project, she strives to empower individuals from marginalized backgrounds and help people challenge their explicit and implicit biases through the organization’s publication of The Radical Magazine and #ItStartsWithYOUth campaign. […]
Dr. Shanita Brown is a Subject Matter Expert for the AAKOMA Project and a board certified licensed professional counselor, speaker, adjunct professor and trainer that fosters transformative and empowering dialogue about various forms of intimate partner violence – particularly, Black teens and women – and mental health wellness. She is a trauma specialist with over […]
Cheyanne Ratnam is passionate about equity, developing inclusive and accessible spaces and processes, and social innovation. As a social entrepreneur she has dedicated much of her time and expertise in child welfare, homelessness and interconnected systems through founding and leading various projects and immersing herself in community mobilization and amplification – from micro – systemic […]
A poet by any other name should be called Kelisha Daley, who is adamant that life is romantic, even in its mundane-ness. At the age of 26, Kelisha is an emerging multidisciplinary artist: actor, writer, designer and poet. Kelisha graduated Humber College in 2020 where she received three years of theatrical training in performative arts. […]
Mohanad Elshieky, a NYC-based stand-up comedian who made his national TV debut on Conan, and is now co-host of the I’m Sorry podcast.
Sophia Benoit, comedian and author of Well, This is Exhausting, along with writing sex and relationship advice for GQ and an advice newsletter on Substack called Here’s The Thing.
Roger Robinson, educator and author of the poetry collection A Portable Paradise, winner of the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize 2019 and the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize 2020.
Thea Lim is the author of An Ocean of Minutes, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her writing has been published in Granta, The Nation, The Paris Review, Best Canadian Stories, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Guernica, and others. She also works as a book critic, as a story consultant for film […]
Jaquira Díaz is the author of Ordinary Girls, winner of a Whiting Award in Nonfiction; a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal; and a 2020 Lambda Finalist.
Bobby Sanchez is a 26-year-old poet musician and model. Her indigenous blood comes from Ayacucho Peru. She was born and raised in New York.
Drew Rickard is 26-years-old and currently attending the University of Toronto, double-majoring in Philosophy and Indigenous Studies. He is a full-time student committed to studies and to his work-study related projects, such as First Story. In his own time, Drew is a visual artist.
Rachel Giese is an award-winning journalist and a deputy national editor at The Globe and Mail. Formerly, she was the editorial director of Xtra Magazine. Her 2018 book Boys: What it Means to Become a Man (HarperCollins Canada and Seal Press) was a Canadian bestseller and won the Writers’ Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize […]
Kit Pearson was born in Edmonton, Alberta and worked for many years as a children’s librarian in Ontario and B.C. Since 1986 she has written twelve novels, a picture book and an anthology. She has won seventeen awards for her writing, including the B.C. Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in 2014. In 2018, Kit […]
Nadine Neema, born in Montreal and of Egyptian and Lebanese descent, is a multi-disciplinary artist and workshop facilitator. As a recording artist she has released four albums, was mentored by Leonard Cohen and has opened for Elton John, Joe Cocker and Cyndi Lauper. Neema began working with the Tłı̨chǫ, first as a community manager of […]
Alisa Siegel makes radio documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her work has been recognized with many international awards. Over the past 20 years, Alisa has produced stories on subjects as varied as the underground railroad for refugees in Fort Erie, daring women artists in 1920s Montreal, the return of the trumpeter swan, Canadian nurses […]
Tziporah (Tzippy) Cohen was born and raised in New York and spent eighteen years in Boston before landing in Toronto, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, two cats and one dog. Tzippy studied French and theater arts at Cornell University, where she was one of a handful of chimesmasters who performed concerts […]