Cohort 4
Program Date: September 7th, 2020 - November 28th, 2020
The Bahamian Experience
by Denardo Hepburn
The Bahamian Diaspora: Excellence, Implications & Impact highlights excellence within the current and impending Bahamian community in Canada; emphasizes the communities’ provocative and pragmatic reasons for leaving The Bahamas i.e., temporary or permanent; speaks about their experiences; and underscores their successes and challenges with and against assimilation.
The Body & The Binary
by Em Lubbers
Through the lenses of gender, aging, and presentation, this piece explores how an array of young queer folks relate to their bodies, and how their bodies influence their understanding of themselves.
CW: This piece includes discussion of eating disorders and
sexual assault.
53 Pick Up
by Jennah Foster-Catlack
“53 Pick Up” Is a Lofi loaft sphere come to life. The origins of 53 is these really nice people made up a card game called “Cards of the heart”. You all should check it out. The deck consist of a variety of
random questions, and the goal is to share with the person/persons you are playing with. the game leads you to become vulnerable, and to meet people where they are at. I wanted to show that during a pandemic, we are still living, dreaming, and hoping.
Waves Of Knowing: Living (Un)Well
by Jess Goldson
The psychological definition of pain is "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage”. Illness touches all of us. How does that make you feel? In this episode, we hear from four millennials on their experiences with illness. Let’s ride the wave.
The Adjustment Reaction
by Karen Fu
Late 2019, a virus invisible to the naked eye was introduced into the world. Economies, communities, families, and lives were changed in a matter of days as people reacted to the gravity of the situation and public health restrictions were enacted to attempt to control the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus. “The Adjustment Reaction” investigates how average citizens reacted to the sudden change in their lives, adjusted to the new normal, and stepped up to protect the most vulnerable individuals.
A Few of my Favourite Things
by Madeleine Brown
From musicals, and swimming to the word, “miraculous,” and a male rescue cat named Cinnamon, four people living with intellectual disabilities in Toronto speak to a selection of their favourite things. (And, yes, The Sound of Music is one of them.) However, amongst the joy that these places, people and things elicit are also challenges, fears and disappointments.
Will you ever get your own swimming pool?
When will you move into your dream apartment?
How do you embrace living in a world of difference?
Why does Christine leave the Phantom in the Phantom of the Opera?!
A Few of My Favourite Things highlights the stuff in life that make up each of us as individuals, the stuff that we don’t list often enough.
Work, Work, Work: A Peek In The Life Of Filipino Immigrant Families
by Meryl Ochoa
Within the shared experiences of immigrant families are unique stories about identity, passion, and adaptation. How often do we celebrate those seemingly usual topics of conversation? Work, Work, Work opens a conversation about Filipino immigrants’ experiences of transitioning into a new way of working in Canada and what kind of impact that has on their children who are now choosing a career path for themselves. This piece is a tapestry of individual stories filled with passion, joy, and reflection, woven together by threads of wisdom and resilience.
The COVID Pivot
by Rahul Devnani
An original audio podcast about adapting to the ever-changing landscape of the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once Upon a Camel
by Tashnim Jerin
“We're all using it, but no one is talking to each other about it, it's kind of like we are all in silos. It's almost a lonesome experience.”
This is a story of my conversation with 5 young Muslims trying to find their life partner, through the complex world of Muslim dating apps. Trying to complete “the other half of your deen”, as many fondly call it.
I say complex because there are multiple layers of pressure; stigma; anxiety; gender biases; the constant inner struggles of living with a diasporic identity and balancing between traditions and modernity; a compromise between the old and new. Joined often by silences.
This is not a fairytale. This is real life.
CW: misogyny, sexism, mental illness.
