Art and Inspiration

For five years between 2007 and 2012, Susan Dubrofsky and I ran Poetry Plus. These events were held six times a year at the Arts Café at the corner of Esplanade and Fairmount in trendy Mile End. Each event featured […]

The celebrated author, academic, and essayist, H. Nigel Thomas, says:“I write because reality mystifies me, and my temperament pushes me to explore it via my imagination. I know that my senses apprehend little more than the masks of reality. My […]

Medicine, Healthcare and the Raj. The Unacknowledged Legacy. By Daya Ram Varma. Three Essays Collective, 2015, Gurgaon, India. Dr. Daya Ram Varma (1929-2015) graduated with honours from the prestigious King George Medical University in Lucknow, India. He obtained his […]

When I wrote a poem inspired by the 1876 painting by Edgar Degas Dans le Café also known as L’Absinthe, I wasn’t aware that I was practicing a genre that originated in ancient Greece. Ekphrasis, from the Greek “ek” […]

“The penetration of society by the Internet and the penetration of the Internet by society is the best thing that has ever happened to global human civilization.”   Julian Assange Aside from the across-the-board and simplistic generalization made by […]

Ideas are cheap. It is the physical actualization of a thought or a feeling that can be torturous, laborious and demanding but when ultimately achieved, and achieved successfully, that result, can be wondrous and mystical. As Mark Twain so […]

Elena Stoodley is a Montreal-based, multidisciplinary artist most known for her sultry, jazz and rhythm and blues infused vocals and sound art performances.  I met Elena when she was hired as the sound technician for the Create Dangerously: […]

What will you be making when you make it?  I was just in Mexico City. On my “must see” list were Diego Rivera’s murals – as many as I could see in three days’ time. In hindsight, I know that […]

“I view art as a system of action, intended to change the world rather than encode symbolic propositions about it.” Alfred Gell, Art and Agency In a 2014 lecture titled “Contemporary art: considered philosophically and poetologically”  the eminent French philosopher […]

The musical group Mosaïque was attracted and inspired by the diversity of folk music of Bengal and that led them to undertake a trip for 4 weeks in Bengal in January 2015 in order to acquaint themselves with a […]

They came from the Cordillera region in northern Philippines. Their families were grabbed of their ancestral lands. Without their own houses to live at and farmlands to till, they moved to another country to work in order to help their […]

The Concert Pianist Through her half-open window, she lets out a series of sweet notes, the melodious raindrops, repeats and repeats till a lively mountain stream comes to life in the opening of the concerto she has chosen to […]

‘Jahaz’ is the Punjabi word for a ship. On the 23rd of May, 1914, Nanak’s Ship, also known as Komagata Maru made it all the way to Canada. In Japanese (a friend told me) Koma Gata stands […]

“REMAPPING HISTORIES & EXPANDING TERRITORIES” March 7 2015- THE ARMORY ART SHOW CONFERENCE ON THE MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA, AND THE MEDITERRANEAN (MENAM)- NY  March7-8, 2015, NY Is there only one story of  modern art? Is it not […]

I keep trying to write a story about a woman I saw once in the metro. It was crowded, probably sometime around rush hour. All I can remember about that day was that it was raining and cold; I […]