Making art during times of upheaval and destruction can make it feel more irrelevant than ever. As nations wage war and murder civilians, as emotional and insecure megalomaniacs hover their stubby fingers dangerously close to nuclear launch buttons, I wonder: what could possibly cut through this mania? Where do we go from here? And, what do we do now?

There is no doubt that we’re living in strange times, and there was something surreal about sitting in a theatre, watching free speech in action at the very moment when, elsewhere in the world, Christian nationalism is gaining ground at a chilling pace. The Book of Mormon felt like both a time capsule and a provocation. On stage, the musical gleefully tears into the absurdities of faith, while offstage, religion is being elevated as untouchable. 

The concept of "illegal immigration" is a relatively modern one, emerging from the imposition of colonial systems that sought to establish rigid borders and categorize people based on arbitrary lines drawn, in most instances, by white men wielding colonial power. Prior to this, Indigenous peoples had a fundamentally different relationship with land—one grounded in stewardship, connection, and community rather than ownership or exclusion.

…They might see that borders do not define belonging, and that a nation’s true character is revealed in how it treats the most vulnerable. I was lucky—saved by a loophole, the kindness of strangers and a system that, despite its flaws, left a door open. Not everyone is as fortunate and while we can’t give people fortune, we can give them something that is in short supply in these divided times – compassion.

As a well-decided voter and politico, I voted early having followed my candidates platform for years, knowing their strengths and believing in their values, but I was momentarily deflated when announcing my candidate was met with refrains of having “wasted” my vote. These came from those who espouse the method of strategic voting, a concept I have, for a number of years, been familiar with, but wholly confused by.

When I left Dubai, I also didn’t know it would be forever. And unknowingly, one day in August of 2012, I looked down at the city emerging from the dust in what would be my last trip. Even when the realization sunk in, from the unease of my new home in Canada, slowly but sadly, I was convinced that the city would set aside its penchant for perpetual construction and freeze, forever a familiar skyline. This year, I went back to close the loop on my young adulthood, an open circuit that left endless what ifs in my head

The modern worker has little to no work/life balance. There are repeated calls from all over the world to lessen our workdays, our work weeks and to increase not just work/life balance, which in some countries doesn’t even exist but to increase the meaning of work, to give workers purpose. While for years, robots have taken over work of highly-skilled professionals in industries like automotive manufacturing, and helped move “good” jobs across borders, the rise in art-generating AI and offerings like ChatGPT take meaningful work away from humans and put it in the hands of technology.

As corporations influence on our media grows we see more and more co opting of struggles, from strikes to pride, to gender inclusion, corporations are trying to become more relatable and as a result, dangerously powerful.

Canada gave me a voice to be politically outspoken, environmentally conscious, free to say and be the things I could never be in the UAE. But the one thing it didn’t give me was a sense of identity.