Living Hyphen

The final episode of our second season turns the question on distance: How do we close the gaps we’ve been exploring all season? How do we build a bridge to bring each other closer? To help us consider the answers from different angles, we’ve gathered together some of our friends from the On Canada Project, the Department of Imaginary Affairs, and Filipinos United 4 Palestine.  Featured in this ep...

In this two-part exploration of distances between us, we look at how colonial powers have tried to destroy the histories and complexities of racialized communities by deeming them as subordinate.  Featured in this episode:   • Alyssa Sy de Jesus ( @alyssabethandra ) is a writer and cultural worker. "Twice removed" from the motherland, she is a fourth generation Chinese settler from the P...

What happens when we try to do away with nuances and differences altogether — and in doing so erase the cultures made richer by them?  Featured in this episode:  • Amritpal Singh Arora is a writer of poetry. He is a family physician in Burnaby, British Columbia. His poetry is centered around themes of medicine, grief, domestic violence, and navigating the world as a racialized person. His creative...

Our identities are never neutral, unchanging facts. These different intersections of our identities are invariably linked to larger forces of power and oppression. How do we confront the ways that these intersections can run up against each other and create distance?  Featured in this episode:   • Dee Stoicescu • Erica H Isomura ( @ericahiroko ) is an award-winning essayist, poet, and multi-discip...

Many of us might be familiar with the impact of displacement on our families and communities: the trauma, the disconnect, the divide that spans generations and cultures.  How do we bridge these gaps? How do we have the difficult conversations and make the difficult choices that cut right into the heart of our belief systems?  Featured in this episode:   • jean allynn ( @jnllynn ) is a Kapampangan...

What happens when we allow our entire lives to be dominated by a single “right” way to live, to sound, or to look like? Why do we allow it to happen?  Featured in this episode:   • Yasmeen Nematt Alla ( @yasmeennematt ) is an Egyptian immigrant and settler living in Tkaronto, Turtle Island. She has most recently exhibited at the Bronx River Art Centre in Bronx NY, Heaven Gallery in Chicago IL, and...

Distance reflects more than just a physical separation — it’s also the emotional chasm between loved ones, the cultural gaps that divide us, the philosophical distances we must traverse in search of understanding.  For those of us from racialized communities, distance also marks the difference and division that white supremacy has sown within and between us.  Join us as we explore all this and mor...

In this final episode, we’re talking about all the ways we send love from afar, both tangible and intangible, through both space and time, in whatever form we have available to us. Thank you for being a part of this journey. Signing off for now and sending our love from afar, Trisha & Justine Featured in this episode: • Sam Castaneda is a high school student from Alberta who is passionate abou...

The last year has been one of grieving for a lot of us. Whether we are grieving the loss of anticipated plans or the loss of income, our businesses, our jobs, the loss of touch and intimacy or, ultimately, the loss of our loved ones, the passing of millions of people all around the world with their own complex histories, joys, insecurities, hopes, and dreams, and flaws and everything in between —...

Communication has shifted in such profound and subtle ways over the course of this pandemic. Language is meant to be a point of connection, but it has been a struggle to articulate the depth of the bad -ness happening around us on a daily basis. How do you foster emotional connection when communication “fails” you? In this episode, we dive into just that question. And not just as it relates to the...

We look at how different forms of storytelling – from the written word to music, from theatre to illustration – is vital for our survival, both during this time of pandemic and the grander experience of diaspora and displacement. Storytelling has been a way for us to find connection with community during this time of isolation, but it has also always been a way for us to preserve our histories, tr...

An episode for those of us who are living far away from those we love, and from the places we call home. An episode on being homesick while being homestuck. All of today’s pieces are from Living Hyphen’s inaugural issue, paying tribute to where it all began as we seek to define something as beautiful and impossible as a “home.” Featured in this episode: • Hannah Atkinson Renglich is a facilitator ...

Grocery aisles emptied of flour and sugar, meal delivery kits growing even more in popularity, restaurants pivoting to delivery-only and curbside pick-up, the banana bread craze. During this time of pandemic, we’ve turned to food as a source of comfort, of the little joys we have left. But it’s always been this way. Food has always been a vehicle – a very delicious one! – for transmitting our heri...

Did you buy yourself an indoor plant during the pandemic to cope with the stress of our early lockdown days? So did our co-host Justine, and in the process of caring for her indoor jungle, she learned all about the root system and just how connected it is to our experiences as hyphenated Canadians. In this episode, revel in stories about the earth, land, and soil. What it means to be repotted and...

Welcome to Season 1 of the Living Hyphen Podcast. As we continue to live through this pandemic, we have been asked to stay at home, to quarantine, and to ultimately, maintain a “social distance” from our loved ones. We have been challenged to find new and creative ways to show our love from afar. But for those of us who are part of a diaspora or who have been displaced in some way – voluntarily or...