Opening Night in Blyth: Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story

January Rogers

January Rogers will present selected readings from her latest poetry collection Ego of a Nation released on her publishing label Ojistoh Publishing, in 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic lockdown. As a spoken word poet, January will draw from her archive of rich oratory in this combination page and performed poetry offering.

Bio

January is a Mohawk/Tuscarora poet, media producer, performance and sound artist. She lives on her home territory of Six Nations of the Grand River where she operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions. She has seven published poetry titles and wrote and produced a comedy web series titled NDNs on the Airwaves (2022) and a stage play titled Blood Sport (2022) currently in development with Factory Theatre and Native Earth Performing Arts. January combines her literary talents with her passion for media making to produce audio and video poetry. Her video poem Ego of a Nation won Best Music Video at the American Indian Film Festival in 2020 and her sound piece The Battle Within won the Best Experimental Sound prize at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Festival in 2021. She is Western University’s Writer in Residence (2022/23) and is one of Audible Indigenous Writers Circle mentors for 2022 and 2023.

Samra Habib

Author Reading: Samra Habib reads from We Have Always Been Here

How do you find yourself when the world tells you that you don't exist?

Samra Habib has spent most of their life searching for the safety to be themself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, they faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From their parents, they internalized the lesson that revealing their identity could put them in grave danger.

When their family came to Canada as refugees, Samra encountered a whole new host of challenges: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage. Backed into a corner, their need for a safe space--in which to grow and nurture their creative, feminist spirit--became dire. The men in Samra's life wanted to police them, the women in their life had only shown them the example of pious obedience, and their body was a problem to be solved.

So begins an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes them to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within them all along. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have Always Been Here is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one's truest self.

Aside from reading from their national bestselling memoir, Samra will speak to why they chose to write a memoir in order to increase people’s compassion towards refugees, queer Muslims and religious minorities.

Bio:

Samra Habib (they/them) is a writer and photographer. As a journalist they've covered topics ranging from fashion trends and Muslim dating apps to the rise of Islamophobia in the US. Their writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Advocate, and their photo project, "Just Me and Allah," has been featured in Nylon, i-D, Vanity Fair Italia, Vice, and The Washington Post. Samra works with LGBTQ organizations internationally, raising awareness of issues that impact queer Muslims around the world.