FEATURED
We’re about to see first-hand the danger in both the (unfortunately rampant) belief that American politics don’t affect us Canadians, and in the denial of the political nature of art.
We’ve lost the plot. I'm sure you agree, though we might've reached the same conclusion by different paths. See, I'm thinking about how we've lost all sense of context, and you can't follow any storyline without context: what led to this point, what the goal was, why the choice was made, all that.
Studio Mile-Ex, an expansive industrial space in the rapidly evolving Mile-Ex neighborhood of Montreal, served as the setting for Imago Theatre’s “immersive and site-specific” Scorpio Moon. Once our tickets were scanned, we passed through a door, then a passage lined with plastic sheeting and tarps, entering the world of the play.
HOT SIX
The atmosphere was reminiscent of a high school play, or at least that’s what my date leaned over to whisper into my ear as the lights dimmed. With its knots of young people huddled in their respective corners and coats hung up on wooden pegs near the stage, in a way I did feel transported back to high school, the fun part where I joked around with my friends in the stage wings before a production.
During a long, lazy, blazing-hot summer day on school break, a group of neighborhood kids and I were shuffled off to a local library’s community room for my first-ever improv workshop.
feature fridays
Mary Dean Lee began publishing poems in American and Canadian journals in 2019 and was selected for Best Canadian Poetry 2021. Her recent work appears in Ploughshares, The Fiddlehead, Burningword, Dunes Review, Salvation South and Hamilton Stone Review.
Montreal's sweetheart and the most loved comic to come out of the new immigrant wave. She is a completely harmless person of colour female woman who writes to include all groups in her jokes.
Malik McKoy is an emerging, multidisciplinary artist whose practice consists of painting and digital media. McKoy attempts to create a visual world that spans across both practices.
Forget The Box is excited to spotlight Naghmeh, an Iranian-Canadian singer-songwriter based right here in Montreal. Weaving influences from diverse music scenes with her Iranian roots, Naghmeh's music transcends language barriers.
ARCHIVE
Well, here we go again. The Société de développement Angus (SDA) just announced a $160 million, 12 floor development project for the corner of St-Laurent and St-Catherine, the heart of Montreal’s historic Red Light District and current Quartier de Spéctacles.
Ever see the slacker classic Joe’s Apartment? That’s the one with Jerry O’Connell starring alongside some well trained cockroaches as a mid west boy in his first foray into quasi-manhood in NYC, conveniently landing a rent controlled apartment, subsequently discovering his landlord is trying to kill him off so they can tear down the building and put up a maximum security penitentiary.
It looks like the independent burlesque, fetish and drag artists who call the second floor of Café Cleopatre on St-Laurent their artistic home will be able to continue doing so, at least for a while.
REACH OUT
We want to know what you’re doing! Artists, write to us about your exhibitions, events, releases!
Forget The Box is by Montreal, for Montreal.