Since the return of concert-going, I’ve seen increasing conversation online about poor concert etiquette post-pandemic. I had been to a few smaller shows back home in Thunder Bay since returning after school, and didn’t notice anything much had changed. I thought this might just be the case in major cities where venues have massive capacities, given it had been a while since people had been in crowds and might just need time to acclimate. But then I experienced it for myself.

The issue I’ve been stuck with, though, is wanting to move myself beyond just acceptance and be able to see the beauty in my body. Recently, I have discovered the most incredible, perspective-adjusting form of art that has led me on a path to appreciating myself through music and movement: burlesque.

It's a curtain call for the democracy Canadians built after the world wars. Politics is evolving from an arena where powerbrokers create consensus from disparate viewpoints into a zero-sum game where stakeholders choose loyalties, the victor divides the spoils, and the losers are annihilated. Our partisan choices are either a technocratic centre-right that thinks it knows better or a rules-weary right wing that feigns no moral pretense.

I was ready for the unexpected on my first day as an outreach worker at Elevate NWO. Elevate is a harm reduction organization responding to treatment and prevention of HIV and Hepatitis C in Thunder Bay and the wider region, but also finds itself responding to other emerging issues. In Thunder Bay, that often means advocating for our unhoused neighbours in the fight for housing, not tents.  

All this said, I was nevertheless surprised when all the talk of my first day was about birds!

Summer is here and it’s time to live, laugh, and litter outside.

We experience, create, and appreciate art and making in our own ways. There’s no insider secret code to “getting” public art. Even if you think you don’t know anything about art, even if you’re in no mood to learn, it doesn’t lessen your experience.

The hours are long, the responsibility is huge, and the number of cases in NWO far outnumbers the veterinarians. It’s hard to hold boundaries, but it’s so important to be off the clock. It’s a huge toll on mental health, and people in this profession have a three times higher risk of suicide. To put the stats in perspective; I moved back to Thunder Bay 15 years ago. We have lost three veterinarians here to suicide in that time.