collection
On Friendship
With writing from Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné, E. Hamilton, Masooma Hussain, Kyla Jamieson, Sarah Kabamba, and Shohana Sharmin Sicilia.
Illustrated by Mary Kirkpatprick, photography by Jessica Daneluk.
Without the societal scrutiny that romantic relationships are often saddled with, friendships have the possibility to exist unlabelled and uncategorized. We lack the terms for friends who have supplemented the caregiving of a parent, the closeness of a sibling. Should we have to map the boundaries of where a friendship can shift? If friendships can tread unforeseen territory, are we called to define what this looks like, or does this only make new kinds of intimacy unreachable to us?
It’s within us to create friendships that exist beyond definition, expansive yet wholly ours. With our permission, they can blur and mutate and coil around us with tenderness. In these worlds of our own, it’s for us to decide.
“Friend is a bigger word than my understanding of time and space can make sense of. The bigness of it conjures terms like infinity and eternity: boundless in its capacity to transform, bewilder, afflict, and restore.”
kyla jamieson
Kyla Jamieson lives and relies on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her work has appeared in Poetry Is Dead, Room Magazine, GUTS, Peach Mag, The Maynard, and Plenitude. She is the author of Kind of Animal, a poetry chapbook about the aftermath of a brain injury. Her first book of poems, Body Count, placed third in the 2018 Metatron Prize for Rising Authors, judged by C.A. Conrad and Anne Boyer, and is forthcoming with Nightwood Editions in spring 2020.
danielle boodoo-fortuné
Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné is a poet and visual artist from Trinidad and Tobago. Her poetry has been featured in publications such as Poetry London, The Rialto, Prairie Schooner, POETRY, The Caribbean Writer, The Literary Review, and The Asian American Literary Review. Danielle was named Winner of the 2013 Small Axe Literary Competition, the 2015 Hollick-Arvon Caribbean Writers’ Prize and the 2016 Wasafiri New Writing Prize. Her first collection of poems, Doe Songs (Peepal Tree Press, 2018) was recently awarded the 2019 Bocas OCM Prize in Poetry.
sarah kabamba
We are surrounded by stories, Sarah Kabamba just wants to share some of them with you. She is of Congolese origins and now lives in Ottawa.
E. hamilton
E. Hamilton lives in northern Ontario, close to a lake and among the Canada geese. She spends her days helping her three children grow up, and taking more baths than is reasonable.
Mary kirkpatrick
Mary Kirkpatrick is an artist and freelance illustrator with a practice that bridges between fine art and design. Her work is driven by a desire to communicate in a way that is accessible and interesting, particularly in regards to history and science. Primarily working in analog mixed media, her practice prioritizes experimental media techniques, using collaged material, unconventional materials and found surfaces.
masooma hussain
Masooma Hussain is a queer Pakistani-Canadian writer and comedian. She holds a B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Toronto, a belief that all pop culture is significant, and space in her heart for healing and learning. By day, she works in the world of professional sports. At most times she is thinking about love (and basketball).
jessica daneluk
Jessica Daneluk grew up on the banks of Lake Huron in an agriculturally driven environment. As a photographer, she currently works in the antique auction industry, shooting for a leading Canadian auction house. The historical relevance, collection, and preservation of objects has heavily influenced her work. Jessica shoots in a world in between fashion and product, using photography not only as a means of communication, but as a tool for the preservation of knowledge, ephemera, and the memories of the past all coming together.
shohana sharmin sicilia
Shohana Sharmin Sicilia is a Bangladeshi-Canadian artist. Born and raised in Bangladesh, Shohana is a proud queer Muslim woman of colour and is fluent in three languages. She is a member of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s 2019 Emerging Creators Unit, Nightwood Theatre’s 2019 Young Innovators program, and a current Theatre’s 2019 bcHUB Emerging Artists cohort. Shohana has performed in comedy and theatre festivals across North America. You can catch her performing with her award-winning troupe Not Oasis and The Kweendom (LadyFest Montreal). She wishes she could be more like her mother.