Incé Husain

Insights from animate blankets: Artist Andrew Maize’s ‘fan dancers’ spin in McIntosh Gallery 

“There’s this animacy that you get from the wind. The wind fills the sails, livens a tree. I think it’s that sense of animacy we get from these blankets which otherwise are just inert material. It’s seeing that surprise on people’s faces when they first get up. It’s so exciting. There’s a sense of wonder,” says artist Andrew Maize, whose exhibit *(s)twerH is open to the public in Western University’s McIntosh Gallery until May 16.  A key feature of the windowless exhibit is a collection of gleaming silver and gold emergency blankets draped over hangers. First created in 1964 by…

Read MoreInsights from animate blankets: Artist Andrew Maize’s ‘fan dancers’ spin in McIntosh Gallery 

¡Estamos Con Cuba!: A Fundraiser for the Cuban People

This Friday, Casa Latina will hold a fundraiser, ¡Estamos Con Cuba!: A Fundraiser for the Cuban People, at 7pm. It will be filled with live music, silent auctions, video-recorded greetings from Cuba solidarity groups and Cubans living under the intensified blockade, and a dance party that may stretch late into the night.  Performances will feature London-based Chilean duo SUYAI, made of folk musicians Viviana and Mauricio, and local choir Accento Latino. Journalist and writer Ruth Taylor will read an excerpt from her debut novel Even the Birds – which chronicles three generations of Guatemalan women seeking peace and purpose. The…

Read More¡Estamos Con Cuba!: A Fundraiser for the Cuban People

“Two Nations. One Voice”: Palestine and Lebanon rally grips Victoria Park

“I was born in Haifa. I am older than Israel,” said Lilian Mattar-Patey, a Windsor-based United Church minister. She addressed crowds gathered beneath a grey sky at Victoria Park in London on April 19 for a Palestine and Lebanon rally; a social media post about the protest read Two Nations. One Voice. Together, we rise. “In 1948, the first day of the Nakba or ‘catastrophe’, my brother was carrying me. I was less than two years old then, and he said that the Israeli soldiers were shooting at us, and one bullet came beside my ear and he said if…

Read More“Two Nations. One Voice”: Palestine and Lebanon rally grips Victoria Park

“We are all candidates for disability”: Humanitarian worker Elisha Byalungwe on disability and inclusion advocacy from DR Congo to Uganda to Canada 

Elisha Byalungwe’s earliest memories of school were marked by frustration. He describes his home country of post-1994 eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as war-torn, with children walking to school to the sound of gunshots and parents emphasizing education as the “only hope” for raising the “change-makers of tomorrow” who would better the country. Teachers were determined, students were keen to become political leaders, and Byalungwe loved school. But he struggled to see what was written on the teacher’s blackboard.  When he was almost nine years old, one of his teachers noticed his struggles and phoned his parents; a visit to…

Read More“We are all candidates for disability”: Humanitarian worker Elisha Byalungwe on disability and inclusion advocacy from DR Congo to Uganda to Canada 

“You Will Not Kill Our Imagination”: Palestinian writer Saeed Teebi’s book launch at Western University 

“The greatest battleground in any war is always that of story,” reads Palestinian writer Saeed Teebi from his memoir You Will Not Kill Our Imagination at his book launch at Western University’s Conron Hall on November 10th. “In my view, Israel’s greatest accomplishment is that, even decades after its colonial inception, its story has remained in the foreground, while the stories of the Palestinian natives to the land continue to exist in relative obscurity. Of course, the obscurity of the Palestinian story is a manufactured one, a whole cloth tailored to fit snug over the minds of Western audiences. It…

Read More“You Will Not Kill Our Imagination”: Palestinian writer Saeed Teebi’s book launch at Western University 

“Grounding: States of Gender”: Persian calligraphy documents memoir of womanhood in Iran 

“What are the ways in which gender — our gender as women — has actually conditioned our life?” asked Iranian artist Gita Hashemi, introducing her performance Grounding: States of Gender at Western University’s John Labatt Visual Arts Centre on January 8. Curated by Soheila Esfahani, the exhibit will be displayed at the artLAB Gallery until January 29.  Grounding features Persian calligraphy in red and black ink that tells the story of a woman in Tehran named Zahra. The swaying script is written on twenty-two scrolls that cover the gallery walls, circling audiences from all sides. Live-streamed footage of Hashemi writing…

Read More“Grounding: States of Gender”: Persian calligraphy documents memoir of womanhood in Iran 

“We are waiting to rebuild Gaza as scholars”: Canadian government stalls visas for students in Gaza admitted to Ontario universities

Audio excerpts of interviews with Nour, Khaled, and Raneen – students in Gaza accepted to Canadian universities: “I am Nour from Gaza. I have got a PhD acceptance in the civil engineering department at Toronto University since May 2024. I want to complete my PhD in order to get back to Gaza and rebuild it after the destruction happened in the war,” says Nour over a WhatsApp audio call from Gaza City on Wednesday, December 3. “Here, the destruction is very huge, the buildings are destructed, infrastructure is destructed, streets destructed, so we dream about this — a good education…

Read More“We are waiting to rebuild Gaza as scholars”: Canadian government stalls visas for students in Gaza admitted to Ontario universities

“Silence is complicity, trade is betrayal”: Sudan protest demands Canadian government cut ties with UAE over war crimes in Sudan 

On November 1, Londoners gathered at Victoria Park to protest genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes by state violence in Sudan. Chants, speeches, and banners educated the public about current violence in Sudan and its historical roots.  Since April 2023, Sudan has been scarred by warfare between Sudan’s national army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A September 2025 UN report titled A War of Atrocities states: The RSF…committed myriad crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence, forced displacement and persecution on ethnic, gender and political grounds. The…

Read More“Silence is complicity, trade is betrayal”: Sudan protest demands Canadian government cut ties with UAE over war crimes in Sudan 

“We do not make peace with colonizers”: Palestine rally, vigil on UN International Day of Peace 

On September 21st, the UN International Day of Peace, Londoners gathered at Victoria Park for a Palestine rally and vigil. The crowd was filled with human rights posters, Palestinian flags, and keffiyehs that reeled honks of solidarity from passing cars.  End genocide, end apartheid, free Palestine, read the posters. In Gaza, a bag of flour costs a life. Against killing kids?: Palestine is your cause. Invest in justice, stop arming Israel. You can’t say I didn’t know, you can only say I didn’t care.  Speeches from community members redefined “peace” with imagery of resistance and a rage that grieves.  ***…

Read More“We do not make peace with colonizers”: Palestine rally, vigil on UN International Day of Peace 

“We believe in what we’re trying to fight for”: OPSEU strike enters fourth week 

Since September 11, around 650 full-time college support staff at Fanshawe College have been on strike. Workers on the picket line share concerns about supporting their families as the financial hardships of the strike become increasingly straining. “For some of them it’s a real financial hardship. A strike means you don’t perform work and you don’t get paid,” says Adam Rayfield, president of OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union) Local 109 representing full-time college support staff at Fanshawe College. “But what it’s really done is strengthen their bonds. The silver lining I see from this is that folks are connecting…

Read More“We believe in what we’re trying to fight for”: OPSEU strike enters fourth week