I always work with text orally in the writing process, saying passages aloud to measure flow.

My art career often feels less like an art career and more like a career in educating, usually by using my body.

I am always hesitant to call myself an activist, mostly out of respect for the activists who are using their bodies and voices to protest or activists online who are constantly engaging and educating others.

I especially worry about the ways Canadians can be glib about our supposed difference from the US in our "acceptance" of "diversity."

If anything, I have witnessed the ways my art travels, or is rendered more accessible, when sanctioned by or connected to white artists.

Now is not the time for Canadians to be sanctimonious. It is time for us to be prudent and active.

I recently did a reading at an elementary school in Ottawa, and one of the children asked me if I was a girl. I said yes. Another child commented that I had a deep voice. I responded: "Can girls have deep voices?" There was a pause and then the group responded, "Yes!"