In honour of Asian Heritage month, in which we cast a spotlight on the words and voices of GTA artists from the Asian Diaspora. We talked to Sheniz Janmohamed over zoom from her home in the GTA. She traces her ancestral roots through Kenya, back to Kutch, Gujarat, in India. Sheniz reflects on what it means to be disconnected from her ancestral homeland, living on a land that isn't traditionally hers, here on Turtle Island. She read her poem Salt, from her latest collection of poems, Reminders on the Path. Sheniz wanted to know the stories that were absent in her family narrative, those of her women ancestors. Salt came out of the conversation she had with her maternal grandmother on her last visit to Kenya, after asking her to share her story and the story of her mother.
Transcript URL: https://harthouse.ca/stories/podcast/sheinz