Recent

Grass Stain Sessions Ep. 3: My Father’s Son

The Grass Stain Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Grass Stain Sessions Ep. 2: Just Prince

The Grass Stain Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Grass Stain Sessions Ep. 1: Saidat

The Grass Stain Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Making It

London’s Sunfest is Still Providing the “Beat We Can All Relate To” Despite Pandemic

Mercedes Caxaj, Co-artistic Director of one of Canada’s largest world music festivals, speaks to Last Draft’s Hillary Watson about how she is navigating her wa...
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This Inuk Musician is Using Tik Tok to Teach Inuktitut

Becky Han spoke to The Last Draft’s Lena Slanisky about tech, tweets, and teaching Inuktitut online. Becky Han is an Inuk musician who was born in Arctic Ba...
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Creative Writing

Remember Your Roots

These petty ego negotiations Like small weeds blowing in the wind At the base of my thick wooden trunk They are nothing to me Nothing compared to My roots goin...
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A Good Moose Story

In the days growing up in Port Arthur, as it turned itself into Thunder Bay, I did lots of camping. This is in the middle of North-Western Ontario and camping ...
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Sometimes

Sometimes the paper writes it for me. Sometimes the music plays itself. Sometimes my dreams are the way I choose to speak. Sometimes I listen to myself. Somet...
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The Millennial Haikus: Scene VII

The tattooed girl sits with bare feet on the carpet. Does her heart still work? *** Newspapers, coffee, she groans at the sight of them, he left his boxer sh...
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To My Mom

To my mom, Jennet Sandler, also human, also woman, also artist, also friend, also partner, also wife, also sister, also daughter, also caretaker, also homemake...
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Big Birthdays and Closed Borders

In many places over the years, I have come across the following mantra: “I am strong because a strong woman raised me.” And when I think of the person I am tod...
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Old Ports

A perpetual moment sinks into my draw, it stirs about my head in a lukewarm whiff. It waits in a blurred and naked ken of birth-marked film, spilled canopy of ...
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Saying No to Things

Swipe Holograms for affection Meditation as a medium For putting my phone down Never lasts Underperforming Digital confession Instapoetics of affirmation Brea...
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a wash

a wash or self-portrait as amateur poet, amateur catherinette the sky looks the same as the last time i fell in love the last time this city was mine as i tu...
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Grass Stain Sessions

Grass Stain Sessions Ep. 3: My Father’s Son

The Grass Stain Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
Read More ›

Grass Stain Sessions Ep. 2: Just Prince

The Grass Stain Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
Read More ›

Grass Stain Sessions Ep. 1: Saidat

The Grass Stain Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
Read More ›

Living Room Sessions

Living Room Sessions Ep. 9: Lost in Japan

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 8: Noelle Coughlin

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 7: Yessica Woahneil

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 6: Taylor Holden

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 5: Avery Florence

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 4: Letchi

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 3: Renee Coughlin

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 2: Scott Brunelle

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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Living Room Sessions Ep. 1: Hillary Watson of The Pairs

The Living Room Sessions is a video series that explores the sense of human connection music and art provide. The videos feature musicians sharing two songs an...
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What's in a Story?

What’s in a Story? — #9

There is no feeling like the thrill of discovering a new story and telling it in an interesting, compelling way that affects the people who read it. Usually, i...
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What’s in a Story? — #8

When I was a kid my sister and I would get up early every morning and set out to an overgrown orchard that grew near our house. Each of us would head to our fa...
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What’s in a Story — #7

What is a story? A beginning. A middle. An end. Lift the skin, peer closer… It is castles, villains, lovers, heroes, the journey unfolding. A story transports ...
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What’s in a Story? — #6

Below are five collages done over the last few weeks. I guess I am imagining traveling even as I’m sheltering at home. Abstract art tells stories throug...
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What’s in a Story? –#5

Every day, people are presented with problems… and opportunities. When there is a will to address a problem, or seize an opportunity, here begins the start of...
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What’s in a Story? — #4

I am not alone in the ideas I share today. It is not just my words that dance across this page and I am not solely responsible for the meaning that is made her...
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What’s in a Story? — #3

I’ve been thinking about the ways that I tell stories. I can string together words on paper or voice them aloud. You may follow them or you may not. I think t...
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What’s in a Story? — #2

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” — Muriel Rukeyser, The Speed of Darkness Stories bring people together in the most universal ways and the mos...
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What’s in a Story? — #1

“The truth about stories is, that’s all we are.” — Thomas King Stories are existential. Not just inseparable from the way we communicate and play out our li...
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Announcements

Introducing Jacob Sandler

“Stories are existential. Not just inseparable from the way we communicate and play out our lives, but actually the very basis of our existence.” – Jacob Sandl...
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Introducing Hillary Watson

“Stories provide connection. Connection to ourselves, to others, to the earth, even across space and time.” – Hillary Watson, Illustrator + Editor I think I’d...
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Introducing Lena Slanisky

“Stories bring people together in the most universal ways and the most minuscule. They are both finite and infinite, reminding us how connected we inevitably a...
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