By Deb A.

He was Canada's unofficial poet laureate, documenting the nation's past and present and guiding Canadians to a clearer understanding of their own cultural identity. Gord Downie, lead singer of The Tragically Hip, solo artist, and activist, died of brain cancer on October 17th. And while he held that his writing could only be completed through performance, his lyrics are still powerful in black and white.

Nautical Disaster (1994, Day for Night)
I had this dream where I relished the fray
And the screaming filled my head all day
It was as though I'd been spit here
Settled in, into the pocket
Of a lighthouse on some rocky socket
Off the coast of France, dear

One afternoon four thousand men died in the water here
And five hundred more were thrashing madly
As parasites might in your blood

Now I was in a lifeboat designed for ten and ten only
Anything that systematic would get you hated
It's not a deal nor a test nor a
Love of something faded

The selection was quick, the crew was picked in order
And those left in the water
Got kicked off our pant leg
And we headed for home

Then the dream ends when the phone rings
"You doing alright?"
He said, "It's out there most days and nights
​But only a fool would complain"
Anyway, Susan, if you like
Our conversation is as faint a sound in my memory
As those fingernails scratching on my hull

​By Deb A.

If you're in need of some inspiration to begin your week, look no further:
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​Art is good for us: On Wednesday the British Parliament will announce the results of its two-year inquiry into arts, health and wellbeing. In anticipation of the report, Nicci Gerrard offers an eloquent account of the role of arts in helping people with dementia. (The Guardian)

Beware the selfie: A single snapshot was to blame for the domino effect that knocked over a row of plinths holding $200,000 worth of art. Too perfectly awkward to be true? (The New York Times)

Sketching the unknown: How artists and researchers teamed up to find and introduce new species to the rest of the world. (The Atlantic)

Illustrator, cartoonist, trailblazer: Canadian artist Jillian Tamaki's new book of graphic short stories marks her emergence as a "consummate storyteller". (The Walrus)
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Visual activist: Photographer Zanele Muholi highlights racism, homophobia, and hate with Somnyama Ngopnyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, a series of self-portraits she took every day for a year. The Guardian dedicates two spaces to her work, and rightly so: a striking photo gallery and a compelling article.

When is a Modigliani not a Modigliani? Twenty-one artworks have been confiscated from a major exhibition in Genoa after several were confirmed as fakes. (The Telegraph)

The Commuter Pig Keeper? You still have time to vote for the Oddest Book Title of the Year. (The Bookseller)

Agave alumna: Agave Magazine contributor Karla K. Morton's twelfth book, Wooden Lions, is now available.

By Deb A.

It's that time again: here's what may have slipped under your radar.

As classic dystopian fiction surges to the top of bestseller lists, Margaret Atwood wrote about The Handmaid's Tale and the significance of bearing witness in America's current political climate for the New York Times.

The Guardian looks at the numbers and concludes, happily, that hate doesn't sell.

Because you've already clicked 'agree': R. Sikoryak has turned iTunes's Terms and Conditions into a graphic novel.

Do you hear characters' voices even after you've put down your book? You're not alone.

The shortlist of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize is on display in London.

Co-edited by Agave Magazine favourite Mahvesh Murad, The Djinn Falls in Love is out now in the UK and will be available in North America from March 14th. The Washington Post loves it and you will too.

By Deb A.

Yanuary Navarro appreciates the unique allure of gouache and watercolours, noting that "they don't require much more than a cup of water and a brush. The older I get the more I appreciate simplicity." Yet her beautifully vibrant illustrations are part of a fantastical world where fairy tales, science fiction, and a childhood growing up in the Honduras collide--anything but simple. Agave Magazine is proud to feature Yanuary's A Coyote's Dream in our most recent issue, and to speak to her about being an artist, the power of ideas, and her series of invented short stories, 'The World of Wolli'.

What is 'The World of Wolli', and how did it come into being?
The 'World of Wolli' is the title of a series of visual short stories depicted in no chronological order. I have been building the story one painting at a time over the years. The concept began during my last year in college where I had an independent study class where I had the safe space to explore any subject. The narratives that began to naturally demand a voice were autobiographical, illustrating how my family and I immigrated and endured a dangerous journey through Central America. This is something I never really felt comfortable talking to people about and made me feel ashamed.

Over the years the narratives have expanded to include a network of people around me and their life stories and how they inspire me. I exaggerate people into characters and their details because storytelling is more interesting to me when truths are costumed in metaphors and when people are entertained they pay more attention to what is being said.

Where else do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration in other forms of art such as film, literature, music etc. and seeing other artists move forward with their ideas despite social disadvantages and failures. Their courage to share their human experience creatively motivates me to not be so afraid of doing the same.

Your work is influenced by fairy tales and science fiction. What are your favourite stories?
My favorite stories list is always changing and growing. Currently, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez and Star Wars by George Lucas are some of my favorite fiction stories because they depict relatable human struggles within a fantastical setting that asks the human mind to leave logic and exercise the abstract concept of imagination. I believe that practising this helps us to become more skilled at empathizing with other people in real life and imagining what joys and sorrows they may be experiencing and therefore have a more appropriate response.

When did you realise you wanted to be an artist?
During high school I began to seriously practice my painting. I did not have hopes of becoming an artist or even make a living from it. I did it because being in the flow made the world make sense and brought a sense of inner peace that I could not get anywhere else. I think that the arts have shaped me from a frustrated teen into a peaceful and confident adult.

If you couldn't be an artist, what would you be?
I think I would enjoy being a scientist building machines and gadgets out of my Science Fiction dreams.

To be honest I feel that one cannot just be an artist hiding away from the world in a studio and perhaps that is not the worst fact in the world. Art is the voice of the people, it comes from a place of struggle seeking to be heard and the only way to hear what people's concerns are is to go outside and live life.

By Deb A.

In a time when famous people of colour can safely assume that they will be asked about #OscarsSoWhite in practically any interview, and when representations of black lives in the media often revolve around tragedy and the response to it, Zun Lee wants to draw our attention instead to "black love and black joy... everyday moments that are very quiet, but at the same time very powerful."

Mr. Lee is a photographer whose most recent exhibit, Fade Resistance at The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, consists of over 1,000 photos that he did not take.

Four years ago, during the American recession, Mr. Lee stumbled across a box of old Polaroids. He knocked on doors to find the owners, but neighbours couldn't identify the subjects. It wasn't uncommon, he was told, for photos to be left out on the street. Unable to find the owners, he kept the box, and decided to build an archive of African American life as told through similar images.

Thanks to eBay and yard sales, his collection now consists of about 3,500 photographs documenting everything from newborns and family gatherings to hobbies and holidays from the 1970s to the 2000s.

Although Fade Resistance's primary aim is to emphasize the agency of the individuals and families in the photos, Mr. Lee is also acutely aware of the risk of objectification that comes with his exhibitions, telling the CBC, "it weighs on me to not really have the original owners attached to them. They're actual families, who know what these photos meant, and us speculating about them is kind of not OK." He posts his images on social media, hoping that he'll hear from the families to whom they belong, whether it's to reclaim the pictures or to instruct him to remove them from the Internet.

Fade Resistance asks us to consciously confront the vast gap between self-representation of black lives and media narratives about African Americans, and to decide that for all of us, "we are enough as we are".

The way to a person's heart is through the stomach--it's an old saying (rendered gender-neutral here because... well, because it's 2015), but no less true for its age.

Celebrated chef Grant Macdonald understands very well the intricate intertwinings of food and love: while his culinary imagination and thoughtfulness has found expression in some of the most notable restaurants in North America, it all begins in his own kitchen, where he prepares meals for and with his wife, writer and photographer Ariana Lyriotakis, and their four children.

The Family Table, published by Agave Press, is the culinary story of Grant and Ariana's family of six. It is a cookbook of humble ingredients, shared meals, and good company.

From Montreal to Santa Barbara via New York, Vancouver and Austin, Grant and his family seek out local ingredients and imbue them with personal meaning, creating new dishes, new tastes, new adventures. As a collection of favourite recipes, anecdotes, and food-inspired moments, The Family Table is designed to be enjoyed for generations to come.

The Family Table is available as a full-colour, 150-page hardcover with dust jacket for order now at Agave Press. It is printed in the USA.

By Deb A.

Roald Dahl's beloved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, and the occasion is being marked with hints of controversy from both a half-century ago and today: a chapter that didn't make it into the final version–it was considered too scandalous and immoral for British children of the 1950s–was printed in The Guardian on Saturday, and the cover of the new edition, published as a Penguin Modern Classic, has been roundly criticised as more appropriate for Valley of the Dolls or Lolita. (Making Dahl's name even more ubiquitous is a recent uproar over the use of the word "slut" in another of the author's books, Revolting Rhymes.)

The previously unseen chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reveals some of the major changes that were made before the final draft went to print. Initially, Charlie brought his mother, not his grandfather, along for Willy Wonka's tour, and was joined by eight other children instead of four. In the unpublished chapter featured in The Guardian, two unruly boys nearly meet a gruesome end: after clambering onto the wagons that transport chunks from a fudge mountain, Wilbur Rice and Tommy Troutbeck disappear off to "The Pounding And Cutting Room", to the horror of their parents. Willy Wonka reassures them, in the least reassuring and most Wonka-esque way, that there's a strainer in place for just this sort of occasion, and it's always worked: "At least it always has up to now." It's probably better for Wilbur and Tommy that they didn't make the novel's final cut, in more ways than one.