We are happy to present 'To be politically hopeless. To be politically hopeful.' This is a public discussion forum led by Niigaan Sinclair and Alireza Bayat. It will focus on the current colonial realities and histories in the Middle East and its local correlations here in Winnipeg. It will take as its starting point a close re-reading of Edward Said's seminal text, Orientalism, 1977, along with a discussion of Sinclair's recent book release, Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre, 2024.

 

We invite the general public to join this open conversation with their attention and perspectives to this program.

 

Join us this MONDAY, October 28th, at 7 PM.

 

FREE & OPEN TO ALL

SPACE IS LIMITED. Arrive early to secure a seat.

 

NIIGAAN SINCLAIR is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation and a professor at the University of Manitoba, where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Sinclair is a multiple nominee of Canadian columnist of the year (winning in 2018) and is a featured commentator on CBC's Power & Politics and APTN’s Truth and Politics panel. He was recently named to the “Power List” by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada and is a former secondary school teacher who won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is an award-winning author, speaker, and curriculum developer, and was co-editor of Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press)—the book voted by Manitobans in the “On the Same Page” competition as the top book to read in 2012. He is also a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press. His new book Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre (2024) is a national bestseller and has been nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

 

ALIREZA BAYAT is an independent curator, researcher, and cultural worker from Tehran, Iran, based in Winnipeg, MB. Bayat is an alumnus of Master of Arts in Curatorial Practices stream at the University of Winnipeg where he is currently an instructor at the Department of History. He also has a Master degree from Azad University-Tehran in Art Studies, where he completed a thesis on the notions of gender and sexuality in 19th century Iranian written and visual texts (2018). Bayat published a book, From The Cycle of Silence, (2018), on non-conformist forms of publication and distribution of literature in the USSR. He recently curated an exhibition for the 3.14 Art Gallery, Bergen, Norway- that centers around the post-Taliban situation of women and ethnic minorities of Afghanistan (2024). He has also worked as an art advisor and board member in multiple artistic and commercial institutions in Tehran and Winnipeg.