Tertulia – Yassin “Narcy” Alsalman [video]

Yassin “Narcy” Alsalman delivered a talk on his book, Text Messages: Or How I Found Myself Time Travelling (Fernwood), on February 10. Composed entirely on a smartphone during air travel and married to artwork from comrades, Alsalman’s writing speaks of the existential crises experienced by diasporic children of war before and during imperialism in the age of the Internet.

Yassin “Narcy” Alsalman is a Montreal-based multi-media artist and professor at Concordia University. He’s a musician, director, actor and writer. He is considered a pioneer of the Arab hip-hop movement. He teaches one of Canada’s only hip-hop courses at Concordia. He is one the artists behind We Are The Medium.

As an actor, he does voice overs for video games like Civilization 5 and The Secret World. He’s the main actor in the Dubai feature film called City of Life and has starred in many shorts. He has also directed many of his own music videos, and those of his collaborators. Narcy’s video for A Tribe Called Red’s R.E.D. , which features Yassin Bey, Black Bear and Narcy, won the 2017 Juno Video of the Year award.

What is a tertulia? A tertulia can be described as a literary and artistic social gathering or philosophy café where participants talk about big thinkers, artists and ideas. This winter, Tertulias Fredericton has put together a series on activists and social movements that have shaped our lives and allowed us to imagine a better future.

Tertulias Fredericton is supported by the NB Media Co-op, publisher of videos of the Tertulia talks, the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, book publishers Fernwood, Between the Lines, Verso and Canadian Scholars | Women’s Press as well as the Tobique River Trading Co.

Upcoming Tertulias

Feb. 17 – Bryan Palmer, Professor Emeritus, Trent University, and author of Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers’ Strikes of 1934 (Haymarket), co-author of Toronto’s Poor: A Rebellious History (Between the Lines), past editor of the journal, Labour/Le Travail on the Canadian left in the epoch of declining expectations.

March 3 – Nina Lakhani, environmental justice reporter with The Guardian, on her book, Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet (Verso).

March 10 – Harsha Walia, migrant justice activist and executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, on her book, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (Fernwood).

March 24 – Basil Alexander, Assistant Professor of Law, University of New Brunswick, on Dudley George and the Ipperwash Inquiry.

March 31 – Caroline Ennis, organizer of the 1979 Tobique Women’s March to Ottawa, on how she and other Tobique women organized to stop gender discrimination in the Indian Act.

For more information, visit Tertulias Fredericton on Facebook or contact: fredericton.tertulia@gmail.com.