Communication has shifted in such profound and subtle ways over the course of this pandemic. Language is meant to be a point of connection, but it has been a struggle to articulate the depth of the bad-ness happening around us on a daily basis. How do you foster emotional connection when communication “fails” you? In this episode, we dive into just that question. And not just as it relates to the pandemic, but to our experiences as hyphenated Canadians. Whether it’s in the form of losing a language, or adapting one’s way of speaking in the face of assimilation, or losing touch with the culture attached to a language — for many of us who are a part of a diaspora or who have been displaced in some way, this gap in our language is not new. Featured in this episode: • Zehra Naqvi is a Karachi-born writer and poet raised on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. She is a winner of Room's annual poetry contest, and has written and edited for various publications internationally. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, Room, Jaggery, and The New Quarterly. She recently completed her graduate studies at Oxford University, where she studied migration and social anthropology as a Rhodes Scholar. She is currently working on her first book. Read her work or follow her at @hintsofgladness on Instagram. • Mary Joy Pascua • Alison Isaac is a Black, Caribbean-Canadian writer and teacher from Toronto, Canada. Besides Canada, Alison has lived in Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia. Her story “Legacy” was long listed for the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival’s Emergent Writers short story competition, and named winner of the Rewrite Reads inaugural issue. Her short story “Isa” was also published by Rewrite Reads. You can find more of her work at alisonisaac.com. Her first children’s book, Kookumbah, was published in December 2020. • Thunderclaw Robinson is a poet, singer, and thunder bringer. He was born and raised in Toronto and has shared stages with the likes of Ari Lennox & Jessie Reyes and opened for the 44th US President Barack Obama. Thunderclaw has traveled to a variety of locations internationally to share light through poems and song on stages and radio stations. He aims to use his experiences to assist others in being a step closer to telling their truest story through art. Follow Thunderclaw on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and across all streaming platforms. Living Hyphen is a community seeking to turn up the volume on the voices of hyphenated Canadians. Support us on Patreon, or find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.