Toula Drimonis: Montreal's diversity is a gift, not a problem

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Montreal’s diversity and cultural plurality are often treated as problems by Quebec politicians and pundits, but the cultural happenings here and ever-rotating diversity of people we get to rub shoulders with and backstories we’re exposed to always remind me of how lucky I am to be surrounded by such richness of languages, cultures and ideas. It’s a gift to be constantly challenged and surprised by what’s unlike us in our daily lives.

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While attending the second edition of Yolk Literary Journal’s Oktoberfest recently — under the shadows of the iconic Canada Malting silos in St-Henri — I listened transfixed as Metatron Press founder Ashley Obscura delivered a moving speech about doggedly pursuing a life in the arts.

A self-proclaimed “Spanish Canadian from the Prairies” and one of Quebec’s most acclaimed young poets, Obscura told an audience of mostly emerging young writers that community is reciprocity: “If you crave being seen, you must see.”

A week earlier, walking along the Lachine Canal, I bumped into a couple of friends, English-language writers and members of the Jewish community, out for a stroll during Sukkot, the fall harvest festival. One of them, who was born in Brooklyn, recommended I watch the new documentary on the St-Léonard Riots, La bataille de Saint-Léonard, directed by Félix Rose (son of felquist Paul Rose). She thought I would like it. No one questioned whether three non-francophones working in English would have trouble understanding and appreciating a French-language documentary. This is Montreal.

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Last Friday, I saw a powerful and timely play, Two Birds With One Stone, produced by Teesri Duniya Theatre. Co-written by a Muslim Palestinian and a Jewish Canadian, the production was staged at the Cité-des-Hospitalières, adjacent to the former Hôtel-Dieu, a building steeped in Catholic history as Montreal’s first hospital.

Originally from India, artistic director Rahul Varma co-founded the company decades ago to address an absence of cultural diversity in Canadian theatre. With the tag line “Change the world one play a time,” he produces plays that showcase the lived experiences of visible minorities who often don’t get a voice in the mainstream arts scene. His socially conscious work fosters critical thinking and cross-cultural dialogue, and builds bridges between Quebecers of all backgrounds.

This past Monday, I attended the première of Still Life at La Chappelle theatre, a vibrant, intimate and poetic look at anxiety and depression. Based on the original play Chienne(s), it’s currently performed in English with French surtitles.

Founded by Lyne Paquette and Emma Tibaldo, Montreal’s Talisman Theatre has as a mission to produce English-language premières of Quebec plays in translation and bridge linguistic and cultural divides. Artistic collaborations that break down language barriers happen all the time in this city, and it’s wonderful to see the translated words of French playwrights Marie-Ève Milot and Marie-Claude St-Laurent offered to more Quebecers.

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When I last interviewed Paquette, she openly professed she mostly speaks English, but only attends French culture events. One of the lessons Montreal teaches you is that it’s almost impossible to pigeonhole people by language.

Over at the Centaur, artistic director Eda Holmes, transplanted from Beaumont, Tex., is getting ready to stage Three Women of Swatow, the story of three generations of Chinese-Canadian women “who come together to deal with an unexpected and bloody situation after Mother accidentally kills her husband.”

This dynamic entanglement of languages, cultures and ideas I’m describing — as transplanted people from everywhere come together with those whose roots have been here much longer — isn’t special. At least, not in Montreal. Here, it’s just another week.

No one and nothing will ever convince me that our city’s diversity and cultural and linguistic plurality aren’t gifts that unequivocally add to our lives and make us — and this city — even more wonderful.

Toula Drimonis is a Montreal journalist and the author of We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada.

toulastake@gmail.com

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