MF GALAXY

On the previous episode, we heard all about the controversial Bradford Reading Challenge . It shouldn’t be controversial at all, of course. Author, tech-reviewer, and fandom activist K. Tempest Bradford suggested in an xoJane.com opinion piece that readers should branch out beyond the extremely typical, self-imposed restriction of straight, White, able-bodied, and presumably English-speaking male authors. That’s right: thanks to the educational and media systems and cultures of Canada and the United States, that author category is default for way, way, way too many readers. So how about, said Bradford, for one year, open up your minds and eyes to encounter the whole universe of writers beyond? To hear all about the outrageous and even vicious backlash Bradford got for suggesting people read books to make themselves happy, download episode 18 of MFGALAXY from iTunes. But tonight, let’s pick up the Bradford Reading Challenge ourselves, and hear suggestions from: Canada Reads host...

6 PM Mountain Time CJSR FM88.5 Edmonton cjsr.com worldwide Tonight on the programme, part two of my conversation with the pair who recently brought a hilarious and deeply-moving autobiographical play to the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, a play with title that requires its own language warning: Niggerfag . As the play’s title suggests, it’s an examination, through vignettes of several parts of McKenzie’s life, of the pain, humour, bewilderment, exhilaration, alienation, terror and love of growing up in Alberta as a gay African-Canadian boy in the 1970s and 80s. It also happens to be superb, powered by both creators’ understandings of the dual exclusions and humiliations of racism and homophobia. African-Canadian actor and playwright Berend McKenzie appeared alongside Halle Berry and Sharon Stone in the feature film Cat Woman , and has taken roles in television programmes such as Cold Squad, Jeremiah, Life or Something Like It and Andromeda . Jamaican-Canadian actor, singer,...

6 PM Mountain Time FM 88.5 Edmonton cjsr.com Tonight on the programme, a first for The Terrordome : features on two plays at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, the second-largest theatre festival in the world. In the second half of tonight’s show, I’ll be speaking with the actors and directors of Honey in the Lion’s Head , an electrifying retelling of the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah , with overtones of the modern Israel-Palestine conflict . NGGRFG But first I’ll be talking with actor-p laywright B erend McKenzie and director Deni s Simpson about McKenzie’s autobiographical play they’re presenting. I will warn you, their title is a shocker, and portions of tonight’s interviews and excerpts contain adult language guaranteed to offend some. McKenzie’s and Simpson’s play is called Niggerfag . As the title suggests, the play’s an ex amination, through vignettes of several parts of McKenzie’s life, of the pain, humour, bew ilderment, exhilaration, alienation, terror and lo...