Help Yourself

Help Yourself is a gesture of hospitality. Or, Help Yourself means nobody else will do it for you. Somewhere between self-help, self-doubt, and helplessness, we realise we can't do it alone. But look out for opportunistic offers. How do we open up to one another while keeping our guards up and our cards close to our chests? Buy or stream Help Yourself, my latest album on Mirlo.

Projects

One Million Neighbours

Co-creating a vision for an inclusive, resilient, and abundant future led by non-profits and community groups.

https://onemillionneighbours.ca/

Gaukel Block

In September 2019, Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener was transformed into a fun pop-up park. Now, working with a group of downtown community members, neighbourhood associations, businesses, and city staff, we have achieved a long-term plan for redesigning Gaukel St. as a pedestrian-first urban park.

https://gaukel.ca

The Soundcheck Experiment

Eight local musicians who have never played together spent the whole day jamming, writing songs, and remixing each others’ music. That evening, we put on a concert at the Union! Nobody, including the musicians or the audience, knew how the concert would unfold until it happened. It was a new kind of experience for fans to see some of their favourite local artists (and some new faces) in a brand new way.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGlxcSoBTex/

Textile Literature: Digital Storytelling Workshop

I taught a group of writers to code with HTML and CSS, the building blocks of the web. They enhanced their published stories with colour, photos, and layout customisations to create a unique immersive experience for the web. Learning the basics of web design has equipped these participants to enhance their narrative in future articles online, no matter where they are published.

https://textilekw.ca/collections/digital-storytelling-workshop

Charles Terminal Community Group

I coordinated a petition and meetings with Regional staff in support of O:se Kenhionhata:tie Land Back Camp’s campaign to return Charles Terminal to Indigenous stewardship.

https://www.communityedition.ca/community-remembers-charles-st-terminal-as-a-place-of-intersection-and-connection/

Project Mushroom

Project Mushroom started in November 2022 as a community-led effort to build a safe place on the internet that centres joy and action. We want to build a better online experience — free from harassment, free from bigotry, and one that promotes connection, mutual aid, and transformative action at this critical moment in history. I act as an organizer and one of the moderators for our Mastodon communities.

https://newsletters.projectmushroom.xyz/

Tri-City Hip Hop

Explore the places in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge that have shaped local hip-hop culture. Featuring music videos and first-hand stories from the artists themselves.

https://tricityhiphop.com

Bylines

Subscribe to your favourite Canadian writers no matter which publication they appear in.

https://bylin.es

Posts

Animal Farm Book Review

George Orwell
The most compelling part of Orwell's satire on tyranny is how easily the animals are made to forget what they've learned, deny what they've seen with their own eyes, and follow someone who always has a tidy explanation ready — no matter how ridiculous. This story teaches us to resist distraction and question authority, especially when that authority is co-opting your movement with exactly the type of language you want to hear.

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18 Oct 2025 Rating: 3/5

Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune Book Review

Kristin Ross
In this compact, punchy analysis of the Paris Commune, Ross focuses less on important dates and events than of the reverberating impact this experiment had on subsequent anarchist, communist, socialist, and environmentalist thought. Many of the commune's debates around the value of labour, automation, building urban-rural solidarity, and who counts as a worker are still relevant today. Detailed footnotes make it easy to look up the source material if you want to dig deeper.

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30 Aug 2025 Rating: 5/5

Moonbound Book Review

Robin Sloan
In a future 11,000 years from now, the most impressive technology doesn't come from silicon and software; rather, it comes from evolutionary leaps and a humanity that integrates itself with the natural world in weird and wonderful ways. On a technical level, one of the most impressive aspects of this novel is how Sloan presents two different characters who happen to share the same body — truly inventive. The *Sourdough* easter eggs are fun too.

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15 Jul 2025 Rating: 5/5

Object Lessons: The Art of the Short Story Book Review

The Paris Review
A buffet in the best way, this collection of short stories surprised, challenged and delighted me. I'm coming away from this book with an expanded view of what a story can be, even if all of them weren't quite my cup of tea.

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12 Jun 2025 Rating: 4/5

Recommended reading

Stuff I enjoyed and that I think you'd like, too.

Bookmarks

Interesting links I haven't had a chance to check out yet.