For the past nine years, The Polyglot—an award-winning local multilingual magazine—has offered a vibrant platform for artists, writers, and translators to experiment with language and art.

At LitFest, we are honoured to launch our fifteenth issue, Daaira—a collaboration with Daaira House, guest edited by Aaima Azhar and Zainab Azhar.

As the editors write: “This issue has been curated to capture what is well and unwell within us all and the rituals that play witness. The healing will come. Let us first call it what it is. Let us make for it a little space. Let us draw around it a circle, a دائرہ.”

Daaira (circle) moves between ritual (Rasm-e-Dil, Ritual of the Heart) and remembrance (Yaad-e-Dil, Re-membrance of the Heart), creating a space where wellness is not individual but communal. For this reason, we’re thrilled to be hosted by the Green Room.

Join us for an evening of multilingual readings, music, and visual art
Participate in a guided writing session led by Aaima Azhar
Share light refreshments in community
Witness performances that embody healing and creativity

Hosts: Aaima Azhar & Zainab Azhar
Authors: Illyana Cardinal, Muhammad Azhar, Luciana Erregue-Sacchi, Leilei Chen, Tamara Aschenbrenner
Musicians: The Calamansi Club
Artists: April Angeles, Maryam Lary, Niabi Kapoor

Come sit in the circle with us. All are welcome.

Author bios

Aaima Azhar is a Pakistani-Canadian Muslim writer, spoken word poet, filmmaker, and mental health coach whose work explores the healing power of language and creativity. She is the founder of Daaira House and author of A Thing With Teeth.

Zainab Azhar is an artist and facilitator drawn to ritual, storytelling, and the spaces where creativity meets memory. She works across mediums and recently showcased her immersive installation in The New Frame exhibition by Odyssey Works in New York City.

Tamara Aschenbrenner (she/they) is a queer writer and communications professional whose work explores the intersections of identity, mental health, and language. As the grandchild of refugees and the daughter of a first-generation Canadian, she writes about the quiet weight of inheritance—what gets passed down, what gets lost, and what we choose to carry forward. Her work often reflects on queerness, feminism, neurodivergence, family, and the process of making sense of emotions that don’t always translate easily. A former magazine editor and a current volunteer with The Polyglot, she is especially interested in how language shapes our understanding of self, belonging, and wellbeing.

Illyana Cardinal is a twenty-something mixed-Indigenous multidisciplinary artist and beadworker based on Treaty 6 territory. Creating under the name Be Silly By Silly, her practice explores cultural reconnection, emotional resilience, and healing through the handmade. Her work often blends contemporary Indigenous beadwork with themes of mental health, inherited memories, and the quiet power of craft. Raised in the city, Illyana began her reconnection journey in the final years of high school. She treats each beaded piece like a prayer—a grounding act and a way back to herself. Illyana is especially passionate about making space for softness, silliness, and vulnerability in both art and life. Besillybysilly.square.site Instagram: @BeSillyBySilly

Leilei Chen 莫译 is the author of Re-orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-cultural Understanding; the Mandarin translator (both simplified and traditional Chinese) of Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction; the translator of Ma Hui’s contemporary Chinese poetry, I Have Forsaken Heaven and Earth, but Never Forsaken You. Her translations of Chinese women’s fiction and ecological writings are anthologized in Virginia’s Sisters: An Anthology of Women’s Writing and Environmental Futures: An International Literary Anthology. She recently published her poetry chapbook, i give birth to my body.

Luciana Erregue-Sacchi is an art historian, publisher, poet, translator, cultural worker, and author from Treaty 6. Luciana works at the intersection of art, words, languages, and literary genres. She is the publisher behind award-winning imprint Laberinto Press, and the author of the chapbook Of Mothers and Madonnas (The Polyglot). Luciana is working on a creative nonfiction memoir, Daughters of the Current, based on her obsession with the work and life of Argentinian poet Alfonsina Storni.

Musicians

The Calamansi Club is an all-Filipino indie band based in Edmonton. The band is named after a tiny but massively flavourful citrus fruit from the Philippines. They started with a casual jam session at the library and have since formed a deep connection through their shared passion for creating music with meaning. They’re inspired by the struggles and joys of life, and they hope their songs make people feel less alone. With Eoshanelle on vocals and bass, Chema on vocals and guitar, Ryan on guitar and vocals, and TJ on the drums, The Calamansi Club writes songs in both English and Tagalog. They’ve performed at the Heart of the City Music & Arts Festival and Edmonton Poetry Festival, and they headlined DRTY Ice Cream’s Kanto Party. They’re releasing an EP in the fall of 2025. You can listen to their music on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. Instagram: @thecalamansiclub

Artists with work on display

April Angeles is a Filipino-Canadian visual artist based in Edmonton. Though she dabbles with the use of different media in her artistic pursuits, she works mainly with acrylics, recycled materials, and graphite. Her art has been featured in various spaces. In 2022, she was in the Top 15 of the Philippine Arts Council’s The Filipino in Me – Insights into Living Heritage online gallery. In 2023, she won the People’s Choice Award at Rachel Notley’s Art From the Unknown gallery at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre. In 2024, she won the People’s Choice Award at the Allied Arts Council of Spruce Grove’s Form Redux Exhibit.

Maryam Lary is a poet, author, and self-taught string artist whose work blends craft and fine art to explore themes of resilience, belonging, and the universal search for peace. In 2020, she published journey through 99, an anthology of poems chronicling a personal journey toward healing and meaning. The same year, she was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder that temporarily took her eyesight. This transformative experience deepened her commitment to creating art with purpose and intention. Maryam’s practice reimagines thread as both a drawing and sculptural medium, combining it with acrylic paint, collage, and calligraphy to create layered, contemporary works. Her art celebrates culture, spirituality, and the stories that connect us all. As her work has evolved, she has used it to inspire dialogue around issues such as migration, statelessness, and the search for belonging, always with the aim of bridging communities through creativity and understanding. Deeply engaged in her community, Maryam has collaborated with organizations across Edmonton to raise awareness about mental health, welcome newcomers, and share the therapeutic power of art. Her work has been collected, and acquired by supporters, with many pieces donated or sold to benefit humanitarian causes, including sponsoring orphans worldwide. Through each artwork, she aspires to offer comfort, spark reflection, and build connections grounded in empathy and hope.

Niabi Kapoor is a first-generation daughter born in Canada to immigrant Indian parents. She recently relocated back to Canada after living in Madrid for the last five years. Most of her inspiration comes from nature, specifically plants and small creatures, from stories she has read or heard throughout her life, from architecture, and her travels. She enjoys using art as a way to share her imagination with others, with the hope that it offers a small escape and brings them as much joy as it does her while creating it.