Photo by Imtiaz Popat
Shani Mootoo and Richard Fung queer Asian Trinidadian Canadian artists were in conversation at SFU – Woodwards on October 15th, as a prelude the the Vancouver Writers Festival.
They talked about their experience of migration from Trinidad to Canada and their identity as Trinidadian and Canadian and how that influenced their expression in their art.
Both currently live in Ontario. Mootoo, who previously lived in Vancouver, is currently a Writer-in-Residence at SFU.
Award-winning author Shani Mootoo, the 2026 Ellen and Warren Tallman writer-in-residence, will formally launch her residency with Simon Fraser University’s Department of English on October 29th at SFU Vancouver’s Harbour Centre campus. At the event, she will read from her latest novel, Starry Starry Night, her most recent poetry collection, Oh Witness Dey!, and a new work currently in progress. She will also be presenting at Vancouver Writers Festival.
Richard Fung (Professor Emeritus, OCADU)is presented as part Global Asias 30th Anniversary Speaker Series & the Margaret Lowe Benston Lecture Series in Social JusticeSupported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, SFU David Lam Centre, SFU Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, SFU Global Asia Program, and SFU Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology.
His Film The Enigma of Harold Sonny Ladoo also had its BC Premiere at SFU Woodwards on October 14th. His documentary with Ali Kazimi and John Greyson, Rex vs Singh was set in Vancouver in 1915, documenting how South Asian millworkers were entrapped by the Vancouver Police for sodomy.
Leave a Reply