Saskatchewan authors took their stories to the streets of Victoria Park as they performed their work outdoors, and out-loud to audience members in this unique event.
“It’s the different stories that exist here in Saskatchewan, from different cultural backgrounds and featuring a lot of people who are new Canadians,” Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild Oin Nicholson explained.
Zarqa Nawaz is one of three authors reading their tales to Regina’s downtown audience. She chose to read a chapter from her new book “Laughing all the way to the Mosque.”
“It’s a comedic memoir of me growing up in Canada with crazy kooky parents. It’s very relatable to anyone who has parents,” she chuckled.
For people who were simply passing by, they said they couldn’t help but stop and listen.
“I wasn’t aware of this. I just happened to be here,” audience member Credence Mcfadzean said.
“You can hear it across the market. It definitely pulled my attention in.”
Nawaz has been telling stories about the Muslim faith for over a decade. She was also the creator of the hit 2007 TV Show “Little Mosque on the Prairie.”
“We’ve had issues with welcoming our newcomers but I think as Canadians we’ve overcome that,” Nawaz said.
“Immigrants and newcomers share the same values Canadians share.”
Although Nawaz does have some personal successes in her own life, she said the hope is society can eventually close the book on racism and xenophobia.
“All human beings have universal values. We want to have our kids to go to school, have good jobs, move out of our parents basement, recycle,” Nawaz explained.
“We all want the exact same thing.”
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