Yasmeen Nematt Alla

Yasmeen Nematt Alla is a visual artist and writer whose practice approaches alienated narratives from an interpreter’s perspective. As someone who lives between cultures, she deciphers the language barriers that are attached to alienation. She considers how art-making can bridge the gap between what we know and what we hope to understand.

Stories

Policing the Pandemic

Niara van Gaalen Seemab Zahra Yasmeen Nematt Alla Tomi A. Ryan Antooa

When the first wave of COVID-19 in March 2020 set off emergency orders in Ontario, police departments were given increased powers to enforce public health measures that called for self-isolation and physical distancing. Neighbours were also encouraged to police each other through the use of “snitch-lines”, and an expanded state of surveillance was assumed as a new normal. This deepened pre-existing police presence and control in neighbourhoods where more poor, Black, Indigenous, and immigrant communities live.

KW Article Club, a reading group and art collective based in Waterloo Region, informed by work from local and international Black activists and organizers, sought to address these structural inequities in March 2020 through a zine titled #PolicingThePandemic. The following feature is an adapted version of that zine that adds two pieces that delve into the impact policing has on Black people, making a case for why we continue to strive towards a future where we prioritize care instead of enforcement.

This House

Yasmeen Nematt Alla

Listen to Yasmeen talk about working with Textile on the Watershed Writers Podcast. I am leaving this house, moving an hour away, trying to feel like I am worth a beginning,my mother tells me I am bre...

I promise we did not gather

Yasmeen Nematt Alla

When this Eid hits, we know we will spend it alone and at home and it’s fine. My family is safe and together and I am grateful for so much. We make chai and have Eid cookies and there is warmth here...