A text originally published in edition 12 of Four Minutes to Midnight, launched in November at Expozine in Montreal. Ideas expressed in this article largely are linked to and inspire the work of the Howl! arts collective in Montreal.

In Montreal, art is a key element of the intensely complex collective identity that stretches across this beautiful island city.

CULTURES OF RESISTANCE: Does each gesture really make a difference? Can music and dance be weapons of peace? In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change.

Don Garb takes you on a wild trip into evolutionary biology, synesthesia, gestalt psychology, the nature of truth, finally ending up at the peak of Metaphor Mountain where logic meets irrationality. You will never change the world the same way again!

All of us have the mental machinery to create new ideas. In some the parts work correctly and they're very good at inventing. Other people haven't got a clue. In this lecture we explain how it's done, from cramming with data, to meditating, and finally conjuring forth the burst of inspiration. No matter what level of creative expertise you are at you will benefit from learning these techniques.

On March 22, filmmaker Ali Kazimi was surprised to see a copyrighted image from one of his films opening a Conservative Party television commercial, Tim -- South Asian, targeting Canada's South Asian community -- without Mr. Kazimi's permission. The party continues to run the ad notwithstanding the filmmaker's repeated requests for the image to be withdrawn.

The image in question is a unique photo-montage based on two archival photographs documenting the infamous Komagata Maru incident of 1914, in which racial discrimination was explicitly used to bar South Asians from entering Canada. This photo-montage was designed by Mr. Kazimi as the publicity still for his 2004 award-winning feature documentary about the Komagata Maru, entitled Continuous Journey.

Montreal album launch for Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah

$8 in advance | $10 at door

performances from

Rafeef Ziadah

Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian spoken word artist who recently released her debut album Hadeel in 2009 with grant support from the Ontario Arts Council. Rafeef Ziadah's spoken word performances are rooted in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and the key role that performance poetry has played in addressing struggles for social justice around the world. In parallel to artist work Ziadah is actively involved in the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Toronto and the Toronto Palestine Film Festival.

Kaie Kellough

Montreal hip-hop ensemble Nomadic Massive has come into focus for many in the city searching for a cultural expression of solidarity with Haitian earthquake victims.

Montreal is home to the largest Haitian diaspora population in Canada. A city-wide wave of artistic solidarity with Haiti was mobilized in the hours after the quake hit; hundreds of artists and cultural workers have taken to stages and to the airwaves appealing for people to support relief efforts.

Among them was Nomadic Massive, who launched Artists for Haiti, aiming to extend the current outpouring of support towards long-term solidarity projects led by artists focused on Haiti.

In Saskatchewan, long-present landmarks and sacred objects can be found alongside the trappings of contemporary life: buffalo rubbing stones, tipi rings and medicine caches reside a few kilometres from recently-built cities. The interplay of past and present, on the land and within people, is the subject of Saskatchewan-based artist and art history professor Mary Longman's art and research.

Robert Edmonds is nailing his memories to the wall.

The artist, designer and Main Street fixture hangs the last of the frames of his Fragments in RPM exhibition in Vancouver's Public Lounge Eatery then pours himself a beer. Dozens of moments in music look down on him. It's the first of his solo exhibits in a while, but he's quietly excited about it. He doesn't do solo stuff much.

Fragments in RPM is comprised of screenprinted impressions of vinyl, and in their centres, Edmonds has placed fragments of gig posters he's designed over the past few years. Gomez, Hot Hot Heat, Franz Ferdinand, Flaming Lips, REM, Queens of the Stone Age and Warren Zevon all jam among them.