Tamilness more of a collective? It's a lot of people, it's family, and when I think of like a Western identity it's individual self actualization  make the children study hard, hope everyone is well, you all be well, send a letter, take good care of bavani, aunty how are you, (other woman): I want you to send (child interrupts)some chill powder, that is all, nothing else; (child) I want a pottu;  you can't have a good story without characters with depth, your characters are going to decide how your story is going to move forward. But it's just how the pieces all line up and you get to that point and then they all collide right?   like that's how you show different sides of yourself, to different people in your life and obviously not everyone knows like all sides of you with the pressure of integrating into society they like decided they couldn't tell us specific stories so now it's on the next generation to kind of solve those mysteries and so I guess that's the way I use archive as like a mystery solving tool, filling in some of those gaps like knowing that I wouldn't ever be able to, to understand, I was really interested in the full story, my family stories are always going to be in the back of my mind. They're also stories that are unfolding in real time.   When you're in like a close knit community where you're sharing food, videos, whatever like, think that felt more like how I imagine people who are, who grew up here feel. I am trying to understand like what it means for a person, for a Tamil person to be here. I think that was the first moment I realized, there are kids here, who never really, truly, lived there or they do not that moment I was thinking I'm not the same, diaspora. So I'm trying to understand like what it means for a person a Tamil person to be here, to be amongst other Tamil people who are desperately seeking some kind of connection with home and homeland, and ultimately understanding autonomy as a Tamil person. what aspects of society do I want to participate in? Like I don't want to participate in a Tamil community that's constantly policing oh I'm grieving. You think that it's your duty to take on the pain of all your ancestors, unlike your family and you have to suffer, exactly what your family suffered through because it's like your responsibility and like they did it for you, so now you have to do for them and like. We're also allowed to have like a good life. That's not full of suffering.

remember when

DJ Haram delivers a wide-ranging noise tape for the second installment of her Overdrive mix series.

Tracklist + Interview: https://www.headsknow.party/heads-know-tapes/heads-know-tape-009-dj-haram

HEADS KNOW TAPE 009: DJ Haram

The future remains opaque. Ambiguity on the solutions to our struggles with climate catastrophe, inequality, and suppression only grow. So too, does the discomfort of living through it. Presence feels too difficult to embrace. But in the brief - if not fleeting - moments of stillness, we can hear forgotten pathways, offering guidance. From the land, the stewards, and the vibrations, an invitation always awaits us; to decode the answers in our pasts, to make rituals for our future. Let our breath guide us. Trying is a ritual.

Audio samples included & edited in this artwork include: 

- Waves at the Scarborough Bluffs
- Birds in Birchcliff Village
- Trains at Scarborough Go Station
- Gaagige, Forever, Toujours sung by Margaret Noodin
- C# - Arabhi Carnatic flute performed by Raman Kalyan

Permission to use C# - Arabhi Carnatic flute performed by Raman Kalyan was graciously provided by Anubodh Bansuri. Sample was retrieved from anubodh.com

Gaagige, Forever, Toujours sung by Margarent Noodin was found on Ojibwe.net. Lyrics and translation to the song are below. 

Gaagige maamawizoongide’eyang
Forever we are strong together

Gaagige maamawizoongide’eyang
Forever we are strong together

Daanisag aawiyang shkaakaamikweng
We are daughters of the earth

Daanisag aawiyang mino-gichigaming
We are daughters of the seas

Giizis miinawaa maanidoog zaagiyangidwaa
The sun and the spirits love us

Dibiki-giizis anangokaang zaagiwangidwaa
The moon and the stars love us

Trying is a Ritual

ajith described the mix as follows: "heartbreak or, brain damage. the dissonance of being - unintelligible rhythms, noisy mixing, quick cuts, unmatched bpms, disconnected objects, disparate, desparate, deep deep moments of tenderness."

ajith is a writer & beatmaker from Scarborough.

Presented on our May 14th and 16th 2025 shows as part of the Music Gallery's What Is: heart(break) Festival. Like what you hear? Check out the tracklist on Buy Music Club: https://www.buymusic.club/list/musicgallery-radio-music-gallery-18-ajith-thangavelautham

Radio Music Gallery 18 - ajith

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from community organizer Bill Van Driel. Bill speaks about experiences during the major protests against the G20 in Toronto in relation to the police and legal repression that was experienced by the protesters. Bill contextualizes this moment within a continuum of both protest actions taking place during this period against closed door international summits around the world, largely demonstrations focused on opposing the inherent inequality of capitalism. Also Bill places the repression that protest movements experienced within a realistic framework of understanding these moments of heightened police repression as reflected by media coverage that doesn't focus on the larger systemic mechanisms of social control and repression. 

Today Bill works with Solidarity Across Borders and has played a meaningful role in bridging anti-capitalist and migrant justice organizing spaces. This interview took place within the context of building discussions on the threat posed by a rising political support for the Conservative Party of Canada and what that means for social movements as well as vulnerable communities. 

This interview program is supported in 2025 by the Social Justice Centre at Concordia University. The music track is Passage by Anarchist Mountains. Drawing is about the fence in Toronto during the G20 summit in 2010.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan Christoff and broadcasts on :

CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal - Wednesdays at 11am
CJLO 1690 AM in Montreal - Wednesdays 8am
CKUW 95.9 FM in Winnipeg - Tuesdays 8am
CFRC 101.9FM in Kingston - Wednesdays 11:30am
CFUV 101.9 FM in Victoria - Saturdays 7am
Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto - Fridays at 5:30am
CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa - Tuesdays at 2pm
CJSF 90.1 FM in Vancouver - Thursdays at 4:30pm

266, Bill Van Driel on G20 protests in Toronto and a continuum of repression in Canada

Derailing Dignity Sound Art

The installation Understood/Understand is a meditation on what it means to listen, but not to hear. The blending of incoherent conversations, and metronomic waves asks the question: what care do we lose sight (or sound) of, when caught in the ebbs and flows of oppressive systems? This installation is made up of audio recordings of conversations had with members of the South Etobicoke community, melodized and manipulated by use of digital synthesizers and effects. This art work was a part of a group exhibit titled For all, I care (2021), which examined how existing systems harm or help, exploit or nurture us depending on our social location.

Understood/Understand

JAM PONY EP 1

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remember when

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