Where is The Handmaid’s Tale Filmed?
^{(Cambridge, Ontario)}

Season six of The Handmaid's Tale premiered this week. The TV show based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel has never been more relevant given the current political climate. Everyone recognizes the scarlet red cloak and white bonnet but not many realize that The Handmaid's Tale is filmed in Cambridge, Ontario. More than 10 Cambridge locations double as the backdrop of Gilead. Use the City of Cambridge Handmade’s Tale map to help you hunt down all the locales. Walk the floodwalls of the Cambridge's Grand River where the bodies of executed Gileadeans are put on display. Shop at the Cambridge Farmers market which doubles as the sparsely stocked handmaid's grocery store. 

Curated Canada tip: Getting to Cambridge from Toronto is a breeze on the GoBus however it aint cheap. The two-hour ride can cost upwards of $20 during the week. Time your visit for a weekend when you can ride the Go system unlimted for $10 a day.

The Weird Obsession With Ukrainian Sushi
^{(Across Canada)}

This next piece will be an affront to every sushi purist out there who prefers nothing more than the clean, natural flavours of rice and fish. My curiosity about Ukrainian-style sushi started after reading a New York Times article about a restaurant in the Ukraine that has changed its menu to keep up with demand during the Ukraine/Russia war. First, what is Ukrainian sushi? It's basically different versions of Philadelphia Rolls. However, the cream cheese is in the centre and whatever fish, be it salmon, eel or herring, is wrapped on the outside. The rice has an ever so slight note of citrus than the usual vinegar, oof.

Where to get it? In Edmonton, there's Ester Sushi in the downtown core. I am working up the courage to try the strawberry eel roll. Sushi Me SD is the slightly cheaper option in northside Edmonton. Winnipeg's first Ukrainian sushi spot Sushi Point is located on Portage Avenue. And even in Vancouver where competition is fierce, Ukrainian-sushi spots like Vanlove Sushi & More are flourishing. Time will tell if Ukrainian sushi is on a roll to success in Canada.

Take a Free Tour of Government House
^{(Edmonton, Alberta)}

Every Sunday from 11am to 4pm, Edmonton's Government House located in the Glenora neighbourhood offers free guided tours of the stately home once used as a residence for the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, the Queen's representative. It hasn't been a working home for decades but the government does hold the occasional meeting and entertains visiting dignitaries there like John Paul II. The tour is a textbook lesson in Alberta politics with a smatter of social commentary. Even more impressive is the collection of Canadian art focusing on Alberta. Countless Group of Seven paintings, Frederick Verner original bison paintings and Alex Janvier abstracts hang on the walls of this three-storey building. While the art may be a bit old-school for most, Government House ranks up there as one of the best art collections on display in Edmonton, and it's free. God bless the Queen.

THE THROUPLE

3 Summer Music Festivals That’ll Make You Sing

THE INTERVIEW

Black to the Future
^{(Edmonton, Alberta)}

[This is the last week to see Building Black Civilizations at the Art Gallery of Alberta so we’re revisiting Curious Canada’s very first interview with Ekow Nimako.]

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Ghanaian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako presents Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships at the Art Gallery of Alberta (Jan 18 - April 13). The exhibition is a series of futuristic African kingdoms built from black Lego pieces. Ahead of Saturday’s opening at the AGA, Ekow Nimako talks to Curious Canada about the creative process and medieval history revisited.
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Why Lego? And why black Lego? Are there challenges to working with Lego?

I decided to focus on using LEGO elements in my practice mainly because it was the material I knew how to use best above all. I'd experimented with metal, wood, ceramics, and other general plastics in art school, but none had the appeal and simplicity of facility as LEGO parts. You don't need machinery or a kiln, or blow torches to build with LEGO parts, and I was severely lacking in resources when I began. Black is my favourite colour, it contains everything and nothing simultaneously, and when it comes to the LEGO Group's colour palette black is the most versatile colour with the most diversity. Most importantly, using black allows me to make work that boldly asserts the cultural and ethnic identity of my subject matter. All material has challenges, for me accessing discontinued parts is becoming the most difficult. But my partnership with the LEGO Group has been helpful, and may yield some interesting perks down the line.

How and when did you learn about the voyage of Mansa Abu Bakr II, and what is it that intrigued you about it?

My wife and muse actually informed me about Abu Bakr's journey and I became instantly fascinated. I think the most significant part is that it was the first time I'd heard of an African, Black, Muslim, monarch who became a historic sea-farer and adventurer. And one that abdicated his throne to do so. My work is often informed by history, though I prefer to blend speculative historical narratives with Afrofuturistic musings so I am not beholden to academic or historical accuracy. Part of my joy as an artist is that I am not a historian. Facts are significant, but not as significant as telling a good story. Especially when the story gives life to marginalized characters and ideas.

In recent years, movies like Black Panther and Wakanda propelled Afrofuturism into mainstream American culture, but the movement has been around for hundreds of years. How does your Afrofuturistic artwork directly impact the modern world around us?

I like to think that my work helps us imagine liberated futures, since so often they can be hard to see. The civil rights movement, Haitian rebellion, and all the colonial resistance movements were absolutely instrumental to our survival and freedom. But to this day our people are still enslaved, exploited, disenfranchised, and deprived of basic rights, in this country and countries around the world. Just look at the plight of agricultural migrant workers in Canada, or the active slave trade in Libya, or how domestic care workers are treated in Lebanon. Afrofuturism allows us to dream beyond our current circumstances and in my case, provides visual inspiration to achieve these complex societal and technological aspirations to help us all thrive.

The Black experience on the Prairies dates back to the early 18th century yet much of these stories are excluded from Alberta's educational curriculum. What role is there for artists to influence history?

I think these stories through art can always be found if you dig deep enough. Artists emerge in every community, especially oppressed communities, though you are right in that they do not get represented in mainstream provincial and federal educational systems and histories. This is why we must always advocate for change in these areas whenever possible. And those of us in positions to shed light on these disparities must continue to do so in whichever ways are feasible. Artists can and do influence history, but we must also influence our interpersonal groups and families too. Small conversations become larger ones the more we have them.
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What do you want visitors to walk away thinking or feeling from this exhibition?

I want visitors to begin to shift their ideas and associations of Africans and oceanic ships from stories of enslavement, to stories of adventure and scientific discovery that is not based on conquest or colonial power dynamics. I want them to see that Black learned muslims from the continent existed and thrived outside of the Arab world (which many don't know enslaved indigenous Africans for much longer than the European slave trade). I want to transmit notions of hope and wonder, and Afrofuturistic inspiration for all.

Any typos in this newsletter are the fault of my own.