His debut collection weaves a Palestinian perspective into the narrative, offering a nuanced portrayal of characters navigating the challenging terrain of dual identities.

By Nageen Riaz

Her First Palestinian earned finalist honors in the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers's Trust Fiction Prize and secured a spot on the shortlist for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize (Caelan Monkman/CanCulture)

Canadian immigrants and those who have experienced displacement are intimately familiar with the feelings of loss, betrayal and helplessness. For some, the struggle to feel at home between two worlds can prove to be a difficult battle, and becomes one which feels more like a purging of their old life rather than a journey to build a new one.

Over the course of his career, Toronto-based lawyer and writer Saeed Teebi has become all too familiar with these emotions. His debut short story collection, Her First Palestinian, offers readers a Palestinian-Canadian perspective for understanding the complex feelings of anxiety, pain and guilt that come with witnessing injustice in your homeland from an ocean away.

The nine stories within the pages of Her First Palestinian candidly portray the historical reality of Israeli violence, but refuse to succumb to a narrative dominated entirely by victimhood or a sense of suffering. Instead, characters are presented as doctors, professors and lawyers who live ‘full’ lives with their families and loved ones. Teebi ensures his characters do not conform to the stereotypes associated with being Palestinian and allows his stories to showcase the complex personalities that go beyond just a nationality. Characters are self-aware of their careful decision not to appear too loud, expressive or angry, as these emotions may automatically label them as the “typical Arab.” Instead, readers are invited to witness the inner workings of these characters as they recognize their own desperate helplessness through the direct and confessional first-person narration.

Still, Teebi does not turn a blind eye to the invisible string that attaches each person to their homeland. Each of the characters, who are Palestinians living in Canada, experience remorse and fear in their day-to-day lives in a variety of ways as they attempt to navigate a hostile world, often at the expense of their beliefs and duty to their Palestinian community. Moreover, by referencing recent world affairs, with some plots touching on the impact of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, Teebi creates a sense of homogenous relatability, regardless of the reader's personal proximity to the Palestinian resistance.

Her First Palestinian brilliantly reflects the Palestinian community within Canada, commenting on every emotion, action — or lack thereof — and every heartwarming interaction that truly defines its people. With each story comes new characters, new problems, new twists and new emotions, making Her First Palestinian impossible to put down. Coming in at just over 200 pages, the book keeps readers on the edge of their seats as they try to keep up with the frustrations, happiness and heartbreak that washes over them with each narrative.

In the wide world of Canadian literature, Her First Palestinian stands as a complex, intricately crafted piece of fiction — explorative, confident and struck by the harsh realities of immigrant life: A father who refuses to carry the burden of his people, a lonely college student desperate to impress his roommates, a grandfather on the hunt for his lost love, a professor realizing his identity strips him of his rights, an entrepreneur that does the unthinkable for the sake of his family. Teebi beautifully blends the line between the desire to start a new life elsewhere and finding comfort in belonging to a place where resistance and hope will always persevere.

Her First Palestinian was a finalist for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers’s Trust Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize. The book is making waves in literary circles and offers a voice for the stories that often go unheard and unrepresented. Journalists adhering to CBC’s recent language guide are not permitted to refer to Palestine as a country or show a map of Palestine, but, through Teebi’s narratives of Palestinians trying to exist in a world that seems to work against them, the landscape of Canadian literature shifts to dismantle these barriers, guard towers and checkpoints.

Readers can find a copy of Her First Palestinian at most libraries, including the Toronto Public Library and the Toronto Metropolitan University campus library. The book is also available for purchase on the House of Anansi Press website, the publication house that first released the collection in 2022.

Canadian poet, rapper and spoken word artist Humble the Poet writes on the plurality and deep implications of love

By: Harleen Grewal

*Humble the Poet’s How to be Love(d) was published at the end of 2022. (Harleen Grewal/CanCulture)*

How to be Love(d) is about engulfing yourself within love, around love and “being love,” an act that Toronto artist and author Kanwer Singh, commonly known as Humble the Poet, described as the action of wholeheartedly immersing oneself in love. To love and be love, one has to unlearn past ideas of love that are commonly influenced by the media and culture.

Humble writes that love is the single source, when mastered, that harnesses unconditional love, but we often seek it from external sources rather than looking within ourselves. We busy ourselves with fulfilling the pressures set by others rather than meditating on what would bring us internal happiness.

Self-love isn’t selfish nor can it only be achieved through weekly self-care routines and techniques. The way I see it, self-care is a form of self-love that requires daily commitment and the practice of prioritizing yourself, learning about yourself and loving all versions of yourself, including past, present and future.

Humble explains the love you share is influenced by how actively you love yourself. In his book, he ties this to how a better understanding of love has evolved him and his relationships.

He works through his past experiences of love to enlighten us of his growth and how these changes could be applied to our lives. “To experience love, we have to let go,” he writes.

Letting go is the first step to allow love to resurface. By letting go of all that harvests us, in directions opposite to the consumption of love, we are better able to redefine what love is. We can redefine, reimagine and rework what love is and how it fits in our present.

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To reimagine past loves, past experiences of trauma and hurt require mending. Humble shares a story about reconnecting with his immigrant parents. In the past he prioritized his love language — words of affirmation — and expected love to be returned in the same way. Upon reflection, he began to understand that acts of service was how his parents shared their love and he developed a deeper appreciation for them, seeing them as people before parents.

The disconnection often felt between children and parents, where different ideologies are likely to clash as children begin to discover their selfhood and ways of being, could constitute this indifference. However, as adults we hold the power of revisiting these memories to heal the love we hold towards others and ourselves and formulate secure identities.

As the firstborn of immigrant parents, this reading allowed me to connect with my family through a new perspective on love. The disconnect between both generations could easily intensify and spiral into despair if neither party tries to understand the other. Children crave love and their ideas of love are often influenced by mainstream media and dominant western ideologies, which may not fit adult needs. Children follow the cues they witness, and the difference in immigrant parenting and cultural norms from the West lead to negotiating identities and feelings in-between two spaces.

By understanding human flaws and the added responsibilities of parents, especially those navigating new countries, we need to forgive past examples of what we thought was love and create new dialogues and actions of love. As adults we need to reflect on these voids and reevaluate childhood memories and feelings.

Our parents are our first loves, the first humans we bond with, a connection that often lasts a lifetime, but sometimes they may not be the best examples of what love is. As Humble poetically reflects: “that’s a part of being human. The love we hold for others, ourselves and the definition of love all evolve with time and growth”. By truly loving ourselves, we are able to love others and allow others to love us. He writes, “Love is to act on it, receive it and service it.”

As we live, we learn to understand how the power of love transforms our being. How to be Love(d) presents the plurality of love: to love beings, being loved and “being love.” To forget what love once meant and begin to learn what love is and can be is necessary to see the beauty and humanity within the world. How to be Love(d) is an inspiring, courageous telling about love, one that reawakened my inner child. I reflect on this as I create a collage of my childhood pictures to recontextualize my childhood memories, childhood and prioritize the little girl who just wanted to be loved.

Humble the Poet is a Canadian artist, rapper, spoken word poet, former Toronto elementary school teacher and an international best-selling author. He is the mastermind behind Unlearn, Things No One Can Teach Us and his 2022 release - How to be Love(d): Simple Truths for Going Easier on Yourself, Embracing Imperfection and Loving Your Way to a Better Life.