 Two Tricksters Find Friendship, Whale Tale with Grant Lawrence, and the life of Judi Singh at DOXANXNW Apr. 26/27, 2025 | Welcome to the NXNW newsletter! Hope you had an excellent Easter break. We've got a great show with cinematic sights and oceanic sounds coming this weekend. Johnny Aitken and Jess Willows share their new children's book, navigating friendship, CBC's Grant Lawrence kicks off his new West Coast orca series, and Baljit Sangra previews her documentary on singer Judi Singh, premiering at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.
Looking for something from a past show? Check out our CBC Listen page. | | | Coming up on NXNW this weekend: | | | Saturday |  | April 26 marks Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. Laura Carter is the executive director of the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association, and she joins us to talk about how we can celebrate those local bookshops making an impact in their communities. | | | | | April 26 also marks International Organ Day. Organist Sandra Fletcher explains what the instrument means to her and how the Central Okanagan United Church is welcoming people to give the instrument a try on Saturday from 1-3 p.m. | | | | | Elder Johnny Aitken and author Jess Willows talk about capturing the joy, magic and challenges of friendship with their new children’s book, Two Tricksters Find Friendship, illustrated by Alyssa Koski and published by Orca. | | | | | CBC's Grant Lawrence kicks off a brand new weekly series called Whale Tale, which follows a family of orcas in Desolation Sound and a mystery that dates back over 50 years. | | | | | Filmmaker Baljit Sangra brings us her new documentary about the life and legacy of pioneering Punjabi Black jazz singer Judi Singh. Have You Heard Judi Singh? has its world premiere at the DOXA Film Festival on May 4. | | | | | Sunday | | | What are voters thinking about in the final days of the federal election? CBC's Dionne Codrington checks in with us: she visited a cafe near Montreal to hear what people are saying. | | | | | Jonathan Berkowitz joins us to examine Canadian English and its many nuances - celebrating his 100th Word Guy column on NXNW! | | | | | Food historian and Cravings columnist Lenore Newman gives us a lesson on brassica, a genus of plants in the mustard and cabbage family, including foods like broccoli and cauliflower. | | | | | Cree writer and UBC assistant professor Dallas Hunt reads from the pages of Teeth, his new poetry collection reflecting on grief, colonialism, and what it means to love. | | | | | | | | | | | Welcoming Helen Wu | | | We'd also like to give a warm welcome to Helen Wu, an accomplished musician and UBC journalism student who will intern at our show for the next five weeks. Glad to have you on NXNW, Helen! | | |  | Helen beside the NXNW's studio piano. | | | | | | | Have You Heard Judi Singh? | | | Judi Singh was an Edmonton-born, Punjabi Black singer who first stepped into the Canadian jazz scene in the late 1950s. Though her ethereal voice captivated musicians and niche audiences, the music industry failed to give her the recognition she deserved — an all-too-familiar story for women and artists of colour.
Award-winning filmmaker Baljit Sangra joins us to talk about how she's re-introducing the late artist, with the help of Singh's daughter, Emily Hughes, in a new documentary, making its world premiere at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.
Have You Heard Judi Singh? premieres at Vancouver's VIFF Centre on Sunday, May 4 at 5:00 p.m. PT. Baljit Sangra will also host a masterclass that same day, taking place at the SFU Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre at 12 p.m. PT. | | |  | Baljit Sangra in the NXNW studio. | | | | | | | Two Tricksters Find Friendship | | | Elder Johnny Aitken is a storyteller and activist of Coast Salish, Scottish and Haida ancestry. Jess Willows is an educator with a long career on the Gulf Islands and is currently pursuing a PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Victoria. They both live on Mayne Island, where Jess is a teacher. These friends join us to talk about their new children's book, Two Tricksters Find Friendship, illustrated by Alyssa Koski.
Two Tricksters Find Friendship is being celebrated at the Orca Book Publishers Spring Launch, taking place at Munro's Books in Victoria on Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m. They've also got a launch on Mayne Island on May 18 at the Mayne Island Library. | | |  | The front cover of Two Tricksters Find Friendship. | | | | | | | In case you missed it... | | | Last week on NXNW, Vancouver writer Meredith Hambrock joined us to talk about She's A Lamb!, her darkly comic new novel that follows a struggling actress and her delusional dream to lead in a production of The Sound of Music.
Stream this interview on CBC Listen, or read more about Meredith Hambrock on CBC. | | | | | Thanks for listening! | Have comments or suggestions you'd like to share? Email us!
The NXNW Team | | | | | |
