In residency with his new creation Invisibles, Rakesh Sukesh—the artist behind because i love the diversity, this micro-attitude we all have it (PuSh 2024)—confronts the brutal realities of the Kafala system, which has enabled modern-day slavery across parts of the Middle East. Drawing from his own family’s history, he interlaces visceral movement, stark statistics, and documentary theatre to reveal the human cost of economic migration and to ask urgent questions about whose lives and suffering we choose to value. Sukesh weaves ritual dance and funeral song from the Tamil-Nadu region in India into a powerful meditation on grief, dignity, and remembrance.

Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “among modern music’s most compelling vocalists,” ganavya is a boundary-defying artist whose voice and vision transcend genre. For her Vancouver debut at the Chan Centre, she performs music from Nilam—a luminous new work that coalesces lullaby, poetry, and prayer into powerful, poignant music.

Fans of Kiran Desai’s work have been eagerly awaiting a new novel for nearly 20 years. Her 2006 book, The Inheritance of Loss, won both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Masterpieces take time, and it was undeniably worth waiting for The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, which has once again earned her a nomination for The Booker Prize.

Declared “the coolest rock star in the world right now” by UNCUT, and known for her arresting mix of jazz, pop, blues, folk, and Urdu poetry, Arooj Aftab is a Grammy-winning and seven-time Grammy nominated artist. In 2022, she became the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy for Best Global Music Performance for “Mohabbat”.

A master of microtonal singing, Sethi’s music is a rich fusion of traditional qawwali, ghazals, and modern innovation. Following “Pasoori,” he collaborated with electronic producer Nicolás Jaar on Intiha, a “moving tribute to the multiplicity of identity,” (Pitchfork) which premiered to a sold-out crowd at the Chan Centre in November 2024.

Arundhati Roy speaks with award-winning journalist, author and activist—as well as her longtime friend—Naomi Klein, about her latest book and her work to date, the intricacies of thorny love, and living on the frontlines of humanism.