Mf Galaxy

Art and activism—should they be friends? Hanging together like Kirk and Spock, Crockett and Tubbs, or Laverne and Shirley? Or should they be enemies like Luke Cage and Cotton Mouth, Avatar Aang and the Fire Lord, or Donald Trump and most of humanity? Some people say that art and politics should never mix. Other people say that they always mix—but that people only protest those politics when they disagree with them. So if that's true, what happens to society when people who define themselves as advocates and activists combine their views and ideas with their novels, paintings, plays, and more? Those are questions that novelist SG Wong wanted answered. Wong is the inaugural featured writer of Capital City Press, a venture by the Edmonton Public Library. Wong is the creator of the Lola Starke hardboiled detective series set in Crescent City, California, in an alternate history in which China colonised North America. She's also an Arthur Ellis Award-finalist and a tireless organiser in Edmonton's literary scene.