Mustafa

Mustafa is a Sudanese-Canadian hip-hop and folk artist. Mustafa has used his musical platform to condemn genocide.

After writing an open letter urging former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to show support for Gaza, Mustafa organized two Artists for Aid benefit concerts. Ticket sale proceeds from the first concert went to Human Concern International, a Canadian organization that provides humanitarian aid to Gaza and Sudan. The second concert raised money for War Child UK’s work in Gaza and Sudan.

“In the last few years I visited both my homeland, Sudan, & Palestine. My visit to both had a principal intention, to connect with artist communities, with young organizers — for parallels of sorrow and hope and faith,” he said in his message announcing the first Artists for Aid.

“The violence in both nations seized the dream. Here it is revived for me in some way. The intention remains, on this evening we give our voices to make room for theirs.”

Nemahsis

Palestinian-Canadian artist Nemahsis had her recording contract terminated in October of 2023 after she shared pro-Palestinian content on social media. She spent the next few months trying to find a label to distribute her debut album. The only offer that she received fell through.

Nemahsis and her team then made the decision to release two singles, “you wore it better” and “stick of gum” independently. The “Stick of Gum” music video was filmed in her family’s hometown of Jericho, Palestine.

“We want to show Palestine in a light that has never been seen,” she said to Q’s Tom Power about the “Stick of Gum” music video. “Some people didn’t even know Palestine existed until October, and now we want to show them in a way where we’re humanized again.”

Leith Ross

Leith Ross is a Winnipeg-based singer-songwriter who is originally from Manotick, a neighbourhood in Ontario just south of Ottawa, that they described as “conservative and cut-off” to NME. Ross’ 2020 project Motherwell explored their feelings about identity, belonging and coming out as trans non-binary.

Their 2023 debut album, To Learn, was inspired by the safe community they found in Winnipeg after isolating years in Toronto as a student at Humber Polytechnic (then called Humber College). Ross’ passion for community carried over to their 2025 album I Can See The Future, particularly the album’s title track.

“It refers to this depth of understanding about the world that then allows you to believe that the world is good or will be good,” they said to The Line of Best Fit. “And, maybe, that belief extends to you as an individual knowing that you are doing your best and that you deserve to live and continue to try to do your best.”

Debby Friday

Debby Friday is a Toronto-based Nigerian-Canadian electronic artist who uses music to tackle the nuances of being both Black and 2SLGBTQIA+.

She spent most of her childhood moving around Montreal and shared in an interview with RANGE that the city’s grit and social intermingling have shaped her context.

In an interview with Loud And Quiet, she said that her music is aggressive because she exists in a world that is aggressive towards her Black and 2SLGBTQIA+ identities and her body.

“There is a whole stigma around being an angry queer black woman. I’m just really tired of it, it’s very un-nuanced,” she said. “The energy I have in my music is about not being afraid to embody that confrontation.”

Although Friday feels the weight of the realities of oppression, she still feels the need to challenge it by not conforming to society’s rules about what a Black woman should act or sound like.

“Change is a violent force. It doesn’t often happen quietly or nicely. It’s what brought the universe into being, it’s what allows society to progress. It’s an aggressive force,” she said to Loud And Quiet.

“The energy I have in my music is about not being afraid to embody that aggression. The things that come up in our cultural artefacts are just a reflection of what is going on in our collective consciousness. I’m aggressive about changing the world, I’m not going to apologise for that.”

CEC

CEC is a Winnipeg-based artist whose music blends genre (R&B and jazz) and language (English and Spanish).

Their passion for helping underrepresented artists inspired them to create The Clubhouse alongside Canadian indie-pop artist Lana Winterhalt. The Clubhouse is a studio and community hub in Winnipeg that provides training for women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

In 2025, CEC was chosen as one of seven producers for the Women in the Studio National Accelerator hosted by Music Publishers Canada. The program helps Canadian women and non-binary producers with their branding, financial literacy and technical skills.

When talking to The Manitoban about the program’s uniqueness, CEC acknowledged how difficult it is to find producers and engineers that aren’t men.“It’s really interesting and important that there are programs like this every year that happen, to specifically train women and non-binary people,” they said to The Manitoban. “Every year, there’s a new cohort of six or seven professionally trained producers that come out of it.”

The post Five Canadian artists who play the music of social change appeared first on rabble.ca.

All Hookers Go To Heaven by Angel B.H.

All Hookers Go To Heaven is a fiction novel by Nova Scotia-born writer Angel B.H. The novel follows Mag, a sex worker from a rural Eastern Canadian town, as she navigates Purity Culture, sexuality, faith, and financial insecurity. Mag questions her conservative upbringing after she develops feelings for another girl while attending an Evangelical Missionary program for youth.

Praise for All Hookers Go To Heaven

“At once fearless and tender, this book is a sex worker heroine’s journey that shimmers with beauty, longing, fierce intelligence, emotional complexity, and bursts of wry humor,” said Chinese-Canadian writer Kai Cheng Thom. “At the heart of this deeply absorbing novel is an unforgettable protagonist whose search for the sacred within herself in a world that routinely dehumanizes and devalues sex workers is sure to linger in readers’ hearts.”  

Crooked Teeth by Danny Ramadan

Crooked Teeth is a memoir by Syrian-Canadian author Danny Ramadan. In this rejection of an oversimplified refugee narrative, Ramadan invites readers into his nuanced journey as a queer refugee. Crooked Teeth explores Damascus, Syria’s underground network of queer safe homes, the Arab Spring uprisings throughout the Middle East, and continuous threats against Syria’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Praise for Crooked Teeth

“I take my hat off to Danny Ramadan and his brilliant muses. This is a mesmerizing story of growing up gay in a Muslim Syrian family, of the challenges and joys of finding and creating loving communities, and the miracle not just of physical survival but of an effervescent celebration of the human heart,” said renowned Canadian novelist Lawrence Hill. “Once I began reading, I couldn’t stop until the final page. Countless others will be thankful for this raw, idiosyncratic, utterly compelling account of Danny’s long journey home.” 

The Regulation of Desire by Gary Kinsman

The Regulation of Desire is a 2SLGBTQ+ book written by Toronto-born sociologist Gary Kinsman. At the time of its initial publication in 1987, The Regulation of Desire was recognized as the first book-length study of Canada’s sexual regulation. In the third edition of the text (published in 2024), Kinsman analyzes the role that Indigenous liberation and police and prison abolition have in 2SLGBTQIA+ politics.

Praise for The Regulation of Desire

“The 3rd edition of Regulation of Desire by Gary Kinsman is a brilliant, thoughtful and captivating text. It is one that offers us insight into his process of uncovering and disrupting the discourses and practices of whiteness, homonormativity, capitalism and neoliberalism of the contemporary white queer movement in Canada,” said University of Toronto professor Beverly Bain.

“In this new edition, Kinsman reveals how the social organizing of forgetting has worked to subvert the histories of organizing by Black, racialized, queer, trans and two-spirited people. He endeavors to address these erasures by centering the most recent revolts and uprisings by Black and Indigenous and Two-Spirit Peoples.”

a body more tolerable by jaye simpson

a body more tolerable is a poetry collection by Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer writer jaye simpson. In a body more tolerable, simpson explores female rage, trans identity, sexuality and Indigenous grief through a series of visceral poems.

Praise for a body more tolerable

“jaye simpson’s a body more tolerable is a singular achievement. Her poetic project, at once forward-dawning and ancestral, both revolutionary and decolonizing, is given total expression in this book,” said Cree poet Billy-Ray Belcourt.

“These poems moved me immensely; there is so much beauty, feeling, and power in all of them. No one is writing like jaye simpson.”

Perfect Little Angels by Vincent Anioke

Perfect Little Angels is a story collection by Nigerian-Canadian writer Vincent Anioke. Set predominantly in Nigeria, the characters in Anioke’s Perfect Little Angels are used as a vehicle to explore themes of self-expression, religion, masculinity, marginalization and 2SLGBTQ+ identity.

Praise for Perfect Little Angels

“The stories in Perfect Little Angels are, by turns, scathing, brilliant, and incredibly compelling. Anioke’s characters wade through startling and at times violent circumstances with tender humanity; they grapple with the harsh consequences of unforgiving traditions and defiant desires,” said Nigerian-Canadian writer and director francesca ekwuyasi.

“With striking lyricism and unexpected plot twists, Perfect Little Angels is deeply moving and thoroughly enjoyable.”

The post Here are five Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ books to celebrate Pride Month. appeared first on rabble.ca.