Note to listeners: this is part of 1 of 2 from my conversation with Kanwal. In this conversation, Kanwal shares her challenges as a child and young adult as her family was constantly traveling due to her father’s work. She then talks about her journey to healing and wholeness began with writing poetry and deep immersion into dance.

A daughter of the Indus River and the Sindhu peoples, Kanwal works and plays at the intersection of theatre, sustainable community-building and meditative arts where she strives to understand how stories shape human relationships, resilience and r/evolutions.

Raised in Pakistan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Canada, her artistic explorations reflect her nomadic and multidimensional upbringing.  She is a graduate of Second City’s program in Improvisational Comedy and Spoken Word at OCAD.  

Drawing on her diverse experiences in movement and performing arts, Kanwal continues to explore body wisdom practices, healing modalities, ayurveda and plant medicine traditions to deepen awareness and connection, with a focus on honouring the integrity of the mental, emotional, physical, creative and spiritual layers of the body.

Kanwal has graced many stages in Toronto including Sound Poets Circle, SpeakOut, South Asia Calling Festival, Brave: Festival of Risk & Failure, Canadian Women’s Foundation and the Feminist Art Conference.  Her poetry has appeared in From the Root and The Living Hyphen magazines. She is working on her first digital audio-visual storytelling project interweaving memoir, poetry, dance calligraphy and photo meditations.

Contact Kanwal at kanwal_rahim@hotmail.com