Tartan Turban Secret Readings #48
Featuring Silvia Falsaperla (poetry), Humzah Gilani (fiction), Leslie Shimotakahara (fiction), Pushpa Raj Acharya (poetry) and Roger Greenwald (poetry), with Rebekah Wolkstein playing the Hardanger fiddle. Curated by Roger Greenwald. 7–10 pm, Thursday, June 25, 2026, at Barrett and Welsh.
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Silvia Falsaperla has published a hybrid collection of poetry and short stories entitled The Garden of Kolymbethra and Other Poems and Stories about Sicily (Legas Publishing, 2024). A second collection of poetry, Persephone’s Summer, was published in 2025 by Ekstasis Editions. She has also translated a novel from Italian to English, My Bare Face, by Simona Cantelmi (Guernica Editions, 2026).
Humzah Gilani is an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, where he is studying English and Creative Writing. He also studied writing at the University of Siena in Italy. He was born to Pakistani immigrant parents and grew up in Owen Sound and St. Catharines, Ontario. He writes poetry and short fiction, and is interested in the themes of postcolonial identity, loneliness, and queerness. His poems have been published in BrainScramble Magazine, The Hart House Review, and The Trinity Review.
Leslie Shimotakahara is an award-winning author of four novels and a memoir, as well as numerous short fictions and essays. She won the Canada-Japan Literary Prize (2012) and was shortlisted for the K. M. Hunter Artist Award. Her most recent novel, The Breakwater, has been commended by Governor General’s Award finalist Kerri Sakamoto as a “vivid, earthy tale,” and her third novel, Sisters of the Spruce, was praised by Foreword Reviews as “a captivating historical novel.” She holds a PhD in English from Brown University and lives in Toronto with her husband.
Pushpa Acharya is a writer, translator, and literary critic. He has published three poetry collections in Nepali and English: Chaayaakal (Eclipsed Time) in Nepali, Dream Catcher and Drapery of Time in English. He has co-edited Wanderings: An Anthology of Diaspora Anglophone Nepali Poetry and collaborated with two poets and an artist for a collection: Somnio: The Way We See It. He has written screenplays and is currently finishing a documentary film, The Stories of Biryani.
Roger Greenwald attended the City College of New York and the Poetry Project Workshop at St. Mark's Church In-the-Bowery before completing graduate degrees at the University of Toronto. He has published five books of poems, most recently An Opening in the Vertical World (2024), and in 2025, Keener Sounds: A Suite, a book-length sonnet sequence with paintings by Arielle Sandler. In addition to awards for translations from Scandinavian languages, he has won the CBC Literary Award twice (for poetry and travel literature) and the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize from Exile Magazine.
Rebekah Wolkstein is a Toronto-based violinist/ vocalist, bandleader, and composer whose work spans Argentine tango, klezmer, classical music, and swing. She leads Payadora, an acclaimed tango ensemble that reached #1 on the World Music Charts Europe and earned the 2024 Folk Music Ontario Award, as well as coverage on CBC, BBC, NPR, and RTÉ. She was awarded Best Composer at the 2026 Canadian Folk Music Awards for her compositions for the klezmer/swing band Schmaltz & Pepper’s debut album. Rebekah holds a doctorate in violin performance and is a member of the Venuti String Quartet. Rebekah has also written a book called The Legend of Carau, which comes with its own original QR code accessible soundtrack.
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About The Tartan Turban Secret Readings
In good weather, Barrett and Welsh hosts a (not so) “secret" reading series on its rather lovely open-air office rooftop deck or in its large open-concept studio space in Toronto. In winter, our readings migrate online in a virtual reading format that accepts writers from across the country and can be attended from anywhere in the world.
The Tartan Turban Secret Readings feature poetry, drama and prose readings and celebrate Canadian multicultural writing created by IBPOC writers. The idea is to provide a platform for IBPOC writers with few such platforms. At the same time, all writers who want to celebrate Canada’s multiculturalism, literary diversity and Indigenous heritage and have talent to share are welcomed.
Curators change from reading to reading. If you would like to curate an evening, contact Gavin Barrett, who is the series curator.
Tartan Turban Secret Readings are variously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the League of Canadian Poets, The Writers’ Union of Canada and Barrett and Welsh.
Open mic
Anyone attending is welcome to read or perform (if you are a musician) in our limited-room open mic sessions. If you are a writer or musician who would like to perform in the open mic session, we ask that you listen in to at least one session to get the flavour of the evening and join in on your next visit. To participate in TTSR #48, please contact Roger Greenwald at [email protected] or series curator Gavin Barrett by the 18th of June 2026. This allows us to line up open mic readers and manage the evening in a way that respects each writer's work. These are first-come, first-served spots, and at this reading we have room for a maximum of eight readers.
The ambience at our readings is intimate, extremely informal and very supportive. Open mic readers are given 4 minutes in total, including a brief introduction to themselves and their work. Detailed open mic guidelines are posted in our FB group.
Open mic readers who have published works they would like to offer for sale are free to mention these upon finishing their readings.
Smile, you'll be on camera The sessions are photographed, filmed and streamed on FB/YouTube live and recordings will eventually be posted on YouTube and the series website. Please be aware that by attending this event, you agree to be photographed and/or filmed and give permission to use your likeness in promotional and/or marketing materials.
About Barrett and Welsh
Barrett and Welsh is a minority-owned, creativity-powered, change-making advertising and branding agency that puts ideas first to make ideas last. A certified B Corporation, it uses design and advertising to create access and inclusion for racialized minorities and persons with disabilities.
Accessibility Barrett and Welsh donates its beautiful open-concept office space as a venue for the readings, but the offices are on the top floor of an old townhouse that was converted, pre-AODA, into the more modern office building it is today. Unfortunately, this means the office is not wheelchair-accessible as there is no elevator and the stairs are fairly steep. We do our best to accommodate anyone with mobility needs, but this is mainly limited to helping them up the stairs or carrying assistive devices up for them. If anyone attending is hearing-impaired and lets us know in advance, we can arrange for the pieces being read by the featured writers (if they consent) to be projected. We also live-stream each reading to make each session accessible to audience members who cannot attend in person.
About the series co-curators
Gavin Barrett is the series curator of the Tartan Turban Secret Readings, which he co-founded with the late Mayank Bhatt in 2017.
Mayank Bhatt's novel Belief was published in 2016 by Mawenzi House. The novel explores youth radicalization and alienation and the impact of terrorism on a family in the context of the failure of the immigration and settlement framework in Canada. Trachea, his collection of short stories was published posthumously in 2025 by Mawenzi House. Mayank Bhatt immigrated to Toronto in 2008 from Mumbai (Bombay), where he worked as a journalist. His short stories have been published in TOK 5: Writing the New Toronto and Canadian Voices II. In Canada, he worked as a security guard, as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and as an organizer for the Festival of South Asian Literature and Art. He lived in Toronto with his family and passed away after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2022.
Gavin Barrett is a poet, creative entrepreneur, and the author of a collection of poems titled Understan (Mawenzi House, 2020), a CBC Books recommendation. He was born in Bombay and lived in Hong Kong for several years before immigrating to Canada. Gavin’s poetry has been published in Reasons for Belonging (Viking Penguin India), an anthology of 14 Indian poets; The Joao Roque Literary Journal; the Pen India journal; The Folio; The Independent (Bombay); The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad; and Poiesis, the Bombay Poetry Circle journal. He was a contributing writer to This|ability, a book on Canada’s art brut and outsider artists. He is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of idea consultancy and brand advertising agency Barrett and Welsh. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Canadian Authors Association (Toronto), PEN Canada and is EDI co-chair of The League of Canadian Poets.