About

Our guest on the show this week is a queer, trans-feminine, Muslim playwright, performer and workshop facilitator BILAL BAIG. Their first play ACHA BACHA, had its world premiere in 2018 and it has been published by Playwrights Canada Press. Bilal develops and facilitates workshops for youth in under-resourced neighbourhoods in Toronto, at non-profits, such as RIVERS OF HOPE where they combat Islamophobia through the arts and STORY PLANET which focuses on creative writing and literacy. Bilal makes queerstory by becoming the first queer, trans-feminine, South Asian and Muslim performer in Canada to be cast in the lead role of a primetime TV series - on the new groundbreaking CBC and HBO Max original series SORT OF. They are starring as one of the first non-binary lead characters on North American mainstream network TV! Bilal leads the creative charge as the Executive Producer-Writer-Lead Performer-Co-Creator on this amazing new show! SORT OF follows a gender-fluid millennial character named "Sabi" who straddles various identities from sexy bartender at a queer bookstore-bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown Toronto hipster family. This must-see coming-of-age story exposes the labels we once poured ourselves into as no longer applicable to anyone. SORT OF is available to stream in Canada on CBC Gem; will broadcast on CBC TV beginning Tuesday, November 9 with back-to-back episodes starting at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) @sortofbilal @cbc and @cbcgem ​​https://gem.cbc.ca/media/sort-of/s01 #SortOfCBC River of Hope https://www.riversofhope.ca/ Story Planet https://storyplanet.ca/ @storyplanetto Acha Bacha https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/A/Acha-Bacha https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/acha-bacha/9780369100900-item.html https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08F2YCWCZ?ref=KC_GS_GB_CA https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/acha-bacha Podcast Team: Head Producer: Winnie Wong @wonder_wong Editor: Shayne Stolz @shaynestolz Subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.firecrackerdepartment.com and follow us @firecrackerdept!