Edmonton is home to an amazing collection of artists, musicians, and writers who captivate the city with their emotions and ideas. The following Edmontonians will be sharing their work and hosting library programs as our new Capital City Featured Creators.
Featured Artist
Asal Andarzipour (she/they) is an Iranian-Canadian visual artist, curator, and designer. She identifies as an immigrant settler artist walking in her nomad ancestors' shoes. Her creative profile is formed and informed by her long-term academic studies in art and design. Her practice explores themes of personal and collective trauma, displacement, and body politics with a comparative approach. In addition to projects overseas, Andarzipour has curated exhibitions at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre and the Bleeding Heart Art Space in Edmonton. She recently finished a residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York City, where she also conducted research at the Vartan Gregorian Centre for Research in Humanities at the New York Public Library.
She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from the University of Tehran, a Master of Fine Arts in Collaborative Design from Syracuse University and a Master of Arts in History of Art, Design and Visual Culture from the University of Alberta. The realms of curated, created and designed objects, her artistic career, and activism as a woman in the diaspora are integrated into her daily life.
Featured Musician
Joshua Banks (he/him) is an Asian-Canadian pianist/music educator from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), Alberta. A graduate from MacEwan University’s BMus in Piano Performance, with an additional diploma in Recording & Production, he has taken lessons from local piano luminaries such as Chris Andrew, Stephanie Urquhart, Mboya Nicholson, and Bianca Baciu, as well as achieved a Level 10 certification with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Joshua is an active community member of and freelance pianist, keyboardist, and recording artist in the Edmonton and Calgary music scene, most notably having played with the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra (EJO), opened for Juno-award winning jazz vocalist Dominique Fils-Aimé, as well as performed at JazzYYC’s “Tune In - Tune Up” conference celebrating gender justice in jazz. His debut album as a bandleader, “Burning Bridges”, received joint funding from the Edmonton Arts Council and Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and is scheduled for release Summer 2025.
Joshua would like to acknowledge that his career in playing Black American Music is possible because of the Black musicians that have and continue to pave the way for all jazz musicians. He acknowledges and is grateful for the privilege that has allowed him to practice and enjoy the music of this African-American cultural tradition.
Featured Writer
Jasmina Odor is a Croatian-born Canadian writer, who emigrated to Canada in 1993. She is the author of the short story collection You Can’t Stay Here (Thistledown Press, 2017), winner of the Canadian Authors Association Exporting Alberta Award, and a novel, The Harvesters (Freehand Books, 2024). Her fiction and reviews have been widely published in magazines and anthologies, including The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, Eighteen Bridges, Prism International, and the Journey Prize Stories. Her short fiction has won the Howard O’Hagan Award and been nominated for the Journey Prize and the CBC Short Story Prize, among others. She lives with her family in Edmonton, on Treaty 6 territory, where she also teaches English literature and writing.
Learn More!
- Capital City Art promotes and celebrates local visual art and artists in Edmonton. The Library connects Edmontonians with visual art through the promotion of local artists, curation of community art in all our locations, and classes or events linked to EPL's art collections.
- Capital City Press is a gathering place, both digitally and physically, for the exchange of ideas and education on the craft of writing. It gives Edmontonians a chance to discover fantastic local writers and discuss their creations. Capital City Press aims to help support and grow writing in the community.
- Capital City Records celebrates Edmonton's music scene and its history. This special digital collection includes some of Edmonton’s best contemporary local music, as well as a gig poster archive and NTT Films' Dead Venues documentary. Anyone can stream albums and, with your library card, you can download your favourite tracks.
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