Polaris Music Prize finalist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson loved Billy-Ray Belcourt's This Wound is a World

Leanne BetasamosakeSimpson is a multitalented and multidisciplinaryMichi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, activist and musician. Simpson ison the shortlist for the 2021 Polaris Music Prize with her albumTheory of Ice.

The Polaris Music Prize annually celebrates the best Canadian album of the year, awarding the artist$50,000. There are 10 albums on theshortlist. The winner will be announced on Sept. 27, 2021.

• The full2021 Polaris Music Prize shortlist

Theory of Ice isSimpson's fourth full-length musical release since her 2013 debut,Islands of Decolonial Love. Inspired bythe phenomenon of a frozen lake thawing as the weather gets warmer,Theory of Ice is an exploration ofnature and climatechange, the power of political protest and the lasting legacy of colonialism on Indigenous people and communities in North America.

• Individual, intimate, communal: water and the Theory of Ice with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Much like her music, Simpson's literary workoften centres on theexperiences of Indigenous Canadians. Her books includeIslands of Decolonial Love,This Accident of Being Lost,Dancing on Our Turtle's Back,As We Have Always DoneandNoopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, whichwasa recent finalistfor the 2020 Governor General's Literary Prize for fiction.

In 2017, CBC Books asked authors to share their favourite books of the year. Simpson recommended ThisWound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt.

A 'breathtaking masterpiece'

"ThisWound is a Worldis a decolonial wild fire from which the acclaimed writerBilly-RayBelcourtbuilds a new worldand it's the brilliant, radiantIndigenousworld I want to live in. His poetics create space out of nothing, unapologetically inhabit that space and then gift it to us with uninhibited love.

His poetics create space out of nothing, unapologetically inhabit that space and then gift it to us with uninhibited love.

"Belcourtis sovereign genius and ThisWound is a Worldredefines poetics as a refusal of colonial erasure, a radical celebration of Indigenous life and our beautiful, intimate rebellion.

"This is a breathtaking masterpiece. Belcourt has emerged fully formed."

• Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on how poetry exists between time and space

WATCH | CBC Music profiles Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | Theory of Ice | Polaris Short List 2021

3 years ago

Duration 1:50

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's album Theory of Ice is shortlisted for the 2021 Polaris Music Prize.