2025, 65 pages.
At the Risk of Listening is a collection of works presented during Ziysah's time as Peterborough's Poet Laureate.
Whether pleading with City Councillors to listen more deeply, rallying a crowd to demand justice, or offering a prayer at a vigil, Ziysah challenges us to connect our daily acts of care to our broader movements for belonging. At the Risk of Listening invites us into a “radical optimism,” showing us the flip-side of greed and destruction without denying its real costs. Viewed from this angle, attacks on trans rights become evidence of the power of queer movements “tearing open space for the possible,” while depression and anxiety are signs of "our deep knowing that a better world is possible."
At the Risk of Listening explores themes of grief, homelessness, genocide, intergenerational trauma and accountability all within a container that is ultimately nourishing and connective. A love letter to Nogojiwanong, the place at the end of the rapids, this book will resonate with anyone yearning for collectivity in a time of dangerous polarization.
"Ziy's words help us to remember where we are and who we are walking with."
- Jenn Cole