Stand-up comic, actor, and author Ali Hassan will headline the first Owen Sound Memoir Series monthly event weekend at the Owen Sound public library.
The mission of the Owen Sound Memoir Series is to celebrate the lived experience of diverse Canadians, curate important conversations, and teach memoir-writing skills to local writers. Each month, a nationally-recognized Canadian author will come to the Owen Sound library to read from their recently published memoir and lead a memoir-writing workshop.
Hassan said his memoir, "Is There Bacon in Heaven?" is about identity, belonging, and the journey to find those answers.
"It's okay to not belong and search for belonging and search for identity," he explained. "That's something no matter where you come from, it's always going to be an issue somewhere. Whether it's on your hockey team, whether it's with a new group that you join, you know, there's these feelings of impostor syndrome."
Hassan added that his journey started in stand-up, at a time when it was difficult to be a Muslim.
"I started doing comedy a few years after 911 when Muslims were regarded with suspicion at best and fear at worst," he continued. "I was like, well, all I can do is go on as a Muslim guy, be myself, be funny, and hope a few people leave the show saying we saw a Muslim guy that night, he was pretty funny, and he's able to make fun of himself and make fun of us. And it was a good time and it was like this tiny, tiny little bit of PR."
Hassan said another comedian once called him a Cultural Muslim following his stand up act, which gave him a better answer to people's questions about his background.
"Hey, are you a Muslim? And I have to say, well, I'm more of a freelance Muslim. You know, I work from home and then sometimes they'll call me in, and I'd always have some goofy answer about that," he continued. "But once I had this term, Cultural Muslim, it was really like freeing and liberating. And I find people connect with that quite a bit, saying that they are Cultural Christians or, you know, culturally connected to their faith, but maybe not in a religious way."
Hassan will read, and participate in a Q&A with the audience on Friday, February 2, at 7:00 p.m. He revealed the title of his book is really an existential question he had as a boy.
"And I'd watch my white friends, black friends, even other brown friends, Hindus can eat bacon, I watched them eat bacon and it looked like it was a gift from God when they were eating it," he revealed. "So I was like, how come my God isn't down with this bacon stuff? And so I would ask people when I was a kid, I was like, you know, will there be bacon in heaven after I make this huge sacrifice here on Earth?"
On Saturday, February 3, at 1:00 p.m. Hassan will lead a memoir-writing workshop for local writers who are working on their own memoirs.
Anybody who's keen on writing, whether it be a memoir or any other type of storytelling, and they want to inject comedy into it, whether they are funny or not, I think it'll be a really fun workshop to kind of explore your writing voice, if you will," said Hassan. "We will have some time to talk out loud about what people are writing and it's almost like it's got a vibe of an open mic."
Tickets are currently on sale at www.owensoundmemoirseries.com. Both events will be held at the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library, 824 1st Ave W. in Owen Sound.