bassam (they/them or xe/xim) is a gender(queer) Jewish Arab and neurodivergent spoken word poet, aspiring drag queen, second-generation settler currently residing on the traditional territory of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant (home to the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendatt, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations peoples), and proud of auntie of three beautiful niblings.

bassam earned title of national slam champion at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) in 2016 with the Guelph Poetry Slam team, and Canadian Individual Poetry Slam (CIPS) finalist in 2017. they have toured and performed spoken word at various poetry events and literary festivals across Turtle Island since 2013, and served as National Director of speakNORTH (formerly Spoken Word Canada) in 2019.

following their return to stage performance in 2023, they performed beneath the Northern Lights at NorthWords ‘Gather at the Snowcastle‘ event in Yellowknife (Chief Drygeese territory, traditional lands of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation peoples), as well as Yalla Barra (Middle Eastern LGBTQ+event) for Pride Toronto as a drag performer.

bassam has authored multiple collections of poetry: ‘bliss in die / unbinging the underglow’ (Swimming with Elephants Publications, 2018), ‘_nil:/per.OS - sepukku|smiles + songs for sarah’ (GenZ Publishing, 2018), and ‘disaster in die; an overdose sunrise’ (Swimming with Elephants Publications, 2019). they were also editor-in-chief and publisher for ‘these pills don’t come in my skin tone’, a spoken word poetry collection exclusively by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) on the topic of mental health and illness, released in fall 2017.

bassam, which means ‘to smile’ in Arabic, believes in and practices tikkun olam (Hebrew for ‘mending the world’) through radical kindness and transformative justice, offering joyful and loving words of affirmation with hopes to quell sadness and break silence.