Night Shift at the Museum
Noor Al Kaabi, 2T7 MAM
Artist’s Statement: Tasked to capture the feeling of 'behind the scenes' for a photography elective, this series is an attempt to highlight the identities and interests behind the scenes of our professional personas as healthcare professionals. Pictured are first-year medical students, Aljeena and Layan, exploring the AGO. Aljeena and Layan are both interested in fashion, art, and other creative pursuits.
heure dorée
Clémence Ongolo Zogo, 2T4 WB
Artist’s Statement: l’heure dorée sur une plage au sud du Cameroun.
Instagram: @clemmsss
Trees of Life
Saba Aslani, 2T7 PB
Artist's Statement: Pick your tree, wrap your arms around it, and find your peaceful self back.
Interview with Dr. Murji
Dr. Latif Murji is the frontman of the indie-alt-rock band Parachute Thieves, and co-founder of Poems in Passage. He is founder of the not-for-profit organization Stand Up for Health and is a lecturer at Temerty Faculty of Medicine at University of Toronto.
Tell us about yourself.
I’m a musician and physician. Clinically, I work emergency medicine and family medicine in rural and Indigenous communities such as Manitoulin Island, Englehart, and Moose Factory. Sometimes I manage multiple nursing stations virtually, in very remote communities where there are no doctors. I am also the lead physician at the VaxFacts+ Clinic, which is a space for people who are hesitant about vaccines to speak one-to-one with a physician in a confidential, non-judgmental space. The initiative started out as a vaccine confidence clinic for those with hesitancy around the COVID-19 vaccine, but now it has evolved into a service for health education, preventative health counselling, and even cancer screening. I also have a not-for-profit in the health equity and ed-tech space, called Stand Up for Health, that delivers immersive training experiences for the social determinants of health. And I teach family medicine residents and medical students, in my role as a Lecturer at the University of Toronto.
That’s amazing! How about your work as a musician with Parachute Thieves?
A lot of my time and energy is devoted to my music and the arts. In terms of music, I'm the lead vocalist and songwriter of the band Parachute Thieves. I started writing music with Rob, our lead guitarist, years ago, back in undergrad. We amassed a bit of a following in Waterloo, but then I got into med school at UofT and we took a very long hiatus. Every day during my medical training, I would dream about one day living the musician life – consistently writing original music, recording it professionally, and performing to a lively crowd. I started slowly getting back into it in the couple years after residency, but then Covid hit. It was my experiences as an ER doc on the front lines of the pandemic that reminded me that I couldn’t wait till ‘someday’ to follow my dream. I took a leap of faith and made my way to Los Angeles, where things started to magically come together. We recorded our debut EP, Shed My Skin, which dropped at the beginning of 2023. Back in Toronto, we went on a bit of a tour, with our now four-piece band. Some of the highlights included playing our EP release show to a sold-out crowd at the Cameron House, headlining at the iconic El Mocambo and getting our first ever encore, we weren’t prepared for that! And then, we luckily landed the incredible opportunity to play a headliner set at the Rhythms of Canada Music Festival at Aga Khan Park. That was so special to me because a lot of my family was able to attend, like even my little nieces and nephews who were visiting from out of town. To be able to serve as a role model and inspiration for them is something I’m so proud of. We are now putting finishing touches on some new music that we’ll be releasing as singles over the next few months, before releasing our debut album. I’m also working on the cover art for all the singles, which is another form of art that I’ve been exploring.
That sounds like an amazing journey. I think you have a very unique perspective working on frontlines of the pandemic, and then creating music. That got me thinking about one of the singles titled Placebo. Placebo is a big concept in medicine; was that inspired by your experience as a doctor?
Placebo is actually a song I wrote over a period of many years, starting when I was first applying to medical school, and I added layers to it over the course of my training. It has influences from different spaces that I've occupied within medicine: knocking on the door, trying to get into medical school, then as a trainee, going through med school, residency, becoming Faculty and somewhat part of the academic and medical establishment, and serving on the frontlines of the pandemic. Ultimately, I chose to title the song Placebo because we can think of a placebo as something that poses as the solution, but it is not the true solution. As a physician, I feel in many ways, we are seen as the solution when often we are the placebo. A lot of the conditions that our patients come in with arise from structural inequities like low income, inadequate housing, food insecurity, and racism. These are not issues that a physician can solve with a prescription. I’m trying to get people to zoom out the lens and look at the challenges in our society and contemplate their upstream solutions, rather than the downstream placebos.
That's very inspiring! It is very impressive to be able to show that through art. You also mentioned that you create album art. What inspires you to create that?
Album art is a way for me to represent the feeling of the song, showcase an aesthetic, and add another perspective to the music. For example, Placebo is a funky, light, and upbeat song musically, but the lyrics have a lot of depth, darkness, and nuanced layers to them. The juxtaposition between the music and the lyrics is represented in the cover art. It has bright and energetic colours in the background, with a sterile image of a physician in the foreground, wearing scrubs and white coat. It’s actually me, wearing a clown mask to obscure my face. The mask represents imposter syndrome, it represents feeling like a fool and being forced to put on a smile while the healthcare system is crumbling. I'm also auscultating my own heart, symbolizing introspection and a call for authenticity. If you look closely at my auscultating hand, I’m wearing a ring pop, representing a sugar pill, the placebo itself. There’s a translucent layer over the entire image, of a crumpled paper bag. This represents the disposability of our experiences. I want the listeners to see something different in the art each time they come back to it, maybe as their own experiences change, they have a different perspective on it, adding their own meaning to the art.
Video explanation: https://www.instagram.com/p/Czw2s0Bv9Cw/
So we talked a bit about how medicine is influencing your music and your art; can you tell us a little bit about how being a musician is influencing you as a doctor, and specifically, as a primary care doctor?
The more time I spend on my art, the more sensitive I become to the world around me. My antennae have become much sharper; I've noticed that it helps me stay mindful about my own feelings and about what matters in different situations. When I'm speaking with a patient, I'm able to listen better and notice what is important to them. It helps me focus on the big picture as well: slowing down and avoiding band-aid solutions. These days there's so much pressure on physicians to see a high volume of patients; our healthcare system is just under so much pressure overall. Prioritizing my art comes with actively choosing models of care that will not exert that type of pressure on me so that I can take my time and deliver the best possible care to my patients; I’ve become more community-oriented. Art has also sensitized me to my surroundings, which means the suffering of others affects me more. However being able to focus on my art also allows me to reflect on those feelings and process them. In a way, art is protective, allowing me to be more present and give my full self.
You just launched a public arts organization called Poems in Passage. Can you tell us about that?
Absolutely. So the idea for Poems in Passage actually sparked from something both personal and nostalgic. Last summer I was with my best friend Addesse, we were reminiscing about growing up in Scarborough and how we used to come across beautiful verses of poetry on our TTC commutes to school. These were moments of reflection and inspiration for us. We found out the program had been discontinued years ago, and figured this would be something the city could really benefit from, especially post-pandemic. So we thought, why not bring that back? Why not rekindle that experience, but on a broader and more inclusive scale? So we founded Poems in Passage, to put profound poetry in public places across Toronto. Luckily for us, the TTC and Pattison were both immediately on board as partners, giving us access to unused ad space in 75% of the fleet, including streetcars, buses, and subway trains! Part of our mission includes ensuring Poems in Passage elevates the voices of underrepresented artists and represents the diversity of our beautiful city. So we’re proud that our inaugural cohort includes poets across the spectrums of age, gender, sexuality, race, and ability. We even included a poem from the famous 13th century poet, Rumi, in its original Farsi text, with an accompanying English translation by the Curator of the Aga Khan Museum’s Rumi Exhibition. Ultimately, we believe more public art, and more diversity of perspective can be healing.
Both medicine and music are quite demanding. Do you have any advice for current medical students who are artists and musicians trying to keep art as an integral part of their lives throughout their training and practice?
It is definitely hard to do this during training, and is much easier when you're done and in control of your own schedule. But I think you should try to keep it up by setting small goals for yourself and spending some time on your art every day, even for a few minutes. Consistency over perfection. Whether you want to hone your skills or learn new ones, expose yourself to different kinds of art; it will not only make you a better artist, but also a better physician.
Last but not least, do you have any upcoming projects we should anticipate?
Yes! As I mentioned, we’ve recorded a lot of new music and we’re dropping singles over the coming months, then a whole album! Notably, a song called “I Am Both” will be released – an excerpt of lyrics from this song can be found on the TTC as part of Poems in Passage. So you’ll hear the music and hopefully the poem will come to life in a new way. We’ve also written and recorded a new song called “Move Muhammad”. It’s about a character who longs to break free of cultural expectations and follow his calling as an artist. And musically, it’s a fusion of qawwali and South Asian classical music with alt-rock. I’m so stoked on this song, I really hope it serves as an inspiration to others, and we’re even going to make an epic music video for it. So stay tuned!
Book recommendations:
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh by Thich Nhat Hanh