Zahra Ebrahim will lead us in a part reading, part talk, and part discussion, highlighting essays from the book she co-edited, Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything. Zahra will be sharing the inspiration behind the book, the tensions of “messiness” and giving a richer context of the stories shared about our west end community.

📅 Date: Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
🕖 Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Annette Street Library

Zahra Ebrahim is the Co-Founder of Monumental. Her work has a deep focus on community-led approaches to policy, infrastructure, and service design. Over the last two decades, Zahra has worked with communities to co-design towards better social outcomes, leading some of Canada’s most ambitious participatory infrastructure and policy programs. 

Zahra is currently an Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, and an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Architecture. She is also Vice-Chair of the Toronto Arts Council, and Chair Emeritus at Park People. She is the co-editor of the book Messy Cities, and her newest book, Women, Walking, is set for release by Coach House Books in September 2026.