Monday, April 27, 2020: Alessia Cara, Jim Parsons and more

Today on q, with host Tom Power:

• Alessia Cara was all set to host the 2020 Juno Awards when the pandemic reared its ugly head and forced the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to cancel the event. It was a disappointment for many musicians, including Cara who had been nominated in six categories. Tom Power caught up with Cara at home to find out how she's doing and what she's been up to. She also performed a song for us off her latest EP, This Summer.

• Almost one year since The Big Bang Theory ended, Jim Parsons is back on television in Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series, Hollywood. It's a lighthearted revisionist history of post-World War II Tinseltown — billed as an "aspirational tale of what ifs" — that imagines what Hollywood could have been if powerful people gave everyone a chance. From his home in Los Angeles, Parsons spoke with Tom Power about joining the Ryan Murphy TV universe, turning a new page, and being a part of something hopeful in a time of darkness.

• Last night, two dozen Canadian musicians — from Sarah McLachlan to Bryan Adams to Justin Bieber — banded together for a COVID-19 TV special called Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble. Canadian singer-songwriter Tyler Shaw was responsible for bringing them together to record a cover of the late Bill Withers' famous song, Lean On Me. He joined Tom Power from his home in Toronto to tell us how he got these iconic Canadian artists to contribute their voices.

• Alan Nakagawa is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist known for his work with sound and video. For his latest project, Social Distancing, Haiku and You, he asked people from around the world to write and record their own haikus about the pandemic. Nakagawa collected those submissions and turned them into a nine-piece sound collage that launches today in partnership with the Orange County Museum of Art. He joined Tom Power to share some of the submitted poems and discuss how art can help soothe our anxieties around COVID-19.

• April is National Poetry Month and in celebration of that, q is holding our second annual poetry week featuring poetry readings and interviews. Canadian writer Canisia Lubrin kicked off the week with a reading from her new collection, The Dyzgraphxst, which was released last month.