Excerpt: “Every mayor has had their own pet (cause) and, for me, it’s always been Calgary’s arts community,” Nenshi says.
That’s no secret to those who know Nenshi best. According to his sister, Shaheen Nenshi Nathoo, her younger brother gravitated toward the arts from a young age.
The son of working class South-Asian immigrants from Tanzania, Nenshi taught himself to read at the age of two.
“He learned to read the TV Guide so he could help my gramma find her shows,” says Shaheen.
Soon, Nenshi could be found hiding under the kitchen table in the family’s Marlborough home, devouring comic books. “That was his first foray into the arts,” jokes Shaheen.
By the time he was in junior high, Nenshi had developed an interest in theatre and began appearing in productions both at school and within the Ismaili-Muslim community.
Ismailimail 