Prismatic Arts Festival September 14-23 various locations prismaticfestival.com
Prismatic Arts Festival is gearing up for an exciting line-up of events, performances and artist talks. Don't miss tonight's opening gala at the Halifax Central Library with Reeny Smith, Rebecca Thomas and Hubert Francis and a performance by the Wabanaki Confederacy Singers, are a Northern Powwow styled singing group (Sep 14, 6pm, free), a preview workshop presentation of Onelight Theatre's newest production, Asheq: Ritual Music to Cure a Lover (Sep 19, Dunn Theatre), a performance by the amazing Liliona Quarmyne (Sep 18, Dunn Theatre) and dozens more exciting events, including Stephanie Yee, a former NSCAD student now living in Windsor, Ontario, recreating her popular event, Broken English Karaoke (Sep 16-20, 9pm-midnight at the Bus Stop Theatre).
"Broken English Karaoke is essentially like your usual karaoke night, except instead of singing a song's original lyrics, what you're singing are lyrics that have been online-translated to other languages, then those translations are translated back to English," says Yee. "These back translations are then edited into karaoke style videos revealing to participants and audiences just how complex language is."
"The festival is really about showcasing the lived perspectives that a lot of mainstream media doesn't present. A lot of my art plays on themes related to my Chinese heritage and while I only speak English, my time around non-English speakers made me really interested in translations and appreciate the struggles of learning new languages."
For Yee, who didn't like karaoke before this project, Broken English Karaoke "levels the playing field".
