Ava Val has heard enough performative allyship since coming out as a trans woman in her thirties. “If I get one more ‘Yasss Queen!’ while I’m picking a wedgie in a park, I’m detransitioning,” the Toronto comedian jokes in So Brave, her gut-busting debut comedy special. “I love your support, but fuck! Being called brave […]
Martin Bauman
Martin Bauman is an award-winning journalist and interviewer, whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Capital Daily, and Waterloo Region Record, among other places. In 2020, he was named one of five “emergent” nonfiction writers by the RBC Taylor Prize. As host of the Story Untold Podcast, he has interviewed some of Canada's most notable figures, including Paralympian Rick Hansen, cave diver Jill Heinerth, and Juno Award-winner Shad. A passionate speaker and mental health advocate, Martin has been a youth panellist for the Canada-wide Spotlight on Invisible Disabilities Partnership and bicycled solo across Canada to raise funds for services in his hometown of Waterloo, Ont.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax cyclist eyes record-setting ride from Alaska to Argentina
Ashleigh Myles is not fazed by long hours in the bicycle saddle. The Halifax-based bike technician co-created the Tip 2 Tip Nova Scotia endurance race, a 1,000-kilometre haul from The Hawk Beach on Cape Sable Island to Cape Breton’s Meat Cove, in 2020. And then she went out and set the record for its time-trial […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The future of AI news is here in Halifax, it seems—and god, it sucks
A few weeks ago, I ventured down Quinpool Road and visited a company office that doesn’t exist. The building is real. And the company—at least in some notional sense—is real. But the other parts—who works at the company, how they’re connected to Halifax, what it bodes for our new digital era—I’m far less certain of. I […]
Posted inFood + Drink
First look at Reta’s, the Hydrostone’s newest fine-dining favourite
Steph Ogilvie has worked in her share of high-end kitchens. The Halifax chef and Top Chef Canada finalist has done pop-up dinners at Montreal’s Ratafia wine bar, cooked at Toronto’s Michelin-recommended GEORGE and joined the kitchen crew at Newfoundland’s famed Fogo Island Inn, where Gwyneth Paltrow and David Letterman have stayed. But none compare to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Where to buy groceries during Trump’s trade war on Canada
Update: After initial negotiations on Feb 3 led to Donald Trump delaying the imposition of tariffs for a month, the Cheeto-in-Charge announced they were back on the table earlier this week, taking effect on Tuesday, March 4. In the wild weeks since convicted felon and US president Donald Trump first threatened a sweeping 25% tax […]
Posted inArts + Music
Every big show happening in Halifax in March 2025
Spring is almost here—finally!—and with the longer days of March, Halifax is coming back to life. From film festivals celebrating homegrown talent to some of Canada’s biggest rock acts coming to town, there’s a whole lot more to look forward to this month than just the promise of warmer weather. (Although that certainly helps, too.) […]
Posted inArts + Music
“Stories to tell”: Halifax Black Film Festival shines spotlight on local filmmakers
Andre Anderson can still recall the feeling of watching Ava DuVernay’s 13th for the first time. The Preston-raised African Nova Scotian actor—and now filmmaker—had been so moved by the 2016 documentary on the US prison-industrial complex that he screened it for his classmates at Saint Mary’s University. Then again at the Marquee Ballroom. Anderson says […]
Posted inArts + Music
Meet the Halifax DJ celebrating the city’s underground dance scene
Taylor Mooney remembers the first underground dance party she attended. The Prince Edward Island-born electronic/house DJ had recently moved to Halifax from Ottawa, when she got an invite to a secret gig that a friend was hosting. Even now, a few years later, she won’t say where exactly the gig went down. (“Can’t blow up […]
Posted inArts + Music
See all the nominees for the 2025 East Coast Music Awards
The full list of nominees is here for the 2025 East Coast Music Awards, and Halifax is well-represented. Sixty-seven ECMA nominations—the annual awards celebrating the best of East Coast music—include contributions from Halifax-based artists, engineers, managers and venues this year. That includes nine ECMA shortlist nods for Enfield rapper Classified, whose album Luke’s View earned […]
Posted inArts + Music
Halifax’s Eliza Rhinelander finds her voice on debut album
“I don’t know where I’m going to,” Eliza Rhinelander sings on “Massachusetts,” the earnest and clear-voiced opener to the Halifax singer-songwriter’s debut album, The Precipice. “And I’ve never had this much to lose.” Given the 19-year-old folk singer’s trajectory this past year—from a crowdfunded EP to a sold-out show at The Carleton earlier this month—it would […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What’s next for Bloomfield?
Mountains of rubble piled high on Thursday morning at the same site where, less than a week ago, the former Bloomfield School stood. A hydraulic excavator sat parked inside temporary fencing off Agricola Street, its engine running. All around it, work crews shuffled about, cleaning up the wreckage from a weekend fire that tore through […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
7 burning questions as Halifax Wanderers enter 2025 soccer preseason
Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar has had a busy winter. Two years and three months into his tenure with the Canadian Premier League soccer club, the 49-year-old is approaching the final year of his coaching contract with a familiar challenge: Winning games. It’s a challenge that has, at different times in the Etobicoke, Ont. […]