Working from home tip number 546? Create a boss-ass playlist to keep you psyched and capture some calm. Here, we share a handful of tracks we’ve been playing on repeat this week—all linked below for your listening needs. “Their Love Was Alive Before They Were Dead” by Joshua Van Tassel Sound architect Joshua Van Tassel—a […]
Morgan Mullin
Morgan was the Arts & Entertainment Editor at The Coast, where she wrote about everything from what to see and do around Halifax to profiles of the city’s creative class to larger cultural pieces. She started with The Coast in 2016.
Posted inArts + Music
Norma MacDonald’s Old Future and new vision
Talking with singer-songwriter Norma MacDonald, it becomes clear almost immediately that she doesn’t just draw her creative waters from the same wells as Loretta Lynn or Kris Kristoffersen: She also drinks deeply from them, saying things like “most songwriting is nostalgia anyway”—which could be a lyric ripped from the songbook of either alt-country great if […]
Posted inArts + Music
Six questions with Sue Goyette, Halifax’s new Poet Laureate
Hot off yesterday’s news that the city has selected the incomparable Sue Goyette—author of seven poetry books and heart-disarming lines like “I bulldozed a dream on waking from it last night. Drove around, pushing, until it was compact and easy to carry“—to be its latest Poet Laureate, we called up the Masterworks Award winner to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bring Halifax culture home with our arts streaming guide, April 27-May 3
Monday, April 27 Trivia for Shut-ins Halifax trivia hosts-about-town Jason Dorey and Andrew Evans have shifted their popular triv game from pubs like Durty Nelly’s, the Lion’s Head and The Fickle Frog, to a Facebook livestream. Three 20-question rounds will challenge, amuse and delight, and with no prizes on the line, you won’t even mind […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bring Halifax culture home with our arts streaming guide for April 20-26
Monday, April 20 Cris Derksen The Juno-nominated cellist and composer known for the work Orchestral Powwow (which marries traditional Indigenous Powwow music and dance with classic symphonic stylings for the ultimate mash-up) continues blending hues on a cross-cultural palette with a Facebook Livestream at 9pm. Tuesday, April 21 Lennie Gallant A suppertime show with the stalwart […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Because we still need art to live, the Sobey Art Award’s long list just dropped
While every April the Sobey Art Award (the biggest prize in Canadian art) crowns new royalty with the release of its long list, 2020 feels a little different: This year, the jury behind the prize is forgoing its usual five-artist shortlist and corresponding exhibition. Instead, for the first time ever, everyone on the jury-selected long […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bring Halifax culture home with our social distance streaming guide
Wednesday, April 15 Giant Killer Shark: The Musical A sing-along livestream of the 2019 Fringe Fest hit play that’s a comedic reworking of Jaws. Read more about the play here and hit up tickethalifax.com for your (free) virtual ticket. Rudy Pacé plays The Carleton Singer-songwriter vibes from the Halifax Presents Facebook page to your sofa […]
Posted inArts + Music
Emily Lawrence’s likeable feast
The world of Dartmouth-based artist Emily Lawrence feels like a pastel-filled, Betty Crocker spin on Willy Wonka’s factory: Her work is a visual feast (pun fully intended) as she makes portraits of people’s favourite desserts and lines gallery walls with tiny, climbing shrimp tails and petit-fours. With her, you never question that we eat first […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
So, should you be wearing a mask?
First things first: Medical masks need to be reserved for healthcare workers. There is a brand-new, very central circle in hell emerging for anyone who hoards them the way they did with toilet paper. But, in addition to social distancing, washing your hands and, yes, Staying The Blazes Home, wearing a homemade mask could be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A guided mediation to help you get through today
The birds are back. The flowers are starting to climb skywards. Something I can’t stop thinking about these days, as I gaze out my window more than I ever have before, is this weird duality of nature waking up and stepping out as I cocoon myself inside more and more. It feels like poetry. A […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Here’s everyone who won at Theatre Nova Scotia’s Merritt Awards this week
While COVID-19 meant that the local theatre scene couldn’t gather IRL to celebrate another smashing year of stage productions, that doesn’t mean the (awards) show wouldn’t go on. Rather, Theatre Nova Scotia crowned the best plays, performers and producers (to name a few) via streaming on Monday night. As theatre as a form feels threatened […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Foreign exchange
Kyle, at this point, has lived in China most of his adult life. He works a communications office job and lives in a high-rise apartment in central Beijing. I have lived in Halifax most of the time Kyle’s been away. I work at The Coast and live in the top floor of an old house […]