W hen it comes to understanding the climate crisis, Andrew MacKelvie knows that “the numbers don’t mean anything out of context.” The fixture in Halifax’s jazz and improv scenes has spent four months wading through data about the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, looking to find a way to wake us up from […]
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
The Power of Preston is in its people
The Power of Preston Aug 13-14, 7pm Alderney Landing Theatre, 2 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth $15/$20 W hen Anne Johnson-McDonald picks up the phone, a quick half-hour before she’ll have to rush out the door to rehearsals, she’s ready to explain exactly where the name of her latest musical comes from: “The power of Preston is […]
Posted inArts + Music
Art is the resistance
Art and politics have always been related—a strange, warped sisterhood, pushing and pulling like the tides. When waves roll to the right, art is there to pull back with both hands (think of Andy Warhol’s attack on consumer culture that was his Campbell’s Soup Cans). In many ways, there is no political punch like the […]
Posted inArts + Music
Artist Jenny Yujia Shi explores the immigrant experience
Entering the studio space of mixed-media artist Jenny Yujia Shi, a repetition in colour and shape arrests you before you even notice the view of Halifax Harbour. On every surface—even the slanting ceiling—arrows like the ones on Shi’s passport point into oblivion. Faceless figures stack up neatly as Plexiglas cutouts on the table. A large […]
Posted inArts + Music
Artist Carrie Allison is clearing space to think
Carrie Allison can’t stop thinking about grass. Like a verse in a Walt Whitman poem, she’s been ruminating on single blades of the stuff, questioning its symbolism. “I look at grass as a tool of colonization. Basically it’s been used to claim space. This idea of grass and of lawns started with royalty and them […]
Posted inArts + Music
Séamus Gallagher rings the climate crisis alarm with candy-coloured art
When Séamus Gallagher laughs, it’s a bright, jangly sound that brings to mind the eye-searing colour palette present in their photography and performance work. Heavily influenced by drag and internet culture, they’re known for images like a figure drowning in a sea of red and yellow stickers blaring “UH OH”—or the perfectly made-up corpse covered […]
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Comic Travis Lindsay makes us LOL
Natal Day Comedy GALA Fri, Aug 2, 7:15pm; Casino Nova Scotia, 1983 Upper Water Street We asked comic Travis Lindsay—mainstay in the local scene—to tell us a joke before he hits the stage for the 10th annual Natal Day Comedy Gala, where he’ll share the bill with Pete Johansson, Cathy Jones and Mark Forward this […]
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Dolly Parton’s house
It all started when Richie Wilcox asked his musician pals to cover some Rufus Wainwright tunes at The Music Room on an empty Monday night during Pride. What once felt like a way to fill time during the festival quickly took root as an important tradition, with Heist’s annual Pride tribute—then called the Angels & […]
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Take Pride in your weekend with these Sure Things
From the return of Wannabe: A Spice Girls Tribute to the Pride parade to the kitchen party vibes of Jesus Murphy, this weekend will be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Family Over Fame day Saturday An outdoor community celebration that sees R&B royalty JRDN taking the stage—along with free haircuts, […]
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Have a jazzy weekend with these Sure Things
From the opening weekend for Spryfield’s new outdoor movie theatre to the Halifax Jazz Fest’s return, there’s so much fun under the sun (and stars) this weekend! Read on for deets. Dartmouth at Dusk Friday A food, art and craft fair held outside Alderney Landing that sees you getting a taste of the local maker […]
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Jazz Fest: Mdou Moctar
You think you know how African music sounds: You still know the words to K’naan’s last hit and your record collection includes Mumford and Son’s Johannesburg EP. Drips of the continent’s varied music land on your eardrums, but what you don’t know, yet, is that there’s an African rock star whose loose, noodling guitar is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Vintage clothing for plus bodies, by plus bodies
For Olivia Weir—the curatorial eye behind Instagram account Fat Chance Vintage—a love of thrift that saw her skipping high school to hit up Value Village became more than a hobby with the speed of a Nike swoosh. She held a 1980s bomber from the brand in a thrift shop, and, as she recalls, “It was […]