Hal-Con is the latest event to pull its programming from the Halifax Public Libraries, as it states in a release shared on its website Sunday, June 6. The event—scheduled for October 22-24, 2021—begins by saying: “We are aware that the Halifax Public Library has recently acquired a book that contains harmful misinformation—presented as fact—about transgender […]
Cultural Festivals
Posted inArts + Music
On Pride, the library and Irreversible Damage done
There are over one million books in the Halifax Public Libraries holdings, but this week it seems like the city only cares about one: Irreversible Damage, written by journalist and notorious trans-exclusionary radical feminist Abigail Shrier. “I did go and put it on hold the other day, because if they’re gonna keep it I’m gonna […]
Posted inArts + Music
You officially have things to look forward to as Mayworks Halifax moves online
Mayworks Halifax—the festival celebrating workers and the arts—isn’t gonna let COVID-19 hold it down. The annual event—which kicks off tomorrow and has socially distant programming available all month long—is rife with the sort of content that makes you feel seen and helps you learn about the labour movement. Even better? It’s a slice of normalcy […]
Posted inArts + Music
norc brings your lucid dreams to life
norc w/The Brood, No, It’s Fine., Sleeping Machines Thu Aug 22, 8pm-12am The Seahorse Tavern 2037 Gottingen Street $8 A lthough they hail from the Annapolis Valley, the three members of norc first met here in Halifax: Guitarist Zach Hazelwood and drummer Ryan Holland got together and played a show as a duo, but something was […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Elle Noir AKA Chris Cochrane is unapologetically herself
Educator, drag queen, aesthetician, actor, consultant: Halifax’s 2019 Pride ambassador commands the spotlight everywhere she goes. Now in her 14th year as a performer, Chris Cochrane—Halifamous for her drag persona Elle Noir—is finding balance and breaking boundaries as a dazzling new era brings drag into vogue. Strangers linger in a bustling Hydrostone coffee shop, shooting […]
Posted inArts + Music
Halifax, meet Hedwig
Just in time for Pride, Halifax audiences will have a chance to wig out and enjoy what Rolling Stone has dubbed “the best rock musical ever.” The Tony Award-winning Hedwig and the Angry Inch, written by John Cameron Mitchell with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, follows the story of Hedwig Robinson, a genderqueer singer […]
Posted inArts + Music
Constellate’s group dynamics
Constellate: “Form or cause to form into a cluster or group; gather together.” Or, in the case of the local storytelling series of the same name, “to provide a space and opportunity for people who wouldn’t normally have their voices heard,” says Greg Puncher, one of its co-founders. For the past six months, Puncher and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Pride’s low-sensory zone brings all the fun but less of the noise
Making space for marginalized groups is what Pride has always been about. And this year, it’s continuing to do the extra work to push that space even further. The Pride parade’s low-sensory viewing area returns for its second year at the festival. The space gives an elevated view of the parade and ensures reduced noise, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax’s Dyke and Trans March goes beyond capitalism with a fun rainbow
Pride month in Halifax is made up of more than just parties in colourful packages—and the Dyke and Trans March on July 28 is one of several events that prove it. Frank Heimpel, the outreach coordinator at South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre, hopes the Dyke and Trans March will provide space for folks […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What 2SLGBTQ+ youth want
According to a new report, 70 percent of transgender youth in Canada have experienced sexual harassment. More than one-third of trans youth ages 14 to 18 have been physically threatened or injured in the past year. Twenty to 40 percent of homeless youth identify as 2SLGBTQ+. This comes from a recent report by Halifax group […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Finding a place and a voice as a queer PoC artist
Iam a white-passing Japanese Canadian queer cis-woman born and raised in the north end. However, I haven’t gotten to live there as a queer adult yet—I left Halifax almost immediately after coming out at 20, during my first year of my BFA at NSCAD. I often feel this leaving as a kind of loss. Yet […]