Cultural Festivals
Posted inArts + Music
Before the parade
[Image-1] It was spring of 1972 when Anne Fulton stumbled upon a poster that read It’s Time for Gay Liberation. That rallying cry appealed to the budding lesbian activist—Fulton was 20 then, maybe 21—and she went to the meeting the poster advertised. This gathering would turn out to be vital, for both Fulton and, more […]
Posted inArts + Music
Samson Learn is travelling down the Trans*Canada highway
Samson Learn is calling from the road, somewhere between Montreal and Ottawa. While he talks, the engine hums dully in the background. Learn has been travelling for just over four weeks. On a storytelling odyssey passing through our national artery, the Trans-Canada highway, Learn explains he’s attempting to redefine Canadians’ perceptions around the word “trans.” […]
Posted inArts + Music
Magic Monster
“What I wanted to do was make a film that reflected the modern Newfoundland,” says the writer-director Stephen Dunn, whose festival darling debut feature Closet Monster opens this week. “I love Newfoundland cinema—we have incredible filmmakers and voices—but I had never really seen a representation of what it’s like for a young person right now […]
Posted inArts + Music
Mount Saint Vincent University’s pulpy look at the past
Two women lock eyes across a crowded room. Soon, one approaches the other and lightly touches her shoulder… Sounds like a scene from a bad movie, or, at the very least, not something you’d expect to find behind glass in a library. Not according to Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) librarian Meg Raven. As she […]
Posted inArts + Music
Tel Aviv tourism concerns are misplaced, says Atlantic Jewish Council board member
The promotion of Tel Aviv tourism at Halifax Pride continues to raise debate, but a member of the Atlantic Jewish Council says the Queer Arabs of Halifax and other concerned groups are misinformed about his organization’s presence at Pride. Last week, the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action (NSRAP) project launched this petition, declaring solidarity with Queer […]
Posted inArts + Music
Atlantic Canadian magazine focuses on queer content
The Outport Magazine has got LGBTQIA Atlantic Canadians covered. Starting out in 2013 as a short monthly publication, serving the St. John’s, Newfoundland area, the magazine expanded its coverage to include all of the Atlantic provinces this year. Today, Outport is an online lifestyle magazine—CEO and publisher Josh Eddy says it made the format switch […]
Posted inArts + Music
Asexual and aromantic folks claim their place at Pride
On the first day of Halifax Pride week, Ky Greyson arrives at a coffee shop sporting a huge smile, freshly dyed cotton candy hair with matching pink eyebrows, and black leggings that read “unavailable.” He’s bursting with enthusiasm when he asks me what gender pronouns I prefer. Although some people don’t like labels, Greyson finds […]
Posted inArts + Music
Rad Pride brings the politics to pride week
We love pride week so much it brings little rainbow hearts to our eyes. But while it’s easy to get caught up in celebrating the beauty of love and wearing multi-coloured things, Rad Pride, an “alternative, political queer pride” organization, is quick to remind us all one key thing: “The first pride parade was a […]
Posted inArts + Music
Six degrees of Nile Rodgers
1. CHIC Nile Rodgers and and bassist Bernard Edwards co-founded the badass, funked up disco band in the mid-‘70s, giving music-lovers timeless dance hits like Grammy hall-of-famer “Le Freak” and the oft-sampled (see: “Rapper’s Delight”) “Good Times.” Chic remains a relevant fixture, releasing its latest in 2015, and has been heralded as one of the […]
Posted inArts + Music
Halifax Pride and the responsibility of equality
[Image-1] Halifax’s Pride festival is finally here, but not everyone is celebrating. The 11-day long festival kicks off today, arriving in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting last month that left 49 people murdered in Orlando, Florida, and a surge in protests across the United States and Canada against the use of police violence. […]
Posted inArts + Music
Let’s learn non-binary drag with Rhett Slutler
[Image-1] Rhett Slutler spent the first year of drag learning the rules: Don’t show your tape. Make sure you’re not using a song that has too high of a voice in it. Make sure you’re using the right amount of socks in your pants. Then they started performing non-binary drag, moving beyond the strict binary […]