If, when first listening to Mama’s Broke, you can’t stop imaging the open road—a single lane carved through the spine of the Appalachian songbook; an artery of tarmac taking hard corners over harmonies soft as wheat fields—your imagination’s got the right instinct: The duo’s origin story began on a stretch of highway between Montreal and […]
Arts + Music
Live theatre, art exhibits, comedy, literary, spoken word – The Coast guide to Halifax and Dartmouth, NS . The downtown, local arts scene – plays, writers, actors, artists and performers. Painting, sculpture, photography, stand-up, stage.
Posted inArts + Music
A new film screening series launches for Halifax’s horror movie junkies
Josh Lake is here to debunk the myth of elevated horror. You can keep your Jordan Peele and your CGI-generated nightmares: He’d rather have vintage scares in the form of retro movies, thanks very much. “I’m really impressed by people doing a lot with less,” the programmer and creator of the new, bimonthly screening series […]
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Nataline MacLean survived an online mob, divorce and drinking too much. Her new memoir will help you get through your own mess, too.
It’s been a decade since the worst year of Natalie MacLean’s life, and she’s finally ready to talk about what happened. When the bestselling author and four-time James Beard Award winning food journalist answers The Coast’s call days in advance of the Halifax launch of her new memoir, Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the […]
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The only Atlantic Canadian in the running for Canada’s biggest art prize is from Halifax
Today, the Sobey Art Award, the biggest prize in Canadian visual art, announced its 2023 shortlist—a five-artist rundown of the most exciting creatives in the country—all of whom are vying for the prize’s $100,000 purse. Among them is none other than Halifax’s Séamus Gallagher, an artist who has been making waves in the city with […]
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Halifax Pride announces festival and parade dates
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the parade route was unknown, when it has, in fact, been published. The updated text below reflects this change and The Coast regrets the error. Is there even a Pride this year? It’s a question that’s been tossed around some group chats I’m in, it’s been […]
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The radical self-empowerment of Shania Twain
The skin was important. A diagonal line from collarbone to thigh. And to be braless underneath an open, semi-sheer black shirt. Then, the posture: confident, at ease. It’s symbolic, all of it. She wanted a visual that was self-empowering, something that depicted the vulnerability, the responsibility, the very statement of being comfortable in your own […]
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Mothering is work, yes. But this new exhibit proves it is art, too.
Anyone who has spent time mothering knows that it is undoubtedly and irrevocably work. But could it also be an art? Jessica Winton and Sally Morgan certainly think so: Along with fellow artist Ruth Douthwright, they’ve formed The Sense Archive, which is currently showing the exhibition This Body of Work through a partnership between Eyelevel […]
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The speech that stole the show at this year’s Atlantic Book Awards
Get ready for your to-be-read pile to grow even taller: Last night, June 7, saw the annual Atlantic Book Awards Gala take over Halifax Central Library’s Paul O’Regan Hall, getting lit(erary) as it celebrated some of the top tomes of the last year. Halifax author K. R. Byggdin was the evening’s star, taking home the […]
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Every big show happening in Halifax (and beyond) in June 2023
Wondering how to make the most of summer’s scant time? We’re breaking down all the big shows, from Rich Aucoin’s album release show at The Seahorse to Two Planks and A Passion’s outdoor theatre offerings. Get ready to light up the group chat with some great plans—and if you notice we’re missing something, email us! […]
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Halifax, Vivek Shraya has your soundtrack for Pride Month and beyond
This week, two very different—but equally glamorous—divas are making Halifax glitter on back to back nights: Yes, Shania Twain is playing a long-sold-out show June 12 at the Scotiabank Centre—and trust, her girls are ready to go. But the evening before (June 11 at Alderney Landing Theatre) pop princess and multi hyphenate artist Vivek Shraya […]
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Everything you need to know about the 2023 Stages Festival
STAGES Theatre Festival is more than an annual bright star on the calendar of theatre lovers around town, more than simply a stopover a play takes between the Halifax Fringe Festival and debuting at Neptune Theatre. (Though, of course, it’s both those things, too.) See, STAGES is, in its own way, an encapsulation of the […]
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A major retrospective of one of the 20th century’s most overlooked artists is on view at Halifax’s Blue Building Gallery
New York is quick to call dibs on June Leaf, since she was part of the city’s historic Bleecker Street scene (the street gets its bohemian cred for being HQ for generations of bohemians, a longstanding locale for Leaf and her contemporaries as they re-shaped abstract art in a post-World War Two era). The Whitney […]
