When Winnipeg native Stevey Hunter graduated from Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts, they quickly became disillusioned by the options for roles available to them. So they did what any good creative does; they wrote one for themself. “Going to theatre school as a plus size actor, I felt very put in a box about […]
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
Trump threatened this trans comic’s visa—now she’s coming to Halifax
Ava Val has heard enough performative allyship since coming out as a trans woman in her thirties. “If I get one more ‘Yasss Queen!’ while I’m picking a wedgie in a park, I’m detransitioning,” the Toronto comedian jokes in So Brave, her gut-busting debut comedy special. “I love your support, but fuck! Being called brave […]
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Every big show happening in Halifax in March 2025
Spring is almost here—finally!—and with the longer days of March, Halifax is coming back to life. From film festivals celebrating homegrown talent to some of Canada’s biggest rock acts coming to town, there’s a whole lot more to look forward to this month than just the promise of warmer weather. (Although that certainly helps, too.) […]
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“Stories to tell”: Halifax Black Film Festival shines spotlight on local filmmakers
Andre Anderson can still recall the feeling of watching Ava DuVernay’s 13th for the first time. The Preston-raised African Nova Scotian actor—and now filmmaker—had been so moved by the 2016 documentary on the US prison-industrial complex that he screened it for his classmates at Saint Mary’s University. Then again at the Marquee Ballroom. Anderson says […]
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Meet the Halifax DJ celebrating the city’s underground dance scene
Taylor Mooney remembers the first underground dance party she attended. The Prince Edward Island-born electronic/house DJ had recently moved to Halifax from Ottawa, when she got an invite to a secret gig that a friend was hosting. Even now, a few years later, she won’t say where exactly the gig went down. (“Can’t blow up […]
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See all the nominees for the 2025 East Coast Music Awards
The full list of nominees is here for the 2025 East Coast Music Awards, and Halifax is well-represented. Sixty-seven ECMA nominations—the annual awards celebrating the best of East Coast music—include contributions from Halifax-based artists, engineers, managers and venues this year. That includes nine ECMA shortlist nods for Enfield rapper Classified, whose album Luke’s View earned […]
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Halifax’s Eliza Rhinelander finds her voice on debut album
“I don’t know where I’m going to,” Eliza Rhinelander sings on “Massachusetts,” the earnest and clear-voiced opener to the Halifax singer-songwriter’s debut album, The Precipice. “And I’ve never had this much to lose.” Given the 19-year-old folk singer’s trajectory this past year—from a crowdfunded EP to a sold-out show at The Carleton earlier this month—it would […]
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Every big show coming to Halifax and beyond in 2025
The New Year might have just arrived, but the lineup of shows coming to Halifax in 2025 is already jam-packed. Here we keep track of the major shows—music, theatre, comedy and events—scheduled for the city and around Nova Scotia throughout the year. To help our team of event hunters, we hope you’ll let us know […]
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How a recording trip to Nashville brought Halifax’s Newbridge to life
It was the twilight of COVID-19 lockdowns in Nova Scotia, and Keith Maddison and Jeff Mosher were doing what lifelong rock ‘n’ rollers do: Playing some tunes. The two veterans of Halifax’s music scene—the former, a frontman for Maddison Avenue; the latter, a lead singer and saxophonist with The Mellotones—were at Maddison’s home “in the […]
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Customer Service has a new EP—and it’ll get your head banging
Owen Harris and Max Hayden were working the customer service desk at Quinpool Road’s Canadian Tire, dreaming about making a record. The longtime friends and next-door neighbours had grown up together where Halifax’s south and west ends meet, bonding over emo and punk music, and jamming as teenagers when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down their […]
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How Aysanabee’s late grandfather sparked the singer-songwriter’s latest tour
Aysanabee isn’t superstitious, but these days he’s having a hard time chalking some things up to mere coincidence. Fresh off an Australian tour, the two-time JUNO Award-winner from Sandy Lake First Nation is embarking on his first headlining trip across eastern Canada. It’s a big moment for the Oji-Cree singer-songwriter, who had a banner year […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Trio of art shows on Black resilience, faith, cultural pride opens at Dalhousie Art Gallery
This February, African Heritage Month, let the Dalhousie Art Gallery be a beacon for community power, intergenerational knowledge sharing and creative resistance. Let it be a salve for the isolating chill of not winter but the racist, fascist and systematic efforts to scapegoat, divide and erase communities, cultures and histories. From Feb 4 through Apr […]
