When author and activist Joan Kuyek moved to Sudbury, Ontario, she noticed unusual surroundings. “I couldn’t believe the city when we first came in. I mean, at that point it was black rocks everywhere,” she says by phone from Ottawa. The landscape had been burnt by a hundred years of smelting in North America’s richest […]
Book launch
Posted inNews + Opinion
Unconditional Body Love
Sometimes what we crave most is a bolt of lightning, a moment of pristine clarity. But, if Jessie Harrold knows anything, it’s that we need to capture the lightning for ourselves—that we have to decide what things are sure and certain. The life coach, doula and mother of two—who’s recently added author to her list […]
Posted inArts + Music
How to be a feminist killjoy
Notes from a Feminist Killjoy book launch Monday, November 14, 6:30pm Art Bar + Projects, 1873 Granville Street free When Erin Wunker presented a paper on rape culture at a Brock University panel in 2014, she was thinking about all the usual things: Calming her nerves, fine-tuning her speech, remembering key points. As she prepared, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Salvage, Stephen Maher’s South Shore murder mystery
When Stephen Maher was living in Halifax in 2003, he was perhaps best known to the public as an editor at the Chronicle Herald. But outside of work, Maher had another passion—sailing. In 2003, he bought his second sailboat: a battered fibreglass 1982 Tanzer, which briefly lived in Chester on the South Shore, and eventually […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hurt, hope, healing and the NS Home for Colored Children
“It’s a difficult read,” says Wanda Taylor, the author of The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, a comprehensive history of the structure that stood in rural Dartmouth for over 70 years. The Home was the site of extreme abuse and neglect for hundreds of African-Nova Scotian children in the protective care of the Nova […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tuesday’s 3 must-know Halifax things
1 A hot take on hot dogs is slated for the corner of Agricola and Charles Streets thanks to T-DOGS, a New York-style hot dog cart serving up handmade sausages courtesy of Tony Rinaldo, his best bud Patrick Lowe and his brother Sam. Local ingredients, family recipes and chef-inspired creative twists are coming for us […]
Posted inArts + Music
The history of Freedom
“I taught junior and senior high for 32 years and I realized there were no really good materials about Black history, most people skipped over it. No one took out *Beneath the Clouds of the Promised Land* from the book room,” says Nova Scotian author and poet Gloria Ann Wesley. “I thought, ‘what will they […]
Posted inArts + Music
Q&A with Claire Seringhaus
Claire Seringhaus’ new book, The Blaring House, charms, confounds and tickles your brain. Detailed pen and graphite drawings with absurdly humourous captions on page after surreal page form a cohesive world—one that’s nostalgic, with equal parts spooky and goofy. The Blaring House launch is Friday, July 13 at Lost & Found (2383 Agricola, 6-8pm) in […]
Posted inArts + Music
Uncanny Mikenesses
Mike Holmes (of True Story fame, in this very paper!) is releasing a book showcasing the value of putting yourself in other people’s shoes. Mikenesses, funded entirely through a successful Indiegogo campaign, features Holmes imaginging himself (and sometimes his portly cat Ella) drawn in 100 different styles, those of his favourite cartoon, comic book, children’s […]
Posted inArts + Music
Ami McKay’s doctor’s notes
Ami McKay’s second novel, The Virgin Cure, (being launched Tuesday, October 25 at Bayers Lake Chapters, 7pm, followed by a Q&A) began with her curiosity about the life of her great great grandmother, Dr. Sarah Fonda Mackintosh, one of the first female physicians in 1870s New York City. The painted portrait of Mackintosh that hung […]
Posted inArts + Music
Track & Trace, Zachariah Wells (Biblioasis)
Zachariah Wells (reading this Thursday with Wayne Clifford and Amy Jones, 6pm at The Company House) frequently tunes to the world in winter, searching out its subtleties with heightened sense, a pursuit implied by title, design and illustrations by Seth. The PEI native’s rural settings are recognizably Maritime, and the power of the landscape to […]