You think you know how African music sounds: You still know the words to K’naan’s last hit and your record collection includes Mumford and Son’s Johannesburg EP. Drips of the continent’s varied music land on your eardrums, but what you don’t know, yet, is that there’s an African rock star whose loose, noodling guitar is […]
Section Feature
Posted inArts + Music
Jazz Fest: Bernice
Without jazz, there’d be no Bernice. All five members completed undergrad degrees in jazz performance at different schools, but ended up forming a band that leans more toward minimalistic pop. “After school, I didn’t quite feel like [jazz] was my path forward in music and started really focusing on writing my own songs,” says Robin […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia makes changes for non-binary birth certificates
Nova Scotian residents and born applicants can now obtain a new birth certificate or drivers license displaying M, F or X, as well as have the option not to have displayed at all. As of July 9, these changes include the sex indicator X, which will be available for individuals who do not identify exclusively […]
Posted inLove the Way We Bitch/Love
Barbecue bigot
To the fat-ass who went out of his way to interrupt my wife and her friends while they were conversing amongst themselves in their native language to tell them that they should speak in English, here’s what you should do: Mind your own fucking business. I bet you felt like a real big shot harassing […]
Posted inArts + Music
The evolution of Tim Baker
Tim Baker w/Kathleen Edwards Wednesday, July 10, 7:30pm Halifax Jazz Festival waterfront stage Lower Water at Salter Streets $45 ($189 festival pass) S solo career for Tim Baker wasn’t quite starting all over again. It was a new adventure of discovery with its own challenges. When the Newfoundland indie-rock band Hey Rosetta! called it quits […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Inside Canada’s foreclosure playground
Up on the third floor of The Law Courts building in Halifax, down a long corridor from the elevator, is Room 314. It’s an unremarkable space, across the hall from one of the courtrooms. There are a couple of cheap office desks, a few mismatched chairs and an old green filing cabinet in the corner. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Why foreclosure happens in Nova Scotia
Foreclosure is perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of a huge problem facing Canadians: Skyrocketing debt. And the picture is particularly dire in the Atlantic region. According the Canadian Payroll Association, 45 percent of Atlantic Canadians say they are overwhelmed by debt, compared to the national average of 40 percent. And when it comes to mortgages, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Visual arts review: group effort at The Craig Gallery
To July 21 The Craig Gallery, 2 Ochterloney Street Group effort, the aptly named exhibition at Dartmouth’s Craig Gallery, features work by eight artists at various stages in their careers. Since 2006, Visual Arts Nova Scotia’s mentorship program has paired emerging and established artists for a 10-month period; the resulting show works to highlight the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Service dogs mean freedom for a Halifax woman with unique abilities
Dawne Fraser has dyskinetic cerebral palsy. The physical disability causes involuntary, repetitive muscle contractions. But that doesn’t mean Fraser is disabled. Instead, she calls herself an able-body person with unique abilities. Those abilities have helped her through a 20-year teaching career and two businesses. An advocate for “uniquely abled” people, Fraser says she has remained […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Vintage clothing for plus bodies, by plus bodies
For Olivia Weir—the curatorial eye behind Instagram account Fat Chance Vintage—a love of thrift that saw her skipping high school to hit up Value Village became more than a hobby with the speed of a Nike swoosh. She held a 1980s bomber from the brand in a thrift shop, and, as she recalls, “It was […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
This shit is bananas
Another summer in Halifax, another stretch of months watching a plant die. For the first time in history there are bananas growing in the Halifax Public Gardens. The musa acuminate AKA dwarf banana plant has been growing in the gardens for eight to 10 years, and this spring began to produce fruit. There are over […]
Posted inArts + Music
In the Dead of Winter takes 2020 off
Following last month’s announcement that a cease-and-desist from artist Shepard Fairey will force the OBEY Convention to change its name for 2020, comes the announcement from another small-and-tough festival, the 14-year-old In the Dead of Winter: It’s taking next year off. “It’s expensive and it’s hard to do this right now, so we’re taking a […]
