Voice of the City

My coming out happened in stages. When I began dating my first girlfriend in high school, I told a few friends, a feminist cousin, and a high school English teacher. I came out to my Dad in an email in 2012, explaining that the girl I’d called my best friend for months was actually my […]

It was the summer of 1997. I was 14. I had known I was becoming sexually attracted to other girls for a while. It started off as innocent, playing house with my girlfriends but both being the Mommy, that kind of thing. Eventually, as myself and my playmates grew a little older and a little […]

I was disappointed when I heard the news that Empire House, the youth shelter in Bridgewater, was closing. I am disturbed by the growing trend of shutting down (or replacing, rather than replenishing) much-needed services in the rural regions of the province where they are essential for promoting and maintaining cohesion within communities. Empire House […]

Team Nova Scotia on the Kiva microcredit website reaches a milestone this week. Through Kiva, people lend funds to microcredit organizations worldwide who in turn lend to entrepreneurs in Mali or Kenya or Guatemala to expand their businesses— like buying a proper barber’s chair, or fabric to sew or seeds to farm. This week, for example, […]

Running a social enterprise presents many challenges and contradictions. Last week I requested that council look out for The Bus Stop Theatre’s future by requiring changes to (or not approving) the proposed designs for the Housing Trust’s eight-storey apartment building. Throughout the process of public information sessions and review, I have continuously been overooked, patronized […]

I’ll admit that I slept through the Park Place Theatre fire. My first waking moments on Sunday morning, June 1, were met with a flood of text messages from Shakespeare By The Sea’s co-artistic director Elizabeth Murphy and actor/technical director Tom Gordon Smith. When Tom isn’t joking you know it’s a serious matter. I leapt […]

If you are reading this on the day it hits the street, it’s June 5, 2014. The Coast is celebrating its 21st birthday and therefore born in 1993, the year I turned 39. And 39 + 21 = OMG. Today I turn 60. Which I cannot fucking understand. Please believe me when I tell you […]

With the growing list of assaults, the recent uprising of debates against rape culture and the extensive media coverage on mostly negative aspects of these topics, it is no argument in my mind that our community is extremely lacking of education regarding sexual violence. I was an A-plus student in school. I loved my teachers […]

Imagine stepping onstage and performing an original piece of poetry from the heart for an audience. Once the applause is finished, you hear the MC read out the scores from the five randomly selected judges. “A 7.5, an eight, an eight, a six, a nine and a 9.5” amid the cheers and jeers of the […]

While Halifax’s new “branding promise” may cause some to snicker, in truth, I would love to see the city live up to it. Decisive choices will be needed to make this city the thriving node it could one day be. (And to be clear, being bold does not mean allowing the same old tired 1960s-style […]

Recently, I stopped into a coffee shop on Quinpool Road for a latte. I asked to speak to the owner to request permission to post a recruitment flyer for two new research studies. The top of the flyer says “Do you (or your partner) experience pain during sex?” The owner responded that “those kinds of […]