Mayworks Kjipuktuk-Halifax

Music of Liberation
2026-05-09 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax) | Joseph Strug Concert Hall, 1385 Seymour Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3M6, Canada
With John Kameel Farah
Presented in partnership with Upstream Music Association

All proceeds will be donated to the Sameer Project in Palestine
$10 in advance and $15 at the door

If cost is a barrier, please reach out to info@mayworkskjipuktukhalifax.ca and we will accommodate you.

In this extraordinary concert, Palestinian-Canadian pianist and composer John Kameel Farah embraces elements of Baroque and Near-Eastern music, improvisation and electronic music to create what he calls “Arabic-Baroque-Cyberpunk.” Surrounding the piano with synthesizers, he combines a vivid and playful imagination with virtuosic musicianship. Accompanied by projections of his intricate ink drawings, the performance sounds through the lens of Palestinian struggle, identity and heritage, drawing connections across histories and liberation movements.

“In performance, Farah ranges all over his instruments while setting up textures and countertextures, moving deftly from acoustic to electronic episodes, and testing and deploying his materials with a mixture of scientific care and wild abandon. Improvisation is a key working method, both at his various keyboards and in the execution of electronic beats and processes that are equally at the core of his approach.
“Frenetic and contemplative in turn, Farah’s music is underpinned by a deep emotional and spiritual reservoir which, when framed through his exceptional musicality and virtuosic instrumental command, packs his highly original music with considerable and undeniable clout.”
-Scott Thompson, Guelph Jazz Festival

JOHN KAMEEL FARAH is one of Canada’s most creative and imaginative composers. He is a Palestinian-Canadian pianist whose music embraces Baroque and Arabic Music, experimental improvisation and electronics. He studied at the University of Toronto, where he received the Glenn Gould Composition Award twice and afterwards had private lessons with Terry Riley in California, and later at the Arabic Music Retreat in Hartford. He has been a member of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble since 2010, and was a guest-performer with Tangerine Dream in Toronto in 2023.
THE SAMEER PROJECT is a Palestinian-led mutual aid group supporting people in Gaza during the genocide. It is a donations based initiative, led by Palestinians in the diaspora, who are working to supply aid to displaced families in Gaza. Fiscal host: Social Change Nest.

Found in Translation / Trouvé dans la traduction
2026-05-10 16:00 - 18:15 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
By Sometimes in Nova Scotia (SiNS)

May 10, 4:00pm-6:15pm (durational – drop in anytime)

Cette présentation est présentée en anglais et en français grâce au soutient du gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Écosse.
La description ci-bas alterne entre l’anglais et le français.

ASL interpretation will be available
Childcare available on site for free. Please register in advance. / Gardiennage gratuit disponible sur place. SVP instrivez-vous à l’avance (formulaire en anglais).

Found in Translation is an interactive performance in which small objects are translated into movement, drawing, and poetry through a series of playful transformations. Audience members are invited to join with performers to uncover illuminating potentials in the things that surround us.
Found in Translation originated as part of Eastern Front Theatre’s Macro Digitals: CONNECTIONS under the guidance of Kat McCormack, with collaborators Katie Clarke, Breton Lalama, Logan Robins, Gillian Seaward-Boone and Rebecca Wolfe.

Trouvé dans la traduction est une performance interactive où de petits objets se transforment en mouvements, dessins et poèmes grâce à une série de métamorphoses ludiques. Le public est invité à se joindre aux artistes pour découvrir le potentiel insoupçonné des objets qui nous entourent.
Cette pièce a été créée en 2022 avec les membres de la distribution originale Jacinte Armstrong, Katie Clarke, Breton Lalama, Logan Robbins, Gillian Seaward-Boone et Rebecca Wolfe, avec la dramaturge Kat MacCormack, et produite par Eastern Front Theatre, Dartmouth, NS.

Found in Translation is an interactive performance that transforms small objects into movement, drawing, and poetry through a kind of artistic “assembly line.” Six performers take part at a time, rotating through all of the roles: hosting, describing, drawing, dancing, typing poems, and reading them aloud. Crucially, the “machine” is always activated by audience participation. An audience member begins each round by arranging objects, and at the end of the cycle, they receive the poem that was generated and read out specifically for them – an artistic “gift” created through the collective process.

Trouvé dans la traduction est une performance interactive qui transforme de petits objets en mouvement, dessin et poésie grâce à une sorte de « chaîne de montage » artistique. Six performeurs participent simultanément, endossant tour à tour tous les rôles : présenter, décrire, dessiner, danser, taper des poèmes et les lire à voix haute. Point essentiel, la « machine » est toujours activée par la participation du public. Un spectateur initie chaque cycle en disposant des objets, et à la fin, il reçoit le poème créé et lu spécialement pour lui – un « cadeau » artistique né de ce processus collectif.
Ensemble:
Nadine Sures
Mila Sahmarani
Geneviève Steele
Winnie Sherwood
Daphné Sherwood
Susan Leblanc
Françoise Labelle
Liliona Quarmyne
Zya Langdon-Quarmyne
Micaela Comeau
Isabelle Peart
Jacinte Armstrong

JACINTE ARMSTRONG (she/her) is an Acadian artist based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, NS. Her work explores embodied practice through performance, choreography, collaboration, and curation, communicating the experience of the body in relation to objects, materials, and people. Her choreography ranges from intimate and imagistic to large-scale collaborations with dancers, architects, visual artists, radio producers, filmmakers, actors and musicians. A leader in the Atlantic region, she is Artistic Director and co-founder of SiNS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia) Dance, Artistic Director of suddenlyLISTEN, and collaborates regularly with Mocean Dance. From 2014-18, she was Artistic Director of Kinetic Studio.
In 2016, Jacinte was awarded an Established Artist Recognition Award by the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council, and a Masterworks Award for her work in Mocean Dance’s “Canvas 5×5” choreographed by Tedd Robinson. She holds an MFA in Performance from NSCAD University and is a certified in Laban Movement Analysis.
JACINTE ARMSTRONG (elle) est une artiste acadienne basée à Kjipuktuk/Halifax, en Nouvelle-Écosse. Son travail explore la pratique incarnée à travers la performance, la chorégraphie, la collaboration et le commissariat. Elle communique l’expérience du corps en relation avec les objets, les matériaux, l’environnement, la technologie et les personnes. Ses chorégraphies vont de l’intime et de l’imaginaire à des collaborations à grande échelle avec des danseur-euses, des architectes, des artistes visuel-les, des producteur-rices de radio, des cinéastes, des créateur-rices de théâtre, des programmeur-euses informatiques et des musicien-nes. Jacinte est titulaire d’une maîtrise en beaux-arts en performance de l’Université NSCAD et est certifiée analyste du mouvement Laban (CMA).

Event photos by Laura Demers and Daniel Wittnebel
Headshot of Jacinte Armstrong by Kevin MacCormack

On the Line - Artist Reception
2026-05-10 16:00 - 19:00 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
By Audrey Eastwood
On display May 1 to June 1
Reception on May 10, 4:00pm-6:15pm
Artist Q&A on May 10, 6:15pm-7:00pm

Childcare is available for free and on site during the May 10th reception and Q&A. Please register in advance.
ASL interpretation will be available during the May 10 Reception and Q&A

On the Line is a time-lapse video and photo compilation of six months’ worth of one of domestic labor’s most repetitive and relentless tasks: laundry. By documenting every load washed, every dryer load, and every line of drying clothes, the project seeks to show the cumulative weight of an everyday chore, particularly within the context of parenting and motherhood.

AUDREY EASTWOOD is a multi-disciplinary artist, General Manager of the Bus Stop Theatre Co-op, and Co-Founder and Artistic Producer of Terra Novella Theatre. She has worked as an actor, designer, musician, technician, and fight choreographer for a number of Kjipuktuk based companies including Villain’s Theatre, Kick at the Dark Theatre Co-op, Halifax Summer Opera, Halifax Fringe, Votive Dance and Whale Song Theatre. She is the mother of two young children, and lives on a small farm with them and her partner Nick. Her artistic practice has shifted in the last few years to try and find space in the small gaps of time between work and childcare: cutting floral designs into sourdough bread, filling indoor and outdoor spaces with plants, teaching her kids the names of different birds and trees and how to successfully cut paper without cutting your small fingers, and by making this art piece out of her never ending laundry pile.

Am I Ovary-Acting?
2026-05-10 19:00 - 20:00 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
By Lunasea Theatre
$10 in advance and $15 at the door

If cost is a barrier, please reach out to info@mayworkskjipuktukhalifax.ca and we will accommodate you.

Childcare is available for free and on site during the May 10th reception and Q&A. Please register in advance.
ASL interpretation will be available.

Am I Ovary-Acting? is a work by LunaSea Theatre about reproductive justice that examines commonly held beliefs about health and medical care for those with ovaries/uteruses/vaginas. Through comedy, storytelling, rage and disbelief we explore reproductive health and justice through relevant objects. At Mayworks, our focus will be the history, uses and misuses of the speculum. This 50 minute show is part ted-talk, part conversation, part storytelling. When it comes to health and reproductive justice the political and social landscape right now is rife with misinformation, disinformation and half-truths. We are here to press against that tide with nuanced conversation and evidence-based information in a fun, curious, theatrical way.
Credits:
Created and performed by Kathleen Dorian and Ailsa Galbreath
Research by Claire Horn

KATHLEEN DORIAN (she/her) is a creator/actor based in Dartmouth, NS (Punamu’kwati’jk). She is co-Artistic Director of LunaSea Theatre, Nova Scotia’s foremost feminist theatre company (most recently producing SoloFest, a festival of new one-act works), and one quarter of the clown-troupe-turned-accidental-theatre-company Tea Time Creation Co. (First Date/Last Date, Gina Is Dead, Romeo & Juliet: A Drink Along, Midsummer Night’s Wet Dream). She has had the great pleasure of working with extremely talented Halifax peers as an actor (How Quickly Things Change – xo secret theatre; This is Nowhere, How Small How Far Away – Zuppa Theatre; The Very Hungry Caterpillar, My Favourite Story Book/Guess How Much I Love You, The Rainbow Fish – Mermaid Theatre) as well as an assistant director and director (Some Blow Flutes – HomeFirst Theatre, Booby Trap – Rooks Field Green). Kathleen is interested in puppetry, story through movement and magic, and meeting her audience in the space between performance and reality.
AILSA GALBREATH (she/her) is a theatre artist based in Punamu’kwati’jk (Dartmouth). Ailsa is an actor, creator, and producer. She is passionate about new work. Recently, Ailsa performed as a puppeteer in Gale Force’s ambitious outdoor creation Icarus: Falling of Birds. Ailsa played Flute in Neptune Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream last season. She performed in Two Planks and a Passion’s season of The Mountain and the Valley and Chased by the Bear. She has worked with Ship’s Company Theatre, Gale Force Theatre, PARC, secret theatre, EFT, HomeFirst, Zuppa Theatre, LunaSea Theatre Co, Halifax Theatre for Young People and Villain’s Theatre. Ailsa is 1/4th of Tea Time Creation Co, a clown troupe who seek to subvert the status quo with wacky fun, through the creation of new work and reinvention of classics. Ailsa is a certified teacher of the Interactive Teaching Method of the Alexander Technique. She is the Co-Artistic Director of LunaSea Theatre Company, a feminist theatre company whose work centres the voices of women, non-binary, and underrepresented genders.

CLAIRE HORN is a writer and researcher with a PhD in law (University of London) and an MA in gender and legal studies (NYU). From 2021-2024, she was a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University’s Health Justice Institute, and she has held research fellowships with the Modern Law Review and the Wellcome Trust. She has researched and taught in law and policy governing sexual and reproductive health, rights, and technologies for six years and has published with a variety of nonfiction venues as well as academic journals including Body & Society, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, The Journal of Medical Ethics, the Medical Law Review and Feminist Legal Studies. Her first book, Eve: The Disobedient Future of Birth, was published in 2023 and was longlisted for the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award.
