Working in Uncertainty - Dance Workshop
2026-05-09 11:00 - 13:00 (America/Halifax) | Breaking Circus, 2164 Amalamek Wy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 2WB3K 2W4, Canada
With Jessie Garon of Vazari
This workshop is geared towards professional artists from any medium with a performance practice, as well as students in pre-professional programs.
Working In Uncertainty plays with agency, togetherness, and uncertainty through a group improvisation structure. We explore uncertainty as a rich creative state without ego and look for ways to embrace it. This workshop encourages a playful approach to build skills as an interpreter and improvisor. Participants practise following impulses, supporting fellow performers, and diving into their own creativity. As a group we question; what is required for us to retain full agency while participating completely in heightened togetherness? How can safety and negotiation be built into the practice so we all take part?
Admission by donation. Please RSVP here:

JESSIE GARON (Artistic Director of Vazari Dance Projects) is a queer performer and choreographer working in contemporary dance theatre. Originally from a homesteaded family farm in Alberta, she is now based in Tkaronto/Toronto. She is a graduate of Dance Arts Institute after which she interned for Ate9 Dance Company (Los Angeles) under Artistic Director Danielle Agami studying Gaga Movement Language daily. Since 2014, she has participated primarily in collaborative processes blending performative forms. Her work incites the potential of dance virtuosity, rigor and spectacle as materials to craft spirited, athletic and abstract dance theatre. She has worked with artists such as Brandy Leary/Anandam Dance Theatre, Jennifer Dallas/Kemi Contemporary Dance Projects, Serge Bennathan, Lemi Ponifasio/MAU (New Zealand), Clarice Lima/Futura (Brazil) and Sara Porter. Garon is the founder and Artistic Director of Vazari Arts. As a creator she is nominated for the 2024 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. Her work has been shown across Canada, including the Theatre Centre (ON), Pumphouse Theatre (AB), Refinery Theatre (SK), Édifice Wilder Espace Danse (QC) and Salle Bernard-LeBlanc (NB).

Raising Big Questions
2026-05-09 13:00 - 16:00 | Halifax Common, 5816 Cogswell Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 4B2, Canada
YOU FRGOT SOMETHING, Collaboration with Luke Hathaway. Photo by John Haney.
By Andrew Maize in collaboration with El Jones, Seán Kennedy and Sue Goyette
***NEW DATE AND LOCATION: SUNDAY May 9th 1-4pm – Sue Goyette @ Halifax Common
**Please note that exact time and location are subject to change according to weather and wind conditions. Rain-Wind Dates will be scheduled according to forecast/availability. Please refer to our website and social media accounts @mayworkskjipuktukhfx for the latest information.
We live in punishing and brutal times. Language plays a crucial role in how we make sense of the world. In language, we can bear witness, negotiate meaning, and call-out the people and systems of power to hold them accountable. Language has long been a creative and powerful tool in labour and social justice movements, with the ability to encapsulate and embody a movement or a moment.
The arrival of May is the arrival of kite season. For Mayworks, Maize has invited 3 word-workers; El Jones, Seán Kennedy and Sue Goyette, to compose aerial text banners to be flown across the city. The Mayworks audience is invited to help fly these kite banners. By working collectively to lift language up into the sky – we embody a public discourse of sorts, fielding critical challenges and raising big questions.
RAISING BIG QUESTIONS is an ongoing project by Andrew Maize, that uses a home-made, modular kite-letter to compose aerial text banners in the sky. Kite-flying is a joyful, analogue and collective activity – one that must be responsive to both the weather and site. Location of the events will be dependent on environmental factors, including wind direction.
Stay tuned closer to the date on the Mayworks Website and social media @mayworkskjipuktukhfx for announcements.
NOTE: Andrew is offering a kite-flying workshop on April 25th. Find details at GO FLY A KITE.

ANDREW MAIZE is an artist. His playful, collaborative and improvisational approach to making art is contingent on the relationships of environmental, social, and material situations. Recent collaborative explorations include mobile instruments for improvised performances, wind-powered kinetic sculptures, and experimental drawing practices (using local sourced inks and candle smoke). He seeks collaborations across disciplines to expand improvisational practices as tools for embodying more responsive and adaptable ways of being, by welcoming the fundamental agency of uncertainty. As an arts educator and organizer, he has been involved in collaborative projects that engage communities with art, in both traditional and non-traditional spaces. Maize graduated with a BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax NS in 2012, and a MFA from the University of Guelph in 2021. He is the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including SSHRCC, Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Nova Scotia.

DR. EL JONES. Author, poet, journalist, educator, and advocate. Dr. El Jones is all these things and more, an outspoken activist, thinker and writer whose strengths converge in her spoken word performances. A respected poet, Dr. Jones was two-time National Slam champion in 2007 and 2008, Poet Laureate of Halifax in 2013-2015, resident of the International Writing Program at University of Iowa in 2015, and poet in residence at University of Toronto Scarborough in 2021. What defines her achievements is a commitment to activism and community advocacy to highlight inequities and redress injustices. The recognition of her performances, teaching and political commitment testifies to the exceptional influence she has exercised during the Black Lives Matter movement and the expansion of Black scholarship in Canadian academia.

SUE GOYETTE lives in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) and has published ten books of poems and a novel. Her latest collection is Future Howl, (Gaspereau Press, 2025). She is the editor of Resistance: Righteous Rage in the Age of #MeToo (University of Regina Press, 2021), The 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology (Anansi, 2017) and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 (Tightrope Books, 2013). Her work has been translated into French, Spanish and German and has been featured in films, subways, buses, spray painted on a sidewalk and tattooed. Her work has been nominated for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Award and has won several awards including the Dalhousie University Teaching Award, 2021; the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation (Océan translated by Georgette Leblanc), 2020; J.M. Abraham Poetry Award 2016, 2012; ReLit Award 2016; 2014 Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award; 2013 National Magazine Award, Silver; 2012 Pat Lowther Award for Poetry; Bliss Carman Poetry Award, 2011; The Established Artist Recognition Award, NS, 2011; 2010 Earle Birney Award; 2008 CBC Literary Award for Poetry; as well as the 2015 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award for her collection, Ocean. Sue teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Dalhousie University.

SEÁN KENNEDY is Professor of English and Coordinator of Irish Studies. Their research interests include Samuel Beckett, Queer Ireland, Ireland in Psychoanalysis, Zionism, and the “Erotics of Irish Austerity” (the ways in which austerity economics is troped in terms of the kinky language of discipline, control and humiliation). Publications include Beckett and Ireland (Cambridge UP, 2010), Send In the Clowns! (OR Books, 2025) and Beckett beyond the normal (in progress). Kennedy is the coordinator for Unsettling Irish Studies.

Event photo by John Haney

Music of Liberation
2026-05-09 19:00 - 21:00 | 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.

Field Trip: Charles Macdonald Concrete House Museum
2026-08-29 09:00 - 15:30 | Charles Macdonald Concrete House Museum, 19 Saxon St, Centreville, Nova Scotia, B0P 1J0, Canada
Heritage home of early 20th century socialist and artist Charles Macdonald!
Join us for a field trip to the Charles Macdonald Concrete House Museum. Labour folklorist Emma Lang (guide of our popular Working Class Heritage Tours) will share some of the labour history of the places we’ll be driving through on the way!
Charles Macdonald (1874-1967)
Charles Macdonald was born in Nova Scotia and as a young man travelled the world working as a ship’s carpenter. He lived in Vancouver from 1908-1910 where he joined the fledgling Socialist Party of Canada. Returning to the Annapolis Valley in 1912, he created the now celebrated Concrete House in Centreville. The building was first used as a small cooperative factory for the North Mountain Railroad, and then as a home, where he lived with his wife Mabel for forty years. Macdonald operated his concrete company as a socialist experiment and also helped create the Centreville Socialists with Roscoe A. Fillmore, Frank Parry and Jim Sim. His artwork, sculptures, paintings, and rugs hooked by Mabel are all still on display in their Concrete House. Today MacDonald is remembered as a folk artist and builder who transformed everyday materials into sculptural spaces and vibrant murals.
Concrete House Museum
Known as a whimsical landmark in Centreville where art, community, and imagination come together, this one-of-a-kind building was hand-crafted by Nova Scotia folk artist and builder Charles Macdonald. The factory-turned-home showcases his creativity and experimentation with concrete as an affordable and versatile material, explorations which were rooted in his socialist beliefs. Visitors explore a living gallery filled with history, creativity, and surprising details around every corner. From its playful architecture to its connection with local makers, the Concrete House invites visitors of all ages to slow down, look closely, and be inspired.
Bus Tour
As we make our way from Halifax to Centerville, folklorist Emma Lang will set the scene of our visit by sharing information on how labour has shaped the landscape we pass through, from canals to railroads to highways and from small farms to industrial agriculture.
Itinerary
9:00 AM – Departure from Halifax Public Gardens (Spring Garden Rd) via Coach Atlantic Bus
11:00 AM – Arrival at the Charles Macdonald Concrete House Museum in Centreville, NS
12:30 PM – Departure from Centreville, NS
1:00 PM – Stop for lunch at Pizza Lupa in Wolfville (meal not included in ticket price)
3:30 PM – Arrival in Halifax (time is approximate)
Tickets
Tickets are available on a sliding scale from $15 to $25. Please consider offering within your means to support the work we do. The ticket includes the guided bus trip and tour of the museum, but does not include the cost of a meal on the return stop. If cost is a barrier, email info@mayworkskjipuktukhfx.ca to ask for a PWYC ticket. Seating is limited, reserve early!

Accessibility
The museum and gallery are wheelchair accessible. Parking is available from Saxon St. The second floor is not open to the public. Service animals are welcome. The museum has a single bathroom only, which is not wheelchair accessible. A stop to a nearby gas station will be made prior to arrival for bathroom usage.
Meal
After leaving the museum, we will be making a stop in downtown Wolfville at 1:00 PM for a group meal at Pizza Lupa where a variety of appetizers and pizzas will be served for the group.

**This meal is not included in the tour ticket fee and costs an additional $20+HST to be paid individually at the restaurant. This price does not include drinks, which may be ordered individually on site.**

You are not obligated to participate in this group meal for lunch, but will otherwise need to bring your own brown bag lunch for the return trip home. In order to best cater to the needs of the group, please fill out the Food Order Form at your earliest convenience by following the link below.

FOOD ORDER FORM
Bingo for Better
This is a great way to check off a few things on your bingo card! Find out more at bingoforbetter.ca

Call for Submissions: Mayworks 2027
2026-10-02 23:30 | NS
Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax celebrates workers, justice and solidarity through art.
Our festival presents works of art of any discipline that explore the connection between the labour movement and art, art-making as labour, as well as struggles against racial injustice, environmental injustice, and other forms of injustice.
We encourage applications from underrepresented or marginalized artists, including Indigenous, Black, Disabled, Two-Spirit and trans artists, as well as artists from communities of colour and language minority communities.
Submissions need not be directly focused on work, labour or unions. In making our curatorial decisions, we look for works that are at the forefront of creative exploration, while also highlighting the political nature of artistic work. We look to include stories from Queer, Disabled, Black and Indigenous communities, in addition to content that speaks to working class and feminist struggles.
🌟 Mayworks programming is chosen by a committee including our staff members and guest curators.
🌟 Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax uses the Bus Stop Theatre as its main venue w/additional venues as needed.
🌟 Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax provides presentation fees only, not fees for development and creation (but feel free to ask for a letter of support).
Submit via Google Form here
Deadline: October 2nd, 2026
Applicants will be notified of their result by the end of November.
