Mayworks Kjipuktuk-Halifax

Reel Justice - L'nui'skw Spotlight
2025-05-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax) | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
Curated by Lara Lewis
This year’s Reel Justice offerings are snapshots of the lives of different Mi’kmaw women’s lives from the past to the present. From traditional stories to modern women, the creators and subjects of these women’s narratives place a strong emphasis on relationality, family, and cultural engagement.

Films

Waseteg (2010, dir. Phyllis Grant) – 6 min
Waseteg is the story of a young Mi’kmaq girl whose name means “the light from the Dawn.” A short story about dreams, courage, identity, creation and embracing our Elders, Waseteg showcases Phyllis Grant’s signature style of bold lines, bright colours and simple movements. The film is beautifully narrated by legendary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin.

Mi’kmaw Family (dir. Catherine Martin, 1995) – 32 min
This documentary takes you on a reflective journey into the extended family of Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq community. Revisiting her own roots, Mi’kmaq filmmaker and mother Catherine Anne Martin explores how the community is recovering its First Nations values, particularly through the teachings of elders and a collective approach to children-rearing. Mi’kmaq Family is an inspiring resource for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences who are looking for ways to strengthen and explore their own families and traditions.

Klusuaqnn Ajknu’kl (dir. Stephanie Joline, 2021) – 22 min
Mi’kmaw poet and published author Rebecca Thomas uses words for a living, but she can’t speak the language stolen from her father at residential school. Words Matter follows her journey to reclaim the language while exploring the complicated past that’s kept it from her. This version is narrated in Mi’kmaw and with spoken English subtitled in Mi’kmaw.

Darlene Bernard: Women of this Land (dir. Stephanie Joline, 2023) – 22 min
Part of a 4-part documentary series about Indigenous women in Atlantic Canada and how they connect to land and culture. In this episode – Chief Darlene Bernard. Bernard reflects on her position as Chief, relationships with her community, and ageing.

Welima’q (dir. shalan joudry, 2024) – 5min
A gently mesmerizing piece exploring the profound meaning of sweetgrass picking through multidisciplinary artist shalan joudry’s lens. An immersive celebration of nature’s gifts and Indigenous traditions.

Childcare will be provided for this event. Please use this REGISTRATION FORM.

In True Colour: A Celebration of Black Canadian Animators
2025-05-08 19:00 - 21:00 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
Presented in partnership with the Animation Festival of Halifax
This 50-minute collection of short films by Black animators imagines new worlds and reflects creatively on this one. These artists bring us a richness of approaches and voices.
In classics and in new work by emerging artists, we see handmade and computer-generated images, Afrofuturistic visions and animations deeply grounded in archival research, abstract meditations and trenchant critiques.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with ASL interpretation.
Special Guests attending post-screening panel discussion via video-link: Sydnie Baynes (African American Express, City Shock, Unity in the Early Morning), Magalie Boutin (Head of Media Relations, National Film Board), and Tara Taylor (Penny Candy).
Artist Biographies
Sydnie Baynes
Sydnie Baynes is a visual artist and animator with a Film Animation degree from Concordia University, blending traditional and digital mediums to explore Black history and femininity. Through her animated films, she celebrates identity and heritage, inspiring viewers to embrace their narratives and the richness of Black culture. More info: sydniebaynes.com
Tara Taylor
Tara Lynn Taylor is a playwright, filmmaker, multimedia artist, singer, and actress. She supports other artists through organizations, including the Charles Taylor Theatre & Media Arts Association (of which she is Founder and Chair), which presents the Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival and the Breaking Through the Screens and Black Above the Line film training program for African Canadians. She is also the owner/partner of A Cultural Explosion Television streaming network hosted on ROKU and APPLE TV, the Inaugural Artist in Residence for the Halifax Public Libraries, the 2021 Winner of the African Nova Scotian Music Awards Industry Development Award for presenting music for theatre and film, and recipient of the 2024 Black Artist Recognition award.
This event is co-presented by Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax and the Animation Festival of Halifax. With thanks to the Prismatic Arts Festival.

FILMS

T.V. Tango (1992, dir. Martine Chartrand) – 4 min
Four children who have picked up all sorts of annoying behaviour from watching television decide instead to create their own games. This animated film for five- to eight-year-olds is intended to awaken children’s critical sense regarding the media messages aimed at them.

Black Soul (Âme noire) (2000, dir. Martine Chartrand) – 9 min
Martine Chartrand’s animated short dives into the heart of Black culture with an exhilarating trip though history. Watch as a young boy traces his roots through the stories his grandmother shares with him about the events that shaped their cultural heritage.

MacPherson (2013, dir. Martine Chartrand) – 11 min
This animated film by Martine Chartrand (Black Soul) recounts the friendship between a young Félix Leclerc and Frank Randolph Macpherson, a Jamaican chemical engineer and university graduate who worked for a pulp and paper company. An inveterate jazz fan, Macpherson inspired Leclerc, who wrote a song about the log drives and entitled it “MacPherson” in honour of his friend. Paint-on-glass animation shot with a 35mm camera.

By Winds and Tides (2022, dir. Bogdan Anifrani Fedach) – 3 min
Exploring the conscious, the unconscious and the self, By Winds and Tides takes a deep experimental dive into the birth of an idea—how it takes shape, how it is released. An allegorical quest, the film combines images and words into a singular sigh.

Breakthrough ( 2024, dir. Mide Kadiri) – 4 min
A 2D hand drawn short leading us on an abstract journey through spacetime.

100 Ghosts (2022, dir. Noncedo Khumalo) – 1 min
A woman awakes to mysterious sounds—and confronts an astonishing surreal world summoned forth by her innermost fears.

City Shock (2024, dir. Sydnie Baynes) – 1 min
Inspired by the energetic German film, Run Lola Run, City Shocks delves into the chaos of urban life through a series of interconnected vignettes, while following a character navigating the bustling streets of a sprawling metropolis.

African American Express (2024, dir. Sydnie Baynes) – 3 min
African American Express is an abstract animation exploring the impact of consumerism in the Black community. Told in the style of Soviet Propaganda, this animated short dissects the pattern of excessive materialism and consumption prevalent within the Black population.

Governance (2020, dir. Ho Che Anderson) – 3 min
Criminologist and community activist Munira Abukar believes justice and equity begin in your own home and heart. Embracing the uncomfortable awakening that 2020 has brought about, she debunks the cozy narrative of social equality and puts her finger on the key issues needing change.

Home (2022, dir. Bria Miller) – 6 min
This tribute to Bria Miller’s beloved Nan, Marion Miller, explores childhood, comfort, responsibility, nostalgia, and climate concerns. It was made with mentorship from animator Becka Marker and inspired by the late animator Helen Hill for the 2022 Halifax Animation Festival.

Unity In the Early Morning (2017, dir. Sydnie Baynes) – 2 min
The interaction between two individuals is often forgotten. With the displays of soothing cultural sounds, one can easily be reminded of the original state and meaning within a conversation based on likeness and emotion. This piece is a stop-motion cut-out animation made for the Distorted Storytelling exhibition project for S.P.A.C.E. (Sciences Participating with Arts and Culture in Education), presented at Dawson College in Montréal.

Penny Candy (2025, dir. Tara Taylor) – 3 min
This musical from Afromations Media Productions captures the delights of penny candy – the excitement of the expedition to the shop, the dazzling colours, and the joy of sharing with loved ones.

Closed captions will be provided for each film.
ASL interpretation will be provided for this event.
Childcare will be provided for this event. Please use this REGISTRATION FORM.

Banner image: Still image from African American Express (Sydnie Baynes, 2024)

Flower Bed
2025-05-09 19:30 - 20:00, 2025-05-10 19:30 - 20:00 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
Written and performed by Noella Murphy
Flower Bed is an accessible chronicle of chronic illness. Using puppets, humour, and visual art, it creatively explores what life is like when your full-time job is Living With Pain. Noella Murphy is a clown, a visual artist, a theatre maker, and a medical mystery. From a misogynistic healthcare system that ignores women’s pain to the struggles of being confined to your bed for months on end, Noella reflects on the absurdity, grief, and transformation that comes with chronic illness, creating a place to share her story and allow others to see their experiences reflected onstage. With two complementary components (an onstage performance and an interactive gallery show), this multidisciplinary piece is a visual spectacle, a place for conversation, and a pathway towards empathy for those who have dealt with any form of illness in their lives.
Discounted tickets are sold as a Double Bill with Archive of Loneliness

Flower Bed Team
Noella Murphy – Creator/Performer
Lou Campbell – Director/Dramaturg
Laura Stinson – Puppet Designer/Puppeteer
Ginevra Syperek – Costume Co-designer
Ashley MacDonald and Susie Murphy – Costume Co-designers
Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac – Producer
Thank you to Arts Nova Scotia for their support of this project.
ASL interpretation will be provided for the May 10th performance.
Childcare will be provided for this event. Please use this REGISTRATION FORM.

Bios
Noella Murphy – Creator/Performer
Noella Murphy (she/they) is a mad and disabled actor, costume designer, visual artist, and all-around clown. She holds a BFA from NSCAD University, and is an alum of Kinsale’s Wooden O Drama Program (Ireland). Despite an active visual arts practice of her own, Noella is deeply interested in sharing art as a therapeutic tool, and much of Noella’s professional career has been dedicated to working with folks with varying backgrounds, disabilities, young, and old. Noella uses these various expertises, as well as her background in clowning and visual art, to explore deeper, more challenging subject matter, while simultaneously infusing these discoveries with light, care, and play. Visually, Noella concentrates has been fascinated by the flora that surrounds her. Exploring realism with permission to choose unnatural size, colours, or different materials, Noella never tires of botanical art and using her work to show the viewer a different perspective. Her pieces range from lino cuts, etchings, to watercolour on wood canvases with pen on top and more recently paint marker. Drawn to line and stippling, the style ranges from realism to a more graphic approach.
@noella_murphy
Lou Campbell – Director/Dramaturg
Lou Campbell (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, NS. Their practice traverses many mediums including performance, clown, stand-up, drag, poetry and sound. They create work that unpacks the inner workings of their own experiences, usually manifesting in the open sharing of mortifying past mistakes. Their award winning solo show PRUDE premiered at EFT at the Stages festival. It has since toured across the country to festivals such as rEVolver, High Performance Rodeo, Outfest, and Next Stage Festival. Lou also co-runs a cross-province collective based in Toronto and Halifax called Probably Theatre. This collective creates performance work devised from poetry, and runs events and exhibitions that facilitate the creation of new work by other artists.⁠ Lou is thrilled to be working on Flower Bed.
Laura Stinson – Puppet Designer/Puppeteer
Laura Stinson (she/they) – Laura crafts images from both found and traditional materials. These creations become narratives, characters and atmospheres in a variety of theatrical spectacles. She began her career in puppetry with Bread and Puppet Theater in 2016. After four years working as a touring member and subsequent resident puppeteer with the company, Laura moved back to Mi’kma’ki and co-founded North Barn Theatre with Ian McFarlane in 2020. Alongside making work with North Barn she continues to collaborate with other artists as a performer, designer and builder. She also shares her specialized knowledge by leading community workshops in both puppet construction and performance across the Atlantic region. She currently lives and works in Mi’kma’ki.

Fallow
Come see Noella Murphy’s Fallow currently on exhibit in the lobby of the Bus Stop Theatre in conjunction with Flower Bed.

Archive of Loneliness
2025-05-09 20:30 - 21:00, 2025-05-10 20:30 - 21:00 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
Archive of Loneliness brings light to the isolation of seniors and how the end of life deserves our attention just as much as the beginning. Drawing from first person audio recordings of a family member living isolated in long-term care, Archive of Loneliness embodies the spatial and corporeal tones of loneliness.
The sound score and audio story arranged by Jackson Fairfax-Perry dances throughout the space alongside two performers to create a deep thoughtful swim into the waiting and in-between spaces of loneliness, amplifying the sub-linguistic states of despair and the desire to connect.
Discounted tickets are sold as a Double Bill with Flower Bed

Creative Team
Creative Direction/Choreography Sara Coffin
Composer and Sound Design Jackson Fairfax-Perry
Performers and Movement Contributions Darryl Tracy and Matthew Lumley
Audio Stories the late John Paterson
The creation of this work was supported by Eastern Front Theatre/Early Stages Festival, Arts Nova Scotia, studio hours through Mocean Dance and Olga Milosevich. Thank you to Brian Riley for the initial voicemail sound extraction and a deep gratitude to the Paterson family for their support and blessing to carry Uncle John’s voice forward into this new artistic expression.
ASL interpretation will be provided for the May 10th performance.
Childcare will be provided for this event. Please use this REGISTRATION FORM.

Biographies
Sara Coffin, Dance Artist, Choreographer
Sara Coffin is an award winning dance artist, choreographer, dance educator and Co-Artistic Director of Mocean Dance. Coffin has been teaching and creating interdisciplinary contemporary dance work for over twenty years. She received the NS Established Artist Award in 2018, her MFA in Choreography (Smith College), BFA in Dance (Simon Fraser) University and BSc Kinesiology Science (Dalhousie). Coffin has created over 30 dance works, her choreographic work has been presented in many prominent Canadian dance festivals and in the United States. Her research interests include interdisciplinary collaboration, technology as an extension of the body, contact improvisation and emergent frameworks for composition/ performance, and the poetic junction between vulnerability, resiliency, and courage. www.saracoffin.ca
Darryl Tracy, Dance Artist
Darryl Tracy is a Toronto-based artist who loves human movement and expression. He is involved in dance, choreography, movement facilitation, conditioning and teaching. He has performed with many Canadian and European choreographers over the last 25 years and has also created 42 works through commissions and self-productions. He was on faculty at School of Toronto Dance Theatre (now the Dance Arts Institute) for over 18 years under the artistic direction of Pat Fraser. Currently, Darryl teaches Anatomy at the National Ballet School Teachers Training Program. He is a neurological rehabilitation physiotherapist in Toronto in the private and public sector. Most recently Tracy co-created a new solo alongside Marie-Josee Chartier entitled “six ways to peel an orange” (premiere date pending).
Matthew Lumley, Actor, Movement
Matthew Lumley is a Kjipuktuk/Halifax-based actor, grateful to work with this wonderful group of artists! Recent theatre work includes Becca (Théâtre populaire d’Acadie), Wood Buffalo (Theatre New Brunswick) Schoolhouse, Macbeth, Elapultiek, Frankenstein, In This Light, Animal Farm, North Mountain Vanya (Two Planks), The Realistic Jones, Heaven Above/Heaven Below (KAZAN Theatre), Hamlet (Below the Salt/Neptune Theatre), The Little Years (Matchstick Theatre), This Is Nowhere (Zuppa Theatre). TV/film work includes Aversion (Emotion Pictures) Sullivan’s Crossing (CTV; upcoming) Normal Scotia (Bell TV1), Extant (HDM), Look At Me (Afro Viking Pictures), Hopeless Romantic (Northeast Films), Polaroid (Dimension Films), Weirdos (Shadow Shows), Mr. D (CBC). Matthew wrote and performed in First Weekend and Surf Gods (airing on CBC). Matthew studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse (NYC) and York University (Toronto). Many thanks to Sara Coffin for inviting me to dance, and to the amazing Mayworks Festival!
Jackson Fairfax-Perry, composer / sound design
Jackson Fairfax-Perry (he/him) is an award winning African Nova Scotian composer, sound designer, musician and musical director living in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). For years, Jackson has honed his skills as an in demand saxophonist and keyboardist both on the road and locally with artists such as Hillsburn and David Myles, among others. He collaborates frequently with local hip hop and r&b artist Aquakultre, co-writing songs and working as the musical director for his live band. A prominent collaborator with local theatre and dance artists, Jackson has composed and created sound designs for companies such as 2b theatre company, Eastern Front Theatre, Ship’s Company Theatre, and Mocean Dance among numerous others. Recent credits include Matriarchs (Aquakultre, Nocturne), Dance Nation (Keep Good (Theatre) Company, Heist), Sea Unseen (Mocean Dance, The Sable Island Institute), Deepwater (The Villains Theatre) and Downed Hearts (Ship’s Company Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, Matchstick Theatre).

Banner photo: Daniel Wittnebel

Working Class Heritage Tours
2025-05-11 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-05-24 13:00 - 14:30 | NS
You’ll never see downtown the same way again!
Join us for interactive walking tours that share the complex working class history of downtown Halifax. Each tour takes a different path through the city core and discusses different aspects of working class history and culture. The tours are designed to be stand alone but also work as a series, with each tour covering different topics and following a different path.

General Tour Notes:

Each tour is approximately 90 minutes in duration with regular stops for discussion along the way.
Washrooms and parking are available near the beginning and end of each tour.
Places to sit or perch are present at most tour stops
The tours run over and downhill only
The tours follow paths that only include intersections with curb cuts and follow sidewalks that are in good shape.
The tour has been designed with accessibility in mind. If you would like more information on the tour’s accessibility please email: info@mayworkskjipuktukhfx.ca

ASL interpretation will be provided for all three tours.

Tour 1: Where We Stand

Date: Saturday, May 3rd
Time: 1:00 PM
Departure: Old Spring Garden Library (corner of Brunswick St and Spring Garden Rd)
Moving through downtown we will talk about the impact of people, land, and power on the evolution of the colonial urban centre over the last 300 years while experiencing the city around us. From the paupers grounds of the 18th century, integrated neighbourhoods of the 19th century, strikes of the 20th century and movements for social justice today. This tour begins at the old Memorial Library and ends at the waterfront.
The Only Wealth Is Labour: Artists Sarah Mosher & Hanah Genosko will be carrying their crafted banner along for the tour!
Click Here For Detailed Tour Notes
Pictured: 19th century market site in downtown Halifax. NS Archives.

Tour 2: Scratch the Surface ***RESCHEDULED***

NEW DATE: Saturday, May 24th
Time: 1:00 PM
Departure: Old Spring Garden Library (corner of Brunswick St and Spring Garden Rd)

Walking along the streets of today we’ll explore the many types of work that used to take place where we now see offices, shops and restaurants. We’ll pull back the curtain on what it was like to work in the laundries, factories, and food manufacturing plants of Halifax and what we can still see of this industrial past. This tour begins at the old Memorial Library and ends near Granville Mall.
Click Here For Detailed Tour Notes
Pictured: Early 20th century women sewing in a Halifax factory. NS Archives.

Tour 3: By Choice or By Force

Date: Sunday, May 11th
Time: 1:00 PM
Departure: Peace & Friendship Park (1170 Hollis St)
Looking at a part of downtown now dominated by railroad tracks, hotels and modern apartment buildings we’ll remember the story of immigrants and migrants to Halifax, both those who came by choice, force or a lack of other options. This tour will discuss the complex history of racial and cultural interactions in Nova Scotia and shed light on how Halifax has always had a diverse population. This tour will begin at Peace and Friendship Park and end near the Seaport Market (formerly Cunard Centre)
The Only Wealth Is Labour: Artists Sarah Mosher & Hanah Genosko will be carrying their crafted banner along for the tour!
Click Here For Detailed Tour Notes
Pictured: Charlie Wah laundry back room. Photo: J.J. Lee

Emma Lang

Emma Lang is a public heritage professional, folklorist and tour guide. She’s been sharing her research and excitement in labour history to anyone interested for more than 20 years.
Photo above and Banner image: Photos by Tee Porter.

Nakba Day Banner Making
2025-05-15 18:00 - 19:00 | Wonder’neath, 2482 Maynard St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 3V4, Canada
So-so-so-Solidarity!
Learn to make fabric banners perfect for balconies and windows using applique, patchwork quilting and basic painting techniques. It’s Nakba Day and a good occasion to show solidarity for Palestinians, but participants are welcome to make their banner about any topic of their choice. Sarah and Hannah will facilitate, talk about their approach to their banner-making and teach techniques to those who are interested. Materials are provided.
Artists
Sarah Mosher and Hannah Genosko are an artist duo collaborating in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. Hannah has a background in printmaking and bookmaking, Sarah has a background in textiles and community arts. Both are graduates of NSCAD University. Their common ground is exploring labour, anti-capitalism and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through quilting. Portrait of the Artist as an Essential Worker was their first project reflecting on their roles as essential workers at their jobs with Canada Post and NSLC respectively during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nakba Day
Nakba Day commemorates the great catastrophe – the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948. Participants are invited to create banners for their homes and neighbourhoods in celebration of Palestinian solidarity but are free to also choose any message of solidarity they want to display.

Union
2025-05-16 18:00 - 19:30 | Park Lane Cineplex, 5657 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 3R4, Canada
A film by Stephen Maing and Brett Story
Up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in Staten Island, New York.
“Astounding, rebellious,… brilliant.” – The New York Times
WINNER: U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change – Sundance Film Festival

Through intimate cinema vérité, UNION chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. Led by the charismatic by underestimated Chris Smalls, the diverse band of workers start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and embark on a journey against one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. The odds are stacked against them, as the groups finds itself up against a tech industry giant with unlimited resources, without major support from national unions or politicians, and while navigating internal divisions within their own ranks. Filmmakers Brett Story and Stephen Maing document the struggle from day one, offering a gripping human drama about the fight for power and dignity in today’s globalized economic landscape.

Presented in partnership with

The Huns by Matchstick Theatre
2025-08-26 - 2025-09-07 | Neptune Theatre – Craig Boardroom, 1593 Argyle St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2B2, Canada
Matchstick Theatre presents Michael Ross Albert’s play The Huns in Neptune Theatre’s Craig Boardroom. A cutting office comedy and nuanced exploration of today’s working world, The Huns is the first piece of Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax’s new MOMENTUM programming. From August 26th to September 7th, experience the Atlantic Canadian premiere of one of the country’s most exciting new playwrights.
Three employees of a tech company—Shelley (Katerina Bakolias), Pete (Liam Fair), and Iris (Gil Anderson)—meet for an emergency conference call. Their office has been robbed and essential equipment is missing, with Gen-Seven set to launch ON MONDAY! The three co-workers have their bosses and colleagues on the line—WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!
The Huns is directed by Jake Planinc and designed by Jordan Palmer, with Chelsea Dickie (Stage Manager) and Alex Mills (House Manager). Matchstick’s 70-minute production has fully accessible, but extremely limited capacity. Tickets are $20 (with one PWYC preview on August 26th).
Performances are at 7:30PM Tuesday through Saturday and 2:00PM on Saturdays and Sundays. Please contact us in advance for accommodation at matchsticktheatre@gmail.com

Call For Submissions - Mayworks 2026
2025-10-03 | NS
DEADLINE: OCTOBER 3RD 2025
Submit via this FORM
Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax celebrates workers, justice and solidarity through art.
Our festival presents works of art of any discipline which explore the connection between the labour movement and art, art-making as labour, and 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 jury of our staff members.
🌟 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).
Applicants will be notified of their result by the end of November.
Learn more using the FORM link.
Photo by Keandre Johnson

my inner child healing my immigrant identity
2025-10-11 - 2025-10-31 | The Khyber Centre for the Arts, 1880 Hollis St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 1W6, Canada
Presented in partnership with the Khyber Centre for the Arts and Nocturne
my inner child healing my immigrant identity by Martha Mutale explores the immigrant experience – the self split between two homes. A series of rag dolls where each figure represents a point in time in the immigrant life, softly positioned in space, while the whole assemblage provides a grounded picture of who she is. Presented by Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax and hosted at the Khyber Centre for the Arts, the exhibition runs October 11-31, 2025. Events include Nocturne: Art at Night Festival from 6PM-12AM on Saturday, October 18, and a closing reception Tuesday, October 28th 6PM-8PM.

my inner child healing my immigrant identity is a continuation of Martha Mutale’s exploration of the immigrant experience through the making and presentation of rag dolls fabricated from Zambian fabrics overlaid with printed words. Each of the 40 inches tall dolls represents a different part of her life as an immigrant living in the Diaspora and what it means to hold two different identities grounded in two different homes – Canada and Zambia. What does it mean to call two places home at once? What does it mean to always have a foot in both worlds, to feel unmoored by this dual self? What are the different ways in which each of these places is home and for which reasons?
Mutale was confronted with these questions when she returned to her birth home during her adult life. Everyday, taxi drivers (themselves migrants from neighbouring African countries) would ask her about herself and where she came from. Growing up in Nova Scotia, one of Mutale’s most vivid and concrete connections to Zambian culture was the process through which she and her sisters would continually measure each others’ bodies in order for their mother to sew clothing for them made of African fabric. These experiences and memories, along with her love of poetry, have been the crucible for her ongoing series of projects using rag dolls to convey her sense of identity.
The process of crafting is a journey in itself and the tactile medium of textiles provide for Mutale a method of self-exploration that is both meditative and very concrete at once. For my inner child healing my immigrant identity, the dolls (smaller than in previous explorations) will be installed as a diorama in the window gallery of the Khyber Centre for the Arts through which passersby can windowgaze into Mutale’s life. As Mutale represents different facets and waypoints in her life through each rag doll, she presents a fragmented picture of herself. The soft sculptures each convey a lack of weight and definite attachment to the ground. And yet, the depiction of Mutale’s life as a whole through their assemblage in space, all together, offers her (and the observer) a sense of groundedness provided by the material expression of her identities and the added value of a sum crystallised by the joining of its parts.
ARTIST BIO

Martha Mutale is a poet and veteran of the spoken word scene in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia. She grew up in Billtown, Nova Scotia, a small rural community in the Annapolis valley after emigrating from Zambia with her family when she was just under two years old. Her family is based in Nova Scotia. As an adult, she relocated to North End Halifax where she began expressing herself as a poet while also working in the non-profit sector. She has worked as a housing support worker where she witnessed first hand the vulnerability and social disposability of those who have lost their homes – especially immigrants who, without citizenship, are not allowed access to shelters. In December 2022, Martha relocated to Zambia to start over, reconnect with herself and apply to regain her Zambian citizenship. Having been raised in the Diaspora and having called Nova Scotia home since a young child, she longs for her birth home, Zambia, and yearns to learn more about her roots. While in Lusaka, waiting for her paperwork to be approved, she volunteered her time in an art gallery and completed two residencies which constituted her first forays into visual arts. During her second residency, she made six dolls, five feet long, all sewn and painted by hand using upcycled textile fabrics and African materials she found while living in Lusaka, Zambia. Martha is healing her inner child and making room for new and exciting adventures that await her in the future.
HOURS & EVENTS:
Exhibition on view: October 11-31, 2025
Gallery hours: On display in the window gallery 24/7 | Open hours: 12-5PM Tuesday-Saturday + events
Appointments/contact: info@khyber.ca
Accessibility notes: www.khyber.ca/access
Nocturne hours: 6PM-12AM, Saturday, October 18, 2025
Closing reception: Tuesday, October 28th 6PM-8PM – Click here for details
Presented concurrently with No Domain / No Dominion

No Dominion/No Domain
2025-10-11 - 2025-10-31 | The Khyber Centre for the Arts, 1880 Hollis St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 1W6, Canada
Presented in partnership with the Khyber Centre for the Arts and Nocturne
Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax presents No Dominion/No Domain, where Eva Grant and Curtis Botham trace land, life, labour, and pathways across speculative digital ancestral architectures and charcoal industrial landscapes.
“Homeless Shelters Before Police Raid” by Curtis Botham
No Dominion/No Domain brings together two artists, Eva Grant and Curtis Botham, whose works reflect on land, labour, infrastructure, and ecological movement. Presented by Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax and hosted at the Khyber Centre for the Arts, the exhibition runs October 11-31, 2025. Events include Nocturne: Art at Night Festival from 6PM-12AM on Saturday, October 18, and a closing reception Tuesday, October 28th 6PM-8PM.
Eva Grant’s WILD INTERFACE is a work of St’át’imc speculative futurism that reimagines longhouses and Salish structures as though assembled from salmon bones. These digital works depict architecture not as idealized pasts or utopian elsewheres, but as living interfaces: porous inter-species networks where technologies and ancestral knowledge converge. Through computational geography and postnatural territories, Grant reconsiders space and place as co-constructed with ecologies, where memory and labours of love entwine.
Curtis Botham’s Effluents and Urban projects confront the landscapes of extraction that underpin industrial modernity. His large-scale charcoal drawings—made in a volatile medium that mirrors the precarity of his subject matter—document the sites of resource economies on Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia and their cascading impacts: inequities of wealth, the precarity of workers, and the hidden infrastructures behind everyday consumer life. Botham traces these environments with stark fidelity, inviting viewers to recognize their own embeddedness in these cycles of labour and consumption.
Together, Grant’s and Curtis’ works stage a dialogue on dominion—over land, life, and labour—and on domains, whether in digital terrains of speculative ancestral architectures or in the charcoal-rendered landscapes and machinery of industrial capitalism.
No Dominion/No Domain invokes the dual refusal of control and possession within colonial constructs and systems. The title, created by Grant, arose in response to the effectiveness of messaging between the blend of analog and virtual material. Through charcoal and digital works, the exhibition resists the illusion of permanence that dominion or domain implies. Charcoal, itself the residue of combustion, unsettles the idea of industry as stable progress, while Grant’s architectures utilize the digital realm to glitch and dissolve systemically oppressive boundaries. Both practices gesture towards knowledge, labour, and survival beyond grids of ownership.
Digital piece from the WILD INTERFACE series by Eva Grant
ARTIST BIOS:

Eva Grant is a Queer, St̓át̓imc-Eurasian filmmaker, curator, and new media artist. She studied philosophy and literature at Stanford University and is the founder of Tooth & Nail Pictures. Her world-building practice hybridizes moving image, animation, game engines, interactive digital media, data visualization, and speculative design to prototype decolonial and capacious futures. She is a former Sundance Native Lab fellow, a BIPOC TV & Film Episodic Writers Lab participant, an Artengine NEW SUNS Worldbuilding Lab artist-in-residence, a Vancouver Queer Film Festival Programming Disruptor, a Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices fellow, an Art Gallery of Ontario AGO x RBC emerging artist-in-residence, and an alumna of the imagineNATIVE Originals Commission program and the Screenwriting Shorts Fellowship. Her work has been supported by Mayworks Kjipuktuk, Nocturne: Art at Night, CFC Satellites, Debaser/Pique Festival, the Indigenous Curatorial Collective, Lay*Away, Black Star Film Festival’s William and Louise Greaves Filmmaking Seminar, and the Ottawa Animation Festival, and her films have screened at festivals around the world.

Curtis Botham is an award-winning artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He graduated from NSCAD University in 2017 with a bachelor of fine arts. His accolades include the Canada Games Young Artist of Excellence Award, and numerous grants from Arts Nova Scotia and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Since 2017, he has depicted the impact and labour of industries in the Maritimes, examining the social and environmental effects of material culture on our lives. He has participated in residencies around Nova Scotia in order to create a broad portrait of the province and its relationship to its land, people and resources.
curtisbotham.weebly.com
HOURS & EVENTS:
Exhibition on view: October 11-31, 2025
Gallery hours: 12-5PM Tuesday-Saturday + events
Appointments/contact: info@khyber.ca
Accessibility notes: www.khyber.ca/access
Nocturne hours: 6PM-12AM, Saturday, October 18, 2025
Closing reception: Tuesday, October 28th 6PM-8PM – Click here for details
Presented concurrently with my inner child healing my immigrant identity

Closing Reception with Curtis Botham, Eva Grant and Martha Mutale
2025-10-28 18:00 - 20:00 | The Khyber Centre for the Arts, 1880 Hollis St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 1W6, Canada
Join us for a casual conversations with the artists behind No Dominion/No Domain and my inner child healing my immigrant identity.
Curtis Botham and Martha Mutale will be joining us in person, and Eva Grant will be joining us via video call. All will be available to answer questions about their works on display only until October 31st.
A brief facilitated Q&A will take place at 7PM.
Refreshments will be served!
ARTIST BIOS:

Eva Grant is a Queer, St̓át̓imc-Eurasian filmmaker, curator, and new media artist. She studied philosophy and literature at Stanford University and is the founder of Tooth & Nail Pictures. Her world-building practice hybridizes moving image, animation, game engines, interactive digital media, data visualization, and speculative design to prototype decolonial and capacious futures. She is a former Sundance Native Lab fellow, a BIPOC TV & Film Episodic Writers Lab participant, an Artengine NEW SUNS Worldbuilding Lab artist-in-residence, a Vancouver Queer Film Festival Programming Disruptor, a Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices fellow, an Art Gallery of Ontario AGO x RBC emerging artist-in-residence, and an alumna of the imagineNATIVE Originals Commission program and the Screenwriting Shorts Fellowship. Her work has been supported by Mayworks Kjipuktuk, Nocturne: Art at Night, CFC Satellites, Debaser/Pique Festival, the Indigenous Curatorial Collective, Lay*Away, Black Star Film Festival’s William and Louise Greaves Filmmaking Seminar, and the Ottawa Animation Festival, and her films have screened at festivals around the world.

Curtis Botham is an award-winning artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He graduated from NSCAD University in 2017 with a bachelor of fine arts. His accolades include the Canada Games Young Artist of Excellence Award, and numerous grants from Arts Nova Scotia and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Since 2017, he has depicted the impact and labour of industries in the Maritimes, examining the social and environmental effects of material culture on our lives. He has participated in residencies around Nova Scotia in order to create a broad portrait of the province and its relationship to its land, people and resources.
curtisbotham.weebly.com

Martha Mutale is a poet and veteran of the spoken word scene in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia. She grew up in Billtown, Nova Scotia, a small rural community in the Annapolis valley after emigrating from Zambia with her family when she was just under two years old. Her family is based in Nova Scotia. As an adult, she relocated to North End Halifax where she began expressing herself as a poet while also working in the non-profit sector. She has worked as a housing support worker where she witnessed first hand the vulnerability and social disposability of those who have lost their homes – especially immigrants who, without citizenship, are not allowed access to shelters. In December 2022, Martha relocated to Zambia to start over, reconnect with herself and apply to regain her Zambian citizenship. Having been raised in the Diaspora and having called Nova Scotia home since a young child, she longs for her birth home, Zambia, and yearns to learn more about her roots. While in Lusaka, waiting for her paperwork to be approved, she volunteered her time in an art gallery and completed two residencies which constituted her first forays into visual arts. During her second residency, she made six dolls, five feet long, all sewn and painted by hand using upcycled textile fabrics and African materials she found while living in Lusaka, Zambia. Martha is healing her inner child and making room for new and exciting adventures that await her in the future.

MAYDAY: Confession Publique
2025-11-14 19:30 - 20:45, 2025-11-15 19:30 - 20:45 | Alderney Landing Theatre, 2 Ochterloney St, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2Y 4W1, Canada
Confession Publique

“ A sensually complex work, Confession Publique leaves us enthralled before Angélique Willkie’s breadth of talent and her fruitful encounter with Demers’ world.” – Alexie Legendre, Revue JEU

MAYDAY
Tiohtià:ke/Montreal – Kanien’kehá:Ka Territory

November 14th & 15th, 2025. 7:30PM
Alderney Landing Theatre
General Seating – $65.00 Dance Advocate; $45.00 Adults; $35.00 Seniors; $20.00 Students / Arts Worker; Group Discounts Available
Run Time – 75 Minutes
Content Warning: Nudity, 18+ suggested. An Active Listener will be available on site if needed.
This show tackles experiences of racism, sexual violation, and living in an aging body, as well as the power of transformation. It contains nudity and mature content.
Traffic Note: The Parade of Lights is taking place on Nov 15th at 5pm. Please allow time for potential traffic on your way to the show.

Its title serving as a promise, Confession Publique explores ambiguity and paradox, probes the noble and the vulgar, oscillates between grace and brutality. Choreographer Mélanie Demers turns her trusted collaborator Angélique Willkie into her muse. Together, these two kindred spirits explore the act of telling others about yourself without reserve. The result is a hard-hitting solo show, where anecdotes become painful secrets and the body reveals as much as words, if not more.
In this work, the protagonist concentrates on the margins as she takes a deep dive into herself and ourselves. The connection is intimate, intimidating. The performance becomes the setting for questions asked a thousand times over: our relationship to the world, how the environment holds our destinies in its hands, and the power others have to dictate and dominate our life-choices.

MAYDAY
Since its foundation in 2007, an array of charismatic and eclectic artists working with Mélanie Demers has been drawn to MAYDAY as a hub for creative exchange and reflection. Each MAYDAY work is thus the fruit of a collective effort. And not only between the artists: the public enters into the creative process as well, since the physicality, imagery, and sense of rhythm characteristic of MAYDAY’s unique approach only come together as a coherent whole before an audience. Drawing on creative energies from around the world, MAYDAY’s unique works testify to both a spirit of artistic freedom and a deep-seated concern for contemporary issues. Demers’ fascination and the relationship between words and gestures crystallizes in WOULD, a work which won the Prix du CALQ for Best Choreography at the Prix de la danse de Montréal in 2015. WOULD will be followed by the choreographic relay Danse Mutante in 2019, then in 2021 by La Goddam Voie Lactée, MAMA and Confession Publique, and finally in 2022 by Cabaret Noir. Mélanie Demers won the GRAND PRIX de la danse de Montréal, which recognizes her unique mark on her era. MAYDAY tours frequently and has collaborated with many international partners. It is proud to be one of the few Canadian companies to have performed in both North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
MAYDAY tours frequently and has collaborated with many international partners. It is proud to be one of the few Canadian companies to have performed in both North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Credits

Ideation, Direction and Choreography
Mélanie Demers

Performers
Angélique Willkie with the participation of Anne-Marie Jourdenais

Direction of Rehearsals
Anne-Marie Jourdenais

Dramaturgy
Angélique Willkie

Set Design
Odile Gamache

Sound Composition
Frannie Holder

Additional Music
Excerpt from The Fairy Queen, composed by Henry Purcell and sung by Angelique Willkie

Lighting Design
Claire Seyller

Technical Director
Emmanuel Bossé-Messier

Costume Design
Elen Ewing

Production Management
Alec Arsenault

Special Notes of Thanks
Éléonore Loiselle

Teaser Production
Stefan Verna

Co Presented By

Canadian Labour International Film Festival
2025-11-27 19:00 - 20:30 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
Mayworks Momentum presents selections from the Canadian Labour International Film Festival.
The Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLIFF) is in its 17th edition and Mayworks will again present a local satellite screening of short films chosen from this year’s CLIFF selections.
CLIFF selects films from across the globe that give voice to workers and their struggles for better lives.
Total program runtime: 91 minutes

Film Program:

Nola
by Natalie Remplakowski & Aisha Evelyna (Canada: English) – 10 min

A Black woman working as a sous-chef navigates toxic restaurant culture and her wavering mental health, until a chance encounter changes her.

Your Own Boss
by Álvaro Guzmán Bastida (Spain: Spanish) – 18 min

A food delivery worker struggles to juggle his responsibilities as a young father with the impossible demands of an algorithm that pushes him to the limit.

Working For Freedom
by Conor Devries (Canada: English) – 11 min

Working for Freedom is a short documentary that follows an Ottawa-based woman through her experiences of prison labour at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre. Author of Solidarity behind bars, Jordan House, provides us with an overview of the frameworks that allow these exploitative practices to continue today.

Shadow Work
by Gillian McKercher (Canada: English) – 3 min

This short documentary looks at “shadow work”: tasks that are not part of an employee’s official job description, but are necessary for the organization to function, and may be unpaid and unseen.
Unpaid labour, shadow work, glue work, organizational citizenship. Whatever you name it, organizations benefit from it.

Limerent Pittsburgh
by Anne Ciecko (USA: English) – 3 min

A videopoem revisiting the rust belt city is a site of rekindling of memories and mythologies of labour and family.

Motown South
by Samuel George (USA: English) – 20 min

The electric vehicle industry is booming in the American South, so much so that the region has earned the nickname the “Battery Belt”.
But why are producers setting up shop in states such as Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee? In part, the trend stems from a historic lack of union representation there. But workers – and labor organizers – have noticed. And they are starting to push back. How this emerging dynamic plays out could transform the future of American industry.

Ghost Workers
by Lisette Olsthoorn (Netherlands: English) – 26 min

In a film set in which their home offices have been recreated, six European microworkers share experiences with the filmmaker and with each other, offering an affecting critique on changing labour conditions.
Ghost Workers is a cinematic research project into the people conducting the often hidden labor necessary to make artificial intelligence work. Working from home, not being recognized as a worker by the platforms that they work for and being misunderstood by family and friends all together creates strong feelings of isolation. Therefore, the filmmaker invited six workers from across Europe to share their work experiences with her and with each other. Focusing on the theme of isolation and recognition as a ‘real worker,’ the film engages in a collective conversation about this type of work.

"Reimagining Safety" at Carbon Arc Cinema
2026-04-02 18:30 - 21:00 | Carbon Arc Cinema, 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3A6, Canada
Matthew Solomon | Canada | 2023 | 83m – followed by a post-film conversation with director Matthew Solomon and El Jones
The film will be captioned and an ASL interpreter will be present for the Q&A segment.

Worldwide protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd included calls to defund or abolish the police until a sharp rise in crime gave politicians and police supporters the fuel they needed to suppress the movement. Unfortunately, a detailed conversation about transforming public safety was never had. In this film (shot on iPhone), 10 experts discuss how policing and incarceration create more harm than good, why the system persists, and what changes can be made to make everyone safe.
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, director Matthew Solomon returned to school to earn a master’s degree in Public Administration in order to better position himself to use his privilege and access to help work towards positive social change. In his MPA program, Matthew began applying the coursework regarding sustainability and workable societies to the issues with policing and incarceration. He thought this would be a step away from filmmaking, however, his academic advisors suggested he create a documentary film for his thesis project. Reimagining Safety is that film.
The film was named Best Film by Evident Change’s Media for a Just Society Award, Best Documentary Feature at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, Best Cinematography at The People’s Film Festival in Harlem, and has received a powerful endorsement by The Black Panther Party WA who has added it to their political education curriculum.
In Reimagining Safety, ten experts (including LA County District Attorney George Gascón, USC Law Professor Dr. Jody Armour, Law Enforcement Expert Alex S Vitale, and Halifax Professor Dr. El Jones) discuss the false premise that more police and prisons make us safer while providing practical and actionable solutions toward achieving systems of safety that work for everyone.

In Attendance for Q&A following the screening

Matthew Solomon is an innovative and award-winning director whose interview and storytelling styles elicit deep, emotional responses while educating and inspiring audiences.
His first documentary, Reimagining Safety, built an enormous grassroots following, having been screened at more than 100 community events across the US. His new documentary, Seeds for Liberation, has been premiering to sold-out audiences while just beginning its national and international tour. Utilizing iPhone cameras to achieve a great sense of immediacy, Matthew not only combines art and activism in his personal work but also mentors up-and-comers in doing the same.
In addition to filmmaking, Matthew is a conflict resolution facilitator, adjunct professor, and is working towards a PhD in Transformative Social Change.

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.
Currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political and Canadian Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University, Dr. Jones has taught at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia Community College, and Saint Mary’s University.

Tickets $12.65 ($12 at the door if available)
PWYC available! To reserve, please email info@mayworkskjipuktukhfx.ca

"Seeds For Liberation" at Carbon Arc Cinema
2026-04-03 18:30 - 21:00 | Carbon Arc Cinema, 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3A6, Canada
Matthew Solomon | USA | 2026 | 92m – followed by a post-film conversation with director Matthew Solomon, Yara Jamal and Waseem Hijazi
The film will be captioned and an ASL interpreter will be present for the Q&A segment.

Seeds for Liberation was born out of a deep urgency — not just to document, but to connect. The events of October 7, 2023, became a global flashpoint, but for many, they marked a continuation of a struggle nearly eight decades in the making. As a filmmaker, Director Matthew Solomon wanted to center Palestinian voices while also situating their liberation within a broader legacy of anti-imperialist and decolonial movements — from Black resistance in the U.S. to Chicano activism and beyond. In a world saturated with filtered narratives and state-sponsored erasure, social media has cracked open a window — giving us raw, direct access to the truths on the ground. This film asks: What does solidarity truly look like? And how do our struggles for justice — across geography, race, and history — grow from the same seed?
Seeds for Liberation explores Palestinian resistance through emotional and impactful interviews with historians, activists, legal scholars, and experts. The documentary demonstrates how social media has exposed daily life in Gaza and the West Bank, challenging dominant Western narratives and bringing the Free Palestine movement into global consciousness. Featuring some of the biggest names in the movement, including human rights attorney Dr. Noura Erakat, investigative journalist Abby Martin, justice journalist Chuck Modiano, emergency medicine physician Dr. Mimi Syed, and members of the Black Liberation Army, La Raza Unida, and Stop Cop City – the film spans decades of solidarity and shows how the fight for collective liberation is interconnected. Seeds for Liberation is a call to action, encouraging audiences to mobilize and join the fight for humanity.

In Attendance for Q&A following the screening

Matthew Solomon is an innovative and award-winning director whose interview and storytelling styles elicit deep, emotional responses while educating and inspiring audiences.
His first documentary, Reimagining Safety, built an enormous grassroots following, having been screened at more than 100 community events across the US. His new documentary, Seeds for Liberation, has been premiering to sold-out audiences while just beginning its national and international tour. Utilizing iPhone cameras to achieve a great sense of immediacy, Matthew not only combines art and activism in his personal work but also mentors up-and-comers in doing the same.
In addition to filmmaking, Matthew is a conflict resolution facilitator, adjunct professor, and is working towards a PhD in Transformative Social Change.

(Attending virtually)

Yara Jamal is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and writer. She is the founder of Free Palestine Kjipuktuk (Halifax), the largest grassroots organization in Atlantic Canada, advocating for Palestinian self-determination, sovereignty, and the right of return.
Her reporting on the Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) earned her a Gold award from the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.
Jamal’s work focuses on Middle Eastern politics, structural racism, with a focus on amplifying the voices of marginalized communities

Waseem Hijazi is a Palestinian vegan content creator and recipe developer (@plantbasedarab) with a background in finance studies. His work focuses on preserving food heritage from the Arab cuisine, while highlighting the cultural significance to the land. He educates the vegan and animal rights community about the oppression of Palestinians, exposes israel’s veganwashing propaganda, and emphasizes the importance of boycotting plant-based food-tech companies that are complicit in the occupation and genocide, in order to better advocate for the liberation of Palestine.

Tickets $12.65 ($12 at the door if available)
PWYC available! To reserve, please email info@mayworkskjipuktukhfx.ca

Linfield & Banfield & Co.
2026-04-25 - 2026-05-10 | NS
By Coral Maloney
Free t-shirts available at all festival events!
(while supplies last!)
In 2025, several citizens filed complaints about the conduct of an elected official. These complaints were reported on in the media, allowing those people to learn of each other. They realized they were larger than they’d planned to be. They realized, in fact, that they were building toward something much bigger than a set of uncoordinated complaints. One person who took part in this was named Linfield. Another one was named Banfield. There were others. There will be others still. You are invited too.
BREAK RANK // TRY SOMETHING // WE HAVE EACH OTHER
This project occurs throughout the run of the festival. T-shirts & buttons from Linfield & Banfield & Co. will be available at each in-person event. You are invited to don them during the festival, and well beyond.

Credits:
Project: Coral Maloney
Design support: Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac

CORAL MALONEY [++++euro/±latina/~unspecified borders] [Leander Atkinson Wurz Amaya Torres Scott Krysska] is an interdisciplinary artist and performance-maker based in Halifax in Mi’kma’ki territory. www.coralmaloney.ca

Go Fly a Kite
2026-04-25 10:00 - 13:00 | Wonder’neath, 2482 Maynard St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 3V4, Canada
Kite Flying 101 or How to launch a kite and kite-banner!
With Andrew Maize
April 25
10am-11am – Wonder’neath Studio
11am-1pm – Halifax Common
Join artist and kite-flier Andrew Maize for a hands-on workshop that will introduce the basics of successfully launching, landing, and flying large kites, kite cameras and kite-laundry (ie. kite banners). We will discuss knot-tying, launching/landing techniques, environmental factors, safety, equipment, and kite banner designs. The workshop will begin at Wonder’neath from 10am-11am, and then will move to the Common, where we will practice launching, flying and landing big kites (and kite banners)!
Participants are encouraged to dress for the elements (hat, sunscreen, sunglasses) and bring a pair of work gloves (thin leather gloves or similar are ideal – the kite string can burn hands when under a lot of tension!)
Participants are also invited to help fly kite banners at future sessions of RAISING BIG QUESTIONS for Mayworks 2026.
Admission by donation. Please RSVP here:

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.

Event photo by Corey Isenor

Raising Big Questions
2026-04-25 13:00 - 16:00, 2026-05-02 13:00 - 16:00 | NS
YOU FRGOT SOMETHING, Collaboration with Luke Hathaway. Photo by John Haney.
By Andrew Maize in collaboration with El Jones, Seán Kennedy and Sue Goyette
***POSTPONED to SUNDAY April 26th 1-4pm – Dr. El Jones @ Halifax Common
May 2nd 1-4pm – Seán Kennedy @ Citadel Hill Near and around Garrison Grounds
***POSTPONED to SUNDAY May 9th 1-4pm – Sue Goyette @ Point Pleasant Park
**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

On the Line
2026-05-01 - 2026-06-01 | 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.

Stephen Hero + El Tata y Los Taqueros
2026-05-01 21:00 - 23:30 | The Seahorse Tavern, 2037 Gottingen St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 3B1, Canada
Also featuring Ambeez, General Khan & Gearl
Get down with the working class on May Day at the Seahorse!
$10 in advance and $15 at the door
Doors at 9:00 PM

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

Stephen Hero + El Tata y Los Taqueros

STEPHEN HERO makes raw, working class hip hop from Canada’s east coast. His style is influenced by alt-rap legends like Kool Keith and MF DOOM, with a strong penchant for the relaxed and joyous experimentation of groups like De La Soul and Beastie Boys, but with a contemporary, often dark feel. Hero takes the ruling class to task unapologetically as he builds his varied and powerful catalogue.
EL TATA Y LOS TAQUEROS could be best described as a melting pot of influences, with deeply international roots thanks to the various nationalities of its core members: Gabriel Ibarra, Chaly Benz, Teijiri Emore, and Daniel Salas. Together they mix the influences of their countries from the Philippines to Honduras, into a Latin fusion of hip hop, funk, and other rhythms, resulting in a style rich in versatile musicality that really makes them stand out.

AMBEEZ is a hip-hop producer known for raw drums, soulful samples, and a feel-driven approach to beatmaking. A mainstay on the Canadian hip-hop scene, he’s built a reputation for flipping obscure sounds into hard-hitting, cohesive tracks. His style blends gritty boom-bap with subtle experimentation and off-grid rhythms, textured chops, and a strong sense of swing. Focused on mood and authenticity, his beats are crafted to feel lived-in and replayable. With accolades and a growing catalog, ambeez continues to refine his sound while carving out his own lane. Most recent release: Computer Sciences, Vol 1

GENERAL KHAN is a local community organizer and artist, born and raised in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). General Khan has been breaking barriers in the local rap scene since the release of her first album Wrath of Khan in 2021 and EP ON GOD in 2023. For Khan, Poetry and rhyming is an expression that is tied to her cultural practice as an Afghan Pashtun and Muslim. Her art style is influenced by her lived experiences facing white supremacy, colonialism, islamophobia and ableism. Her next album Afghan Variety is set to release summer 2026.

GEARL is an Indigenous Hip‑Hop artist from Eskasoni, Nova Scotia. He shares lived experiences of Indigenous life in the Maritimes and promotes Mi’kmaq language and culture. Years of steady work have earned him momentum, multiple nominations and awards. This year he’s nominated for Indigenous Artist of the Year and Hip Hop/Rap Recording of the Year at the ECMAs. Gearl delivers powerful performances, tackles difficult topics, adapts across genres, improvises songwriting, and weaves personal experience into dense, impactful concepts. @gearljij

Photos of Stephen Hero + El Tata y Los Toqueros by Mckenzie Power

and so we dance
2026-05-02 19:30 - 20:00 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
By I’thandi Munro and Kay Macdonald
ONE TICKET FOR TWO INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCES!
$10 in advance and $15 at the door.
**Ticket includes admission to BE ETERNAL**

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

Childcare available on site for free. Please register in advance.
Please be advised that the show addresses mature subjects.

Archiving and exploring movement through the cultural lenses of African Nova Scotian identity.
and so we dance explores the contemporary realities and historic contexts of moving/movement through time and place. Specifically looking at the realities of being African Nova Scotian within the broader context of Black + African American performance traditions. We explore cultural themes of tension, relation, freedom and love through the creative modalities of improvisation, contemporary dance and vocalization.
Credits:
Creators:
I’thandi Munro, Kay Macdonald
Performers:
I’thandi Munro, Kay Macdonald
Special Thanks:
Syreeta Hector, Sara Coffin, Liliona Quarmyne, Reequal Smith
Funding Credits:
Mocean Dance – CLEaR Forum Residency, The Khyber Centre For The Arts – KREAM Residency, Live Art Dance – CanDance Showcase
Music Production and Mixing:
Carmel Farahbakhsh, I’thandi Munro, Kay Macdonald and Jordan Farmer
Lighting Production:
Louisa Adamson

I’THANDI MUNRO is an award winning dancer, performer, visual artist and educator, who has reached International recognition. She incorporates her lived experiences of her own cultural understanding within her artwork. She has a double major in Photography + Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing from NSCAD University. Munro has been facilitating within dance studios, Halifax Regional Arts, artist centers, and community programs for over a decade. Munro continuously seeks to learn new ways of making, teaching, collaborating, and continues to educate herself in a multitude of techniques. She has spent her entire life pursuing art but dancing is the constant base of creating throughout her professional career. Movement is at her core of making. When Munro became a mother, her exploration into uninhibited linework and freedom of creation was sparked by watching her two young children draw effortlessly and with confidence. These inspirations from her kids showed her new pathways, and taught her that you can make your own. This naturally led I’thandi into the research behind improv and freestyle dance. Munro uses the representation of line and lineage as underlying concepts in her art. Her work has become an ever-changing body of work that can be explored and realized in many different ways. Munro is the founder of Drifted Collective as well as Scotian: The Collective. She has collaborated with many professional dance and theatre companies primarily based out of Mi’kma’ki and the Atlantic regions such as The Woods Professional Hip Hop Company, Mocean Dance, Kinetic, Rooted Dance(Votive) Nestutasi Story Telling, Home Economics Collective, and KasheDance.

KAY MACDONALD (they/them) is an African Nova Scotian, Acadian, Queer, Trans community educator, artist, activist, facilitator, and performance based artist born and raised in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki. Macdonald’s artistic practice has roots in interdisciplinary methodologies. Gathering and curating scores of improvisational movement, dance, sound, and visual arts culminating in various forms of performance. Their work explores themes of observation, culture, ancestral lineage, connection, community and place. Macdonald’s work seeks to unravel restrictive concepts of identity, belonging, liberation, and societal constructs. Macdonald views the intersection of advocacy, community building, and artistic processes as a means to disrupt and intervene in harmful colonial and white supremacist narratives. Currently, Kay is working as the Program Coordinator at The Youth Project, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to providing support and services to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth ages 12-25. As well as, currently holds the role as Co-Artistic Director at Kinetic, a contemporary dance organization based in Kjipuktuk.

Event photo by Reequal Smith
I’thando Munro headshot by Cavell Holand
Kay Macdonald headshot by Matt Downey

Be Eternal
2026-05-02 20:30 - 21:30 | The Bus Stop Theatre Coop, 2203 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS, Canada
With Jackson Fairfax-Perry, Andrew Jackson, Lance Sampson, Shuvanjan Karmakar and Joshua Awe
ONE TICKET FOR TWO INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCES!
$10 in advance and $15 at the door.
**Ticket includes admission to AND SO WE DANCE**

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

Childcare available on site for free. Please register in advance.

Taking its name from the final line of Common’s acclaimed 2005 album, Be Eternal explores black male mortality, particularly of musicians, and the normalization of this in modern society. Led by local saxophonist Jackson Fairfax-Perry, this ensemble brings together 5 local improvising musicians with roots connecting to the African diaspora. Exploring both spontaneous and written compositions, Be Eternal asks how can we move past this mindset that black men die young? That this is just how it is? How can we honour the artists who came before us, while also giving flowers to the ones who are still with us? This music is raw and mournful, but it is also filled with joy and hope, brimming with the power of our ancestors. This is a celebration of our black musical lineage.
Personnel:
Jackson Fairfax-Perry – Saxophones
Andrew Jackson – Trombone
Lance Sampson – Voice
Shuvanjan Karmakar – Bass
Joshua Awe – Drums

JACKON FAIRFAX-PERRY is an award-winning African Nova Scotian composer, sound designer, musician, and musical director based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A graduate of Dalhousie University (Bachelor of Music in Composition, 2014), Jackson has built a multidisciplinary career that bridges contemporary composition, popular music, improvisation, and theatrical sound design. For the decade following his graduation, he recorded and toured nationally and internationally with Hillsburn, an award-winning indie-pop band. Since 2023, Jackson has collaborated closely with Lance Sampson, AKA Aquakultre. As musical director for Sampson’s live performances, he has co-written, arranged, and performed on several of Aquakultre’s recordings, most notably on the critically acclaimed album 1783. As a saxophonist and keyboardist, Jackson is an active member of Halifax’s jazz and creative music scene performing regularly with several ensembles including Many Worlds, as well as his own group TYNES plus III. Jackson also collaborates frequently with theatre and dance artists, having contributed music and sound design to numerous local and national productions. Jackson is the most recent recipient of the Paul Cram Creation Award, and is in the process of writing his first composition for orchestra, to be premiered by Symphony Nova Scotia at Open Waters Festival in January, 2027.

ANDREW JACKSON is a Juno award winning trombonist and composer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His versatility and unique sound have made him one of Eastern Canada’s first-call players. Jackson keeps a busy playing schedule with many of the premiere artists in the region, spanning a variety of styles, and was selected as a member of the National Canadian Jazz Orchestra. Andrew is a multiple time Music Nova Scotia award winner, including accolades such as “Musician of the Year” and “Jazz Recording of The Year” amongst others. Since 2017 Andrew has been the musical curator for the TD Halifax Jazz Festival, which has won multiple “Event of The Year” Awards under his tenure.

LANCE SAMPSON better known as AQUAKULTRE is an uncommonly versatile singer, rapper, composer and storyteller from Halifax, NS. Since winning the 2018 CBC Searchlight competition, Aquakultre has released two Polaris-nominated albums and a multitude of genre-diverse, multi-media collaborations, establishing him as a significant musical and cultural presence. The live show is a warm-hearted party where all are welcomed by Aquakultre’s big voice and bigger stage presence. Through all his works, via poetic lyrics and straight-up jams, Aquakultre is on a mission to share his love for his unique and beautiful corner of the culture.

SHUVANJAN KARMAKAR is a bassist. Their practice synthesizes curatorial methodology, environmental listening, and diasporic microcosms. Their curatorial tenure, marked by collaborations with award-winning artists across disciplines, explored engagement with form, temporality, and audience perception. This experience established a foundation in spatial dramaturgy, critical framing, and orchestrating sensory experiences. These principles translate into their musical practice, where they treat sound as an experiential field rather than a linear construct. Shuvanjan’s artistic labor navigates the dialectic between the intrinsic desire to create and the external pressures that necessitate production, allowing this tension to shape both methodology and output. Their exploration of non-equal-tempered systems, encompassing microtonality, just intonation, and other alternative tuning paradigms, serves as both a technical and conceptual extension of this inquiry. Challenging hegemonic sonic structures and repositioning the bass as a site of critical experimentation.

JOSHUA AWE is an instinctive drummer who enjoys playing a wide range of musical genres. He often plays with jazz musicians in Halifax, however, Joshua has recently been performing with musicians in the folk and oldtime scenes where he usually plays djembe and percussion. Joshua has his roots in Nigeria where he started playing in the church. This is where he learned that music can be used for a spiritual transcendence. His resume includes an extensive list of public and private gigs including the Halifax Jazz Festival, Every Seeker and Deep Roots Festival.

Event photo and Jackson Fairfax-Perry headshot by Jamie Kronick
Lance Sampson headshot by Mo Phùng

Queers in Carhartts
2026-05-06 19:30 - 20:30 | Glitter Bean Cafe Co-op, 5896 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3B8, Canada
By Devin West and Shift Change Halifax

Film Screening and Exhibition//Artist & Researcher Q&A
Queers in Carhartts is an art exhibition, film screening, and research launch, documenting the unique challenges and practices of resilience by queer and trans people working in skilled trades labour. QiC is a hybrid of qualitative research investigating the lived experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ people in skilled trades in Nova Scotia, and a collaborative, community-building, creative documentation of the first-person authority of some of those experiences and survival strategies. Community collaborations feature local artist Andrew Deveaux for filmography, Winnipeg musician and sound artist, Kitz Willman on sound, and sculptor-researcher (carpenter), Devin West on research and artistic direction. Join us in launching our exhibition, film screening and research report at Queers in Carhartts.

Research and art facilitated by YWCA Halifax Shift Change Project @shiftchangehalifax, funded by Women and Gender Equity Canada. Thank you to our supporters: WAGE Canada, Wisdom2Action, WiSTAN and Titiklie Workplace Safety.

Devin West is a sculptor and art-researcher, based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. Working with found objects, artifacts and other sensory ghosts of identity, West builds and stitches sculptures into structures of feeling in suspension with queer grief and grievance.

Andrew Deveaux (he/they) is a white settler media artist, poet and filmmaker based in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, NS). His work exists in conversation with queer subjectivity; examining the limits of memory, identity and space as they relate to—and are regulated by—systems of power. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University and a post-baccalaureate certificate in expanded media from NSCAD. His work has screened across Canada and internationally.

Kitz Willman is a producer, songwriter, rapper, and multi-instrumentalist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 whose work needles experimental sonics into a sample-based hip-hop approach to production. From prairie rap and sound collage to Ukrainian-Canadian folksongs full of saxophone squeals, there’s dissonance, unpredictability, and jazz embedded in each composition.

everything i wanted to tell you / tout ce que j’avais envie de te dire
2026-05-07 19:30 - 20:30 | Breaking Circus, 2164 Amalamek Wy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 2WB3K 2W4, Canada
everything i wanted to tell you (but couldn’t, so here it is now)
By Vazari
Presented with support from / Présenté avec le soutien du Conseil Communautaire du Grand-Havre et Live Art Dance

$10 in advance and $15 at the door | Venue: Breaking Circus (2164 Amalamek Wy)

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

Cette présentation est bilingue – en anglais et en français. La description en français suit ci-bas.
ASL interpretation will be available for the May 7th presentation

This athletic and empathic work of dance theatre lifts a glass (and then smashes it) to love, loyalty and the difficult things we hope never to escape.
everything I wanted to tell you (but couldn’t, so here it is now) is an adventurous, no bullshit look at the ties that bind. Two dancers are locked in a liminal space of shared memories, imagined incidents, and the difficult things left unsaid. Together they set off on an athletic journey traversing the tangible and illogical as they learn to navigate change without letting go – because family is forever, right?

Winner of three Dora Mavor Moore Awards:
Outstanding Choreography
Outstanding Production
Outstanding Performance by an Individual
Also nominated for Outstanding Original Sound Composition and Outstanding Achievement in Design

Credits:
Concept and Direction Jessie Garon
Choreography by Jessie Garon in collaboration with Sully Malaeb Proulx, Jarrett Siddall, Guillaume Biron and Pulga Muchochoma
Performed by Demetri Apostolopoulos and Jarrett Siddall
Sound Design by Stephen Joffe
Lighting Design by Simon Rossiter
Costumes by Jessica Mak and Brayden Cairns
Outside Eye Tia Kushniruk
Statement from the creator, Jessie Garon

The inspiration to create this work came from reconciling the friction and sense of duty in my own family. I come from a homestead farm where siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents have lived and worked together for six generations. In a time when establishing boundaries and cutting ties is more encouraged, what has to happen if we choose to engage with the tension instead? I hope the audience will leave thinking about the listening, empathy and flexibility required to evolve with people over time.
NOTE: Jessie is offering a dance workshop on May 9th. Find details at WORKING IN UNCERTAINTY.

tout ce que j’avais envie de te dire

everything i wanted to tell you (but couldn’t, so here it is now) est une œuvre de danse-théâtre virtuose et empathique qui lève son verre (avant de le briser) à l’amour, à la loyauté et aux difficultés auxquelles nous espérons ne jamais échapper.
Avec cette pièce, Garon s’interroge sur la souplesse de nos relations les plus proches et sur la tendance culturelle à établir des frontières rigides.
Lauréat de trois prix Dora Mavor Moore:
Meilleure chorégraphie
Meilleure production
Meilleure performance individuelle
Également nominé dans les catégories de meilleure composition musicale originale et meilleure réalisation en conception

Équipe:
Concept et direction par Jessie Garon
Chorégraphie par Jessie Garon en collaboration avec Sully Malaeb Proulx, Jarrett Siddall, Guillaume Biron et Pulga Muchochoma
Interprété par Demetri Apostolopoulos and Jarrett Siddall
Composition musicale  par Stephen Joffe
Éclairage par Simon Rossiter
Costumes par Jessica Mak et Brayden Cairns
Regard extérieur Tia Kushniruk
Déclaration de la créatrice, Jessie Garon

L’inspiration pour créer cette œuvre m’est venue en conciliant les tensions et le sens du devoir au sein de ma propre famille. Je viens d’une ferme familiale en Alberta où mes frères et sœurs, cousins, tantes, oncles, parents et grands-parents ont vécu et travaillé ensemble pendant six générations. À une époque où l’on encourage davantage à établir des limites et à couper les liens, que doit-il se passer si nous choisissons plutôt d’accepter les tensions? J’espère que le public repartira en réfléchissant à l’écoute, à l’empathie et à la flexibilité nécessaires pour évoluer avec les gens au fil du temps.
NB: Jessie offre un atelier de danse (en anglais) le 9 mai. Visitez WORKING IN UNCERTAINTY pour plus de détails.
