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.
