Prismatic Arts Festival 2023 Program

September

Prismatic Message

It is with immense joy and heartfelt gratitude that I extend my warmest greetings to each and every one of you. Thank you for being a part of Prismatic 2023 – an extraordinary convergence of artistic brilliance and shared inspiration.

This year, prepare to be surrounded by a dazzling tapestry of talent and creativity, centring the idea: Embodied Resonances.

These two words have held a profound significance to the curation of both this year’s programming and industry series.

This sentiment echoes far beyond the realm of this festival. It speaks to the intrinsic connection between our physical selves and the intricate melodies of our artistic expressions. It invites us to explore the harmonious interplay between the personal and the universal, the tangible and the intangible.

Moreover, this year’s festival takes on a meaningful dimension as we proudly present an action-driven Industry Series, with invited guests from all over the country, to embark on a transformative journey guided by the stories and experiences of these incredible artists.

Throughout their stories, we will witness the way in which the artists’ relationships with their own bodies, histories, ancestries, and cultural influences shape the art they gift to the world.

STAFF

Raeesa Lalani | Artistic Director

Maggie Stewart | Managing Director

Kelly Li | Managing Producer

Hannah Zamora | Communications Manager

Sophie Wilcott | Outreach Coordinator

Michael Mader | Technical Director

Regine Tiu | Website Editor

These are narratives that for too long, have been overshadowed, misinterpreted, and more recently, demanded. It is a narrative that at Prismatic, will step into the spotlight, through their own voices and intentions.

As we engage with this series, we commit to a paradigm shift in how we perceive and engage with the work of Indigenous artists and artists of colour. Prismatic has always, and will continue to prioritize the opportunity for these exceptional artists to flourish as they delve into their own identities and artistic visions, sharing their truths without any expectations. This year, we seek not only to broaden the horizons of creativity but also to foster discourse that champions authenticity, representation, and exploration as desired by the artist.

As we gather over the coming days and immerse ourselves in performances, events, and dialogues that traverse the boundaries of our understanding, let’s remember that art is a vessel of transformation. Let’s celebrate the voices that deserve space, that deserve to be heard - and revel in the vibrancy of our shared humanity.

Raeesa Lalani Artistic Director

BOARD OF DIRECTORS SUPPORT

Jacqueline Warwick | Chair

Miya Turnbull | Vice-Chair

Kate Hamilton | Secretary & Treasurer

Jeff Ward

Laurie Gillis

Neal Morgan

Kaif Lalani

Theresa Meuse

Jeff Ward

Diane Roberts

Denise John

Sarah Prosper

Minister’s Message

Welcome to the Prismatic Arts Festival 2023!

Here in Canada, diversity has always been one of our greatest strengths, but there is still work to do to make Canada a more inclusive country—and that includes creating spaces in the cultural sector where all Canadians feel included. By coming together to celebrate our artistic and cultural diversity, we are building stronger, better communities for everyone. Our government is proud to support this festival, which gives professional Indigenous artists and artists of colour from across the country an opportunity to share their talents, and allows participants to experience the richness and diversity of their work.

As Minister of Canadian Heritage, I would like to thank all the organizers, artists, and volunteers who helped make this year’s Prismatic Arts Festival possible. I applaud your contribution to the region’s cultural landscape.

Enjoy the festival!

Chair’s Message

Every fall, audiences in Mi’kma’ki look forward to encountering artists who inspire and challenge us through the groundbreaking Prismatic Arts Festival. This year, we can witness work from established figures at the top of their game as well as emerging artists just beginning their careers, all exploring the theme of “embodied resonances.” This theme reminds both artists and audiences that art represents lived experience, and it encourages us all to think about the many ways we interact with art and ideas.

Prismatic’s long-standing commitment to Indigenous artists and artists of colour from across Canada has been transformative to the arts scene in our region. It is a joy and a privilege to share in this wonderful work!

Director’s Message

To better understand the human condition, fully experience the world around us, and challenge our assumptions, we need art, now more than ever.

More engagement, connection, and inspiration are what the arts promise us and what you are bringing to life, collectively, through this unique gathering of the arts and culture in Canada.

The Canada Council for the Arts is a proud supporter of Prismatic Arts Festival, and I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to all those involved.

Michelle Chawla Director and CEO Canada Council for the Arts

The Honourable Pascale St-Onge Minister of Canadian Heritage

Jacqueline Warwick Chair of Prismatic Arts of Festival

Premier’s Message

On behalf of the Province of Nova Scotia, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2023 Prismatic Arts Festival.

Since 2008, the Prismatic Arts Festival has been treating audiences to performances ranging from theatre, dance, music, and spoken word to film and photography. This year’s festival will bring together leading Indigenous artists and artists of colour from across Canada to provide an unforgettable experience for all.

This Festival celebrates the work of leading Indigenous artists and artists of colour from across Canada. The festival is a fantastic way to showcase our own vibrant culture and heritage, and shares the stories of Nova Scotians through performance, music, film, poetry, and dance.

Nova Scotia is a mosaic of different cultures, heritages, backgrounds, and traditions. Our stories are important to Canadians, and we are thrilled to be able to share them

Mayor’s Message

As Mayor of Halifax and on behalf of Regional Council, it is my distinct pleasure to extend a warm welcome to everyone taking part in the Prismatic Arts Festival taking place here in Kjipuktuk/downtown Halifax.

Halifax Regional Municipality is located on the ancestral and unceded grounds of the Mi’kmaq people in the district of Mi’kma’ki. We acknowledge the Peace and Friendship Treaties signed in this Territory and recognize we are all Treaty People.

As one of Canada’s only multi-arts festivals, Prismatic 2023 will showcase and celebrate the innovative works of Indigenous artists and culturally diverse artists from across the country. For more than a decade this much anticipated vibrant event has been captivating audiences with boundary-pushing new works in theatre, dance, music, film, visual arts, media arts, and spoken word.

through events like the Prismatic Arts Festival.

As a province, we strive to be inclusive and welcoming. Prismatic helps us celebrate innovative events and experiences in the performing arts and encourages important cultural conversations that lead to a better future for our province and our country.

Thank you to the dedicated coordinators and multitude of volunteers who help bring Prismatic to life.

Congratulations on another successful festival!

Yours truly,

Honourable Tim Houston M.L.A. Premier of Nova Scotia

Arts and culture are among this region’s most valuable resources. I want to acknowledge, with gratitude, the festival organizers, volunteers, sponsors, partners, and public funders for their commitment and dedication to our arts community and the continued celebration of diversity in our region.

Enjoy the spectacular display of creativity, talent, and art in all its forms!

Kindest regards,

Mike Savage Mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality

FRI, SEPTEMBER 29TH

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

8PM In My Body by Crazy Smooth The Dunn Theatre

SAT, SEPTEMBER 30TH

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

2PM Anyma & Leonard Sumner The Carleton

8PM In My Body by Crazy Smooth The Dunn Theatre

SUN, OCTOBER 1ST

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

MON, OCTOBER 2ND

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

12PM Welcome & Land Based Movement Workshop with Syreeta Hector Africville Museum –Outdoors

1:45PM Living History at the Crossroads: Arrivals Legacy Project Meet & Greet Africville Museum –Indoors

6:30PM Prismatic After Dark featuring Alan Syliboy, Guyleigh Johnson, Jacques Mindreau and Andrew Jackson Halifax Citadel National Historic Site – North Front Casemates

TUE, OCTOBER 3RD

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

2PM The TALK: Art as Healing

2:35PM Weaving New Ways of Knowing Masterclass –An Arrivals Taster with Diane Roberts

7:30PM Pawâkan Macbeth by Akpik Theatre

Halifax Central Library –Room 301

Dalhousie Arts Centre –Studio 2

Pay What You Can Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage

WED, OCTOBER 4TH

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

10AM The TALK: At the Threshold Halifax Central Library –Room 301

3PM Showcase featuring Arrivals Legacy Project SeedPool and Diaspora Kidz

The Bus Stop Theatre

3:45PM Singing Workshop with Anyma Club Inclusion

7:30PM Pisuwin by Atlantic Ballet Spatz Theatre

7:30PM Pawâkan Macbeth by Akpik Theatre Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage

THU, OCTOBER 5TH

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

3PM The Griot in You: Poetry Workshop with Guyleigh Johnson Every One Every Day

5PM - 7PM Opening Reception The Fairest Order in the World by Sameer Farooq Dalhousie Art Gallery

7:30PM Dance Performances by Theland Kicknosway, Jeanette Kotowich, and Syreeta Hector Alderney Landing Theatre

7:30PM Pawâkan Macbeth by Akpik Theatre Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage

FRI, OCTOBER 6TH

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

11AM - 5PM The Fairest Order in the World by Sameer Farooq Dalhousie Art Gallery

11AM Mending Fibres and Stitching Stories: Workshop with Lux Gow-Habrich Every One Every Day

2:30PM Joy of Jigging Masterclass with Jeanette Kotowich Dalhousie Arts Centre –Studio 2

7:30PM Pawâkan Macbeth by Akpik Theatre followed by Artist Talk Back Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage

8PM Logan Staats & Basset The Carleton

SAT, OCTOBER 7TH

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

12PM - 5PM The Fairest Order in the World by Sameer Farooq Dalhousie Art Gallery

7:30PM Pawâkan Macbeth by Akpik Theatre

Preceded and followed by Mi’kmaw Craft Fair

SUN, OCTOBER 8TH

Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage

ALL DAY Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

12PM - 5PM The Fairest Order in the World by Sameer Farooq Dalhousie Art Gallery

2PM Pawâkan Macbeth by Akpik Theatre

Preceded and followed by Mi’kmaw Craft Fair

EXHIBITS, INSTALLATIONS, AND SCREENINGS

Available during programming at The Bus Stop Theatre

August 28th - October 30th

All day screening

September 29th - October 8th

Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage

Queen Mothers of Eastern and Western Skies by Lux Gow-Habrich

The Bus Stop Theatre Lobby Gallery

Wolverine and Little Thunder by Alan Syliboy Rogers Square

Available during gallery hours The Fairest Order in the World by Sameer Farooq Dalhousie Art Gallery

Alan Syliboy

Alan Syliboy grew up believing that native art was generic. “As a youth, I found painting difficult and painful, because I was unsure of my identity.” But his confidence grew in 1972 when he studied privately with Shirley Bear. He then attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where, 25 years later, he was invited to sit on the Board of Governors. Syliboy looked to the Indigenous Mi’kmaq petroglyph tradition for inspiration and developed his own artistic vocabulary out of those forms. His popularization of these symbolic icons has conferred on them a mainstream legitimacy that restores community pride in Mi’kmaq heritage.

His 2010 film, Little Thunder, an animated collaboration between Syliboy, director, Nance Ackerman, and animator, Paton Francis, has been screened at numerous film festivals, and received the Best Animation Film Award at the First Peoples Festival in Montreal. Alan still lives and works in Millbrook, NS, where he was born and raised. He creates his art in his studio in Truro, NS.

Wolverine and Little Thunder

Friday, September 29th to Sunday, October 8th | 24 hour loop

Rogers Square

Vistas: Little Thunder

Monday, October 2nd | 6:30PM

Halifax Citadel National Historic Site – North Front Casemates Film provided courtesy of

Crazy Smooth

Crazy Smooth (Yvon Soglo) is one of the top street dancers, performers, choreographers, instructors, judges, and community leaders in Canada. He is the founder and artistic director of Bboyizm, an award-winning street-dance company that has been instrumental in the preservation and proliferation of street dance in Canada and internationally.

He was named the 2020 Clifford E. Lee award recipient by the Banff Centre for the Arts for In My Body, created as a part of the 2019-2021 Long Term Artist in Residency at the Centre de Création O Vertigo in Montreal.

In 2004, Smooth founded Bboyizm and the company has successfully brought authentic street dance into the professional theatre setting. Three of his full-length creations — The Evolution of B-boying, IZM, and Music Creates Opportunity — have toured throughout Canada. He continually strives to be a positive example for the community and an ambassador of the street dance culture at large.

In My Body

It’s said that the bravest thing a dancer can do is grow old – for a b-boy/b-girl, the experience is approaching heroic. In keeping with hip-hop culture, b-boys/b-girls present a façade of confidence and invincibility as they engage in battles to prove their value and establish their dominance. The resulting vocabulary is one of the most physically demanding and visually impressive of the dance genres and leaves no room for the expression of vulnerability.

For In My Body, dancer / choreographer Crazy Smooth brings together an intergenerational group of dancers and an international creative team for an intensely athletic investigation of the evolution of self and the effects of aging on street dancers.

In My Body is dedicated to the memory of Frosty Freeze, Marjory Smarth, Flash, Don Campbellock and others gone before – their legacy lives within us.

Friday, September 29th to Saturday, September 30th | 8PM

Dalhousie Arts Centre

The Dunn Theatre Co-presented with

Lux Gow-Habrich

Lux Gow-Habrich (she/they) is a multidisciplinary visual artist, arts facilitator, and support worker of mixed Chinese and European heritage. Practicing in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) following an Interdisciplinary BFA from NSCAD University, she is drawn to the immense storytelling capabilities in tactile craft and installation processes as a means of unearthing buried intergenerational pain and power. Their interest in ritual and commemorative practices centres on diasporic experiences of loss and belonging, embodied hybridization in blood and spirit, and honouring the untold stories and unspoken legacies that live inside each of us.

Queen Mothers of Eastern and Western Skies

Queen Mothers of Eastern and Western Skies is a tactile textile installation. This work is intended to address the nuanced disparity of experiences between the artist’s Western-born, first-generation Canadian mother, and her Eastern/ foreign-born grandmother of southern mainland China. By examining the epigenetic qualities of inheriting trauma on a physiological level, they raise questions about the social and biological origins of psychological development and identity formation.

This composite non-figurative portrait emphasizes bodily areas of harm to emulate the embodied nature of illness and highlight the interdependence of these wounds to consider how these phenomena are shaped by differences in cultural, cosmological, and generational ethos. Amidst these injuries the artist invokes fractured ancestral healing practices that were severed upon migration to Turtle Island, uncovering the many cultural traditions that were not passed on to them with assimilation, submission, and erasure being a defining reality following the repealed Chinese Exclusion Act of 1947.

Monday, August 28th to Monday, October 30th

The Bus Stop Theatre Lobby Gallery

Pisuwin

From award-winning director and choreographer Igor Dobrovolskiy, and multidisciplinary artist Nipahtuwet Naka Wespahtuwet (Possesom) Paul (Wolastoqiyik, Sitansisk First Nation), Pisuwin is a first ever Wolastoq contemporary story-ballet set to the soaring music of Polaris Prize and Juno award-winning composer Jeremy Dutcher (Wolastoqiyik, Neqotkuk First Nation).

Based on a Wolastoq tale, this multidisciplinary piece reflects on the current state of dis-ease in our world, illuminating a path to wholeness and rebalance. The project features eight dancers and blends Indigenous storytelling and ballet, redefining this classical form for a diverse, savvy, and contemporary audience. Electronic sound, industrial landscapes, and digital projection, juxtaposed with Wolastoq visual motifs of the spiritual and natural world, create the Indigenous cosmology within which the story takes place.

Pisuwin pushes us to confront our greed and alienation, while inspiring us to take a different path; one of connection, community, and wholeness.

Performance program here

Wednesday, October 4th | 7:30PM

Spatz Theatre

Theland Kicknosway

Theland Kicknosway is Potawatami and Cree, and a member of the Wolf Clan. Theland is an internationally recognized traditional singer, drummer, dancer, and social media influencer. As a member of Walpole Island and Bkejwanong Territory, Theland uses his voice to spread his message and showcase Indigenous culture. At just 20 years old, he is an activist, role model, and educator who weaves his culture into all that he does. In 2018, Theland became the youngest Indspire Laureate named for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality. His pathbreaking efforts have also been highlighted by Nike, Disney, the BBC, Teen Vogue, Entertainment Tonight, and Complex.

Thursday, October 5th | 7:30PM

Alderney Landing Theatre

Syreeta Hector

Syreeta Hector is a dance artist and educator in Toronto, Ontario. As a highly accomplished performer, she has worked for internationally recognized companies such as Adelheid Dance Projects, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and Toronto Dance Theatre. She is a proud graduate of The National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and has achieved her Master of Arts in Dance from York University.

Syreeta participated in the Creators in Residence Program at Canadian Stage, the Creative Encounters Residency Program at ProArteDanza, and the Artist in Residence Program at Luminato. This season she is one of the choreographers in residence with Toronto Dance Theatre’s “Pilot Projects” and is part of the Creative Incubator Program at the Citadel + Compagnie.

Most recently, Syreeta has been commissioned by Mocean Dance (Nova Scotia) and ProArteDanza (Ontario) to create ensemble works. She is also currently supported by the Concept to Realization Program at the Canada Council for the Arts to create a new work, which will act as the second chapter in her Black Ballerina series. Although performance and creation endeavours remain a priority for Syreeta, she derives an equal measure of inspiration by teaching movement. She has recently joined York University’s Department of Dance as an Assistant Professor.

Black Ballerina

Black Ballerina focuses on the dualities within one’s identity, along with Syreeta’s Blackness and Indigeneity in relationship to classical ballet. This short, work-inprogress solo gained recognition at the SummerWorks Festival in 2019 and won the Stratford Festival Lab Award for Research and Creation. This condensed version of the piece was also performed at the Citadel Dance Mix and received a Dora Mavor Moore nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Individual. The full length version was live streamed through the online dance series “Citadel Live,” garnering record viewership. Due to the overwhelming response it was rebroadcast on the Harbourfront Centre streaming platform. This full length work is now touring live across Canada.

Monday, October 2nd | 7:30PM

Alderney Landing Theatre

Jeanette Kotowich

Originally from Treaty 4 territory Saskatchewan, Jeanette Kotowich creates work that reflects Nêhiyaw/ Métis cosmology within the context of Indigenous performance, Indigenous futurism, and contemporary dance. Her creations have been presented at theatres and festivals across so-called “Canada,” including Kwê at Matriarchs Uprising and The Dance Centre’s Dance in Vancouver. In the summer of 2020, she conducted landbased research in her home province of Saskatchewan, fusing interdisciplinary collaboration, de-colonial practices and embodied research towards the creation and premiere of Kisiskâciwan in fall of 2022, which toured to Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Australia.

Jeanette is Artistic Associate at Raven Spirit Dance, and co-founder of aka, a newly formed collective. She resides as a guest on the Ancestral and unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl ilw̓ ətaʔɬ/, and Xwməθkwəy̓ əm territories, colonially known as Vancouver.

Kisiskâciwan

Kisiskâciwan is a creative return to the fast-flowing landscape of Saskatchewan, the robust and undulating land of Jeanette’s great-grandmothers and great-great-

grandfathers. Kisiskâciwan is a journey to one’s self. It speaks through dance to a Métis cultural narrative of identity and home.

“Through memories of my childhood summer, embraced by the Kah-tep-was (Nêhiyaw for ‘river that calls’) valley, the vast prairie, and gently rolling landscape has echoed its lasting impression and whispered a language of inspiration.

Kah-tep-was is a two-kilometre wide, 180-metre-deep valley, a sacred place that calls generations of peoples for gathering, hunting, and spiritual replenishment.”

– Jeanette Kotowich

Thursday, October 5th | 7:30PM

Alderney Landing Theatre

A community telling of Pawâkan Macbeth

Akpik Theatre was founded in 2008 by Reneltta Arluk.

The company adheres to its namesake, the cloudberry, striving to flourish in the northern climate it reflects. Akpik Theatre develops stories of the circumpolar, whether oral tradition or contemporary inspiration, into dynamic professional theatre productions. They encourage and mentor the development of Indigenous stories, preferably within but not limited to northern communities, with the potential of adapting these stories for live performance. In addition to presenting professional northern and/or Indigenous scripts for local, national, and international audiences, engaging actors, and theatre professionals from the north and across Canada, Akpik Theatre produces live/audio/film productions that inhabit at least one of these qualities.

A community telling of Pawâkan Macbeth

The groundbreaking Pawâkan Macbeth is Indigenous playwright Reneltta Arluk’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s darkest play into Cree history, legend, and cosmology.

Set in Plains Cree territory in the 1870s, before the establishment of First Nations reserves, Pawâkan Macbeth takes place in a time when First Nations warred with each other and the Canadian Government over territory, food supply, and trade. Harsh environments brought immense fear, starvation, and uncertainty together to awaken the darkest of Cree spirits, the Wihtiko – an evil being with an insatiable appetite for human flesh.

Inspired from stories shared by Indigenous Elders in Frog Lake First Nation following protocol, Arluk has created a new, visceral experience of Macbeth; a convergence of Shakespeare’s language, modern English, and Plains Cree. As historical wars are waged with the Cree and Nakoda against the Blackfoot, Macikosisân (Macbeth), a great Okihcitâw (Warrior), becomes consumed by the cannibal spirit Wihtiko. He plots with Kâwanihot Iskwew (Lady Macbeth), to kill their Chief, Okimâw Wîpâstim (Duncan). Pawâkan Macbeth is a terrifying journey through love, greed, honour, and betrayal, with trickster beings that lie like truth.

Co-presented with

Tuesday, October 3rd to Saturday, October 7th | 7:30PM

Sunday, October 8th | 2PM

Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage

Jacques Mindreau & Andrew Jackson

Jacques Mindreau makes music for the soul and the human spirit. His solo project, Electro Jacques Therapy, uses violin and lyrical voice to combine fresh and sometimes haunting orchestral sounds into vocal and string loops. Jacques has performed and toured with countless musicians all over Canada and the world. He also composes music for film, dance, and theatre including the feature documentary Modified, a story about the impact of GMOs on society. He also created music for the critically acclaimed play, One Discordant Violin, an adaptation of a Yann Martel story directed by Ann-Marie Kerr and Anthony Black, which ran in New York City in 2019. Jacques is the co-founder of the

Monday, October 2nd | 6:30PM

Halifax Citadel National Historic Site – North Front Casemates

bands Krasnogorsk, Beautiful Wild Animals, OQO, and Woodhorse. His passion in music is seen in not just his works but his performances. He currently resides in the North End of Kjipuktuk / Halifax.

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 the Maritimes’ first-call players. He is an artist constantly exploring new sounds and not afraid to blend genres.

Andrew keeps a busy playing schedule with many of the premiere artists in Halifax spanning a variety of styles, including Roxy & The Underground Soul Sound, Erin Costelo, David Myles (with whom he won a Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year), Classified, Aquakultre, Andru Branch, Jerry Granelli (with whom he has won an East Coast Music Award), and many more. Andrew has written compositions ranging from solo, jazz combo, string ensemble to large ensemble pieces for groups such as the Upstream Music Ensemble.

Since 2017 Andrew has been the musical curator for the Halifax Jazz Festival, for which he received the 2019 Promoter of the Year award at the Music Nova Scotia Awards. Starting in 2015, Andrew has also been the creator and host of “The Outer Edge” on CKDU 88.1FM, which received the 2021 Radio Program of the Year award at the Music Nova Scotia Awards.

Performance

Jacques Mindreau and Andrew Jackson collaborate on a soaring, improvisational expression of their unique and intertwining musical ideas and voices. This project lives and breathes in resonant, acoustically distinct spaces. Join us at the Halifax Citadel North Front Casemates to feel the stone walls thrumming with Jacques and Andrew’s musical explorations.

Guyleigh Johnson

Guyleigh Johnson is a proud African Nova Scotian author, spoken word artist, community advocate, and Arts facilitator from Dartmouth. She has a passion for inner and collective healing, youth engagement, and creative expression. She has published two books, Expect the Unexpected (2016) and Afraid of the Dark (2018), both with Pottersfield Press. In 2018 she won the Ancestral Roots Award, presented by Delmore Buddy Daye Learning

Institute. This year she won The Inspirational Griot award for her short film Scratching the Surface presented by Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival. This year her film was nominated for Best Direction of a Documentary Series at the Canadian Screen Awards. Her purpose is to create and cultivate access for youth in her community to pursue literary arts.

Monday, October 2nd | 6:30PM

Halifax Citadel National Historic Site – North Front Casemates

Anyma

Anyma is a Canadian electro-pop artist hailing from Wendake, Quebec. A member of the Wendat Nation, her music finds parallels in her Indigenous heritage and her roots as a professional composer and dancer. Her debut EP, Humans, earned her multiple top ten positions at the Indigenous Music Countdown (peaking at #1), runner up in the 2021 SOCAN Indigenous Songwriter Awards, and thousands of spins via SiriusXM and CBC, among others. She has been a featured/cover

artist with Canadian Musician, Toronto Star, and the Globe & Mail. On YouTube, she averages hundreds of thousands of streams of her original performances, music videos, full-length animations, and more. While at DSPS, she has been featured on countless playlists – including a cover for Spotify’s Indigenous playlist as well as a feature on their On the Record program – equating to millions of streams worldwide across all platforms.

Saturday, September 30th | 2PM

The Carleton

Co-presented with

Leonard Sumner

Anishinaabe MC, singer, and songwriter, Leonard Sumner’s, storytelling flows directly from the shores of Little Saskatchewan First Nation, located in the heart of the Interlake of Manitoba.

Sumner’s self-determined sound is evidence of his ability to simultaneously occupy landscapes of multiple musical genres including hip hop, spoken word, country, and rhythm and blues.

With every vibration of the strings on his guitar, Leonard rattles the dust off truths that have been buried for far too long. On stage he poetically sings awake the consciousness of audiences who may have been unaware of their slumber. In this era of unsettling history and healing wounds of the past, Sumner’s music is an expression of medicine that walks the line between fortitude and fragility.

Saturday, September 30th | 2PM

The Carleton

Co-presented with

Logan Staats

In 2018, veracious Mohawk singer-songwriter Logan Staats was chosen from 10,000 hopeful contestants vying for a spot on musical competition show, The Launch. Before an audience of 1.4 million viewers, Staats won, officiating the breakthrough that would lead him to Nashville and Los Angeles, and to his single “The Lucky Ones,” winning the Indigenous Music Award for Best Radio Single. Upon its release, “The Lucky Ones” was the number one song in Canada.

In the years between now and then, Staats has come home, making the intentional decision to re-root at Six Nations of the Grand River: “I wanted to bring my songwriting back to the medicine inside of music, to the medicine inside of reclamation,” he said following a phase of constant travel and intensity.

To Staats, music is a healing salve, contemplatively composed and offered to listeners in need of comfort. Since returning home, Staats has been able to create music authentically again, reclaiming his sound through honest storytelling and unvarnished, sometimes painful reflection. An evocative testament to rock’s cathartic spirit, the album, A Light in the Attic, was recorded with borrowed microphones at Staats’ apartment, at Six Nations recording studio Jukasa, and at downtown Brantford’s Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts.

“My nation and my community are in every chord I play and every note I sing. They’ve saved me.”

– Logan Staats

Friday, October 6th | 8PM

The Carleton

Basset

Toronto-based indie-folk duo, Basset, are full of timeless heart. Acoustic songwriters Sam Clark and Yasmine Shelton will take you through city streets in the hours before the world has woken, or to a corrugated steel home north of the treeline.

Basset brings a deep love of the natural world to their gorgeously meditative and critically acclaimed debut album, In The Clay, from September of 2022. Produced by Joshua Van Tassel, the ten songs on In The Clay

explore various themes of life in change, Shelton and Clark’s travels around Northern Ontario, the Canadian and American prairies, their lives in Toronto, and the many characters who have crossed their paths. With comparisons to The Milk Carton Kids, Hozier, and Bon Iver, their inventiveness shines through fiddle and intricate harmonies, with Shelton and Clark’s voices wrapping around each other like twin flames in a warm fire.

Friday, October 6th | 8PM

The Carleton

Sameer Farooq

Sameer Farooq is a Canadian artist of Pakistani and Ugandan Indian descent. With a versatile approach that shifts between sculpture, photography, documentary film, and anthropological methods, he investigates strategies of representation to expand the ways through which museums have looked at the past through traditional forms of collection, interpretation, and display. Farooq foregrounds communitybased models of knowledge production and an array of contemplative practices in order to suggest new ways of narrating our cultural histories. The result is often a collaborative work, which counterbalances how dominant institutions speak about our lives: a counter-archive, new additions to a museum collection, or a buried history made visible. Together with the public he works to redress the role of exhibition and collection-based practices by employing decolonial, queer, and critical race lenses.

Farooq has held exhibitions at institutions around the world and reviews dedicated to his work have been widely published.

The Fairest Order in the World

The Fairest Order in the World tackles the fraught and violent histories of anthropological and encyclopaedic museum collections, and their colonial origins, structures, and impulses.

Raising questions about provenance and repatriation, the sculptures, photographs, and prints assembled in this installation articulate new visions for repurposing the emptied spaces of museums devoid of their spoils. Mining the possibilities offered by sustained engagement, Farooq invites us to envision what the museum might become through the mechanics of restitution, what it may shift to collect and document, and what kind of experiences it could nurture.

Co-presented with

Exhibit Opening and Artist-led Tour

Thursday, October 5th | 5PM - 7PM

Dalhousie Art Gallery

NOVEMBER 3, 7-9PM

ST. JAMES ANGLICAN CHURCH (2668 Joseph Howe Drive)

Prismatic Festival (3.3” x 3.3”, full colour)

Client contact: Megan Blanchard

Aly Keita

Aly Keita began his artistic career in Guinea at the age of 13. He then graduated in dance and circus arts at the Keita Fodeba Acrobatic Art Center (2007-2015), where he also perfected his skills in music. He arrived in Canada in 2016 thanks to a cultural exchange project between young Inuit and Guineans for the production of a documentary (Circus Without Borders), shot between Guinea and Nunavut.

In Québec, he collaborated with Productions Kalabanté, Cirque Éloize, Cavalia, and the Nyata Nyata Dance Company, directed by Zab Maboungou, where he completed the artistic and professional training program in dance (PEFAPDA), and he participated as a performer in the work Mozongi.

Between 2020 and today, he worked on the creation and distribution of his piece, Djata: Conversations of the Manden. At the same time, he has also participated in music and digital projects such as Opéra de Lévis; MAPP_ Montréal; Collectif White Wash; etc., and he has directed cultural mediation activities.

Djata: Conversations of the Manden

“To create my piece, I drew inspiration from the Epic of Soundjata, one of the most significant foundational stories from 13th-century African oral tradition. It features Soundjata Keita, whose exploits have been transmitted through song and kora music played by lyrical poets from West Africa, known as griots. I was especially interested in the part of the legend known as “The Awakening of the Lion” to address themes of oppression, courage, metamorphosis, passage, and liberation, all explored through rhythm, sound, and movement.” – Aly Keita

Friday, May 5th to

Saturday, May 6th | 7PM

The Bus Stop Theatre

Co-presented with

Reequal Smith

Reequal Smith is the Founder and Artistic Director of Oshun Dance Studios. A dance artist originally from the Bahamas, now based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, she is an alumni of Holland College’s School of Performing Arts. She majored in Dance Performance and holds a BA in Marketing from her hometown. She currently continues her dancing career as an independent artist, choreographer, and educator in Charlottetown, taking part in festivals, events, collaborations, and recreational arts in schools locally and regionally such as; Arts Smarts Project, Diversecity Festival, Roma Festival, River Clyde Pageant, Kings Playhouse, Stratford Fall Festival, Social Distancing Festival, and projects based in Halifax. She has had the opportunity to perform and be mentored under Liliona Quarmyne and Sussanne Chui in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Reequal is also the events coordinator for The Black Cultural Society of PEI for seasonal projects, and has been the Volunteer Coordinator / Visual Artists for Art in the Open for two years as well as the Administrator / Outreach Coordinator for Canadian Women of Colour Leadership Network in Ottawa. Reequal loves to be a part of the community and arts industry where she is currently on the boards of both The Island Fringe Festival and Fusion Charlottetown in PEI.

She continues to express her art by workshopping and training with artists, fusing cultural patterns together as one, creating something beautiful, and she wishes to bring more excitement and flavour to the PEI community.

Unfold

“Unfold the burden of misty dreams, an assortment of feelings. Of Loss and Love. A deep rooted nostalgia of home in every crevice of being, manifested by the full existence and experience of body to land. Land connecting to my soles of souls.” – Reequal Smith

Inspired by the sweet, infectious Ghanaian Blues, this performance is fused with the essence of Afro-Cuban movement, embodied with a fusion of jazz, African, and funk styles. Rooted with the vibrancy of old tropical Caribbean motion, stemming from the euphoric connection in the swish in our hips and the fluidity in our strides.

Friday, May 5th to

Saturday, May 6th | 7PM

The Bus Stop Theatre

Co-presented with

Mali Obomsawin

Mali Obomsawin (they/she) is an award winning bassist, songwriter, and composer from Abenaki First Nation at Odanak.

With an expansive background in American roots, rock, and jazz, Mali’s debut album Sweet Tooth received international acclaim since its release, including rave reviews and Best of 2022 placement in The Guardian, JazzTimes, and NPR. A suite for Indigenous resistance, the album flies in the face of Western tropes that insist Indigenous cultures are monolithic, trapped in time. Instead, Obomsawin highlights centuries of clever adaptation and resistance that have fueled the art and culture of Wabanaki people.

As a Smithsonian Folkways Recordings artist, they toured internationally with Lula Wiles, appeared as an accompanist with contemporaries like Jake Blount and Lizzie No, and performed at premier festivals like Newport and Philly Folk Fest. In 2022, Mali received an International Folk Music Association’s Rising Tide Award and a New England Foundation of the Arts’ New Work New England award. Mali is a member of The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band and Indigenous Performance Productions’ Welcome To Indian Country. They scored the upcoming film We Are The Warriors.

Beyond the stage, Mali is a community organizer and advocate for Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and landback. She works with the Wabanaki-led Sunlight Media Collective to document and promote stories at the intersection of environmental justice and Tribal sovereignty. Her journalism has been published in Smithsonian, National Performance Network, and the Boston Globe. In 2020, Mali co-founded Bomazeen Land Trust, the first ever Wabanaki land trust, where she currently serves as executive director.

Saturday, July 15th | 7PM

St. Matthew’s United Church

Co-presented with

OKAN

Born in Havana, Cuba, Elizabeth Rodriguez is a classically trained violinist who served as concertmaster for Havana’s Youth Orchestra. Magdelys Savigne hails from Santiago de Cuba and graduated with honours in orchestral percussion from Havana’s University of the Arts.

Called “lush and vibrant, urgent but specific, and deeply intentional” by CBC Music, OKAN’s second album Espiral delves deeper into the group’s rich Cuban roots, finding renewed inspiration in this powerful musical heritage. The Santeria influences are most evident in the title track, which uniquely blends guajira, the folk genre of Eastern Cuba, with Santeria-derived chants.

Official showcases at SXSW Folk Alliance International, Mundial Montreal, Contact East, Folk Music Ontario, Pacific Contact, Ontario Contact, and Global Toronto have led to invitations to perform across Canada and the United States. with stops at The Kortright Centre in Vancouver, The Grand in Calgary, Hermann’s in Victoria, Passim in Boston, Old Town School of Folk in Chicago, Cal Performances in Berkeley, as well at the Blue Skies, Mariposa, Toronto Jazz, Exit Next, Nuit D’Afrique, Harrison, and Middlebury festivals, to name just a few.

Co-presented with

Friday, November 10th | 7:30pm

Dalhousie Arts Centre

Rebecca Cohn Auditorium

Industry Series

Since its inception, the Prismatic Arts Festival has been a platform for Indigenous artists and artists of colour to freely express their identities and visions, without restriction and without expectation of who they should be and what their work should say. This mission has led us to this year’s theme: Embodied Resonances. Throughout this industry series, Indigenous artists and artists of colour will

reflect on how their own relationships to the bodies they live in inform the art they create and what they seek to put into the world. This series aims to shift the consumption and discourse surrounding the work of Indigenous artists and artists of colour, so that these artists can create and share work that is truly representative and exploratory of their identities and artistic visions.

THE

Panel #1: Art as Healing

Facilitated by shalan joudry

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023

2PM - 3:30PM

Halifax Central Library – Room 301

Open to the public | FREE

Art comes in myriad and infinite forms, and yet too frequently, Indigenous artists are put into a box –expected to foreground tokenistic themes and present a didactic vision in their work. While art can be a meaningful and effective site for teaching others, it can also be a mechanism for artists’ own or collective healing. When do we Indigenous artists use our work to teach, but why else do we create? How can / does it help us personally?

Join us for a sharing circle facilitated by shalan joudry. This conversation will make space for Indigenous artists to share who they are, why they create what they do, and where healing enters in their practice.

Panel #2: At the Threshold

Facilitated by Diane Roberts

Wednesday, October 4th, 2023

10AM - 11:30AM

Halifax Central Library – Room 301

Open to the public | FREE

We have arrived at a critical moment in time. The forced pause in the global arts sector has made us hyper-aware of the inequities inherent in what we had, in the past, taken for granted: the right to breathe.

Rather than rushing headlong into an uncertain future, we can take a collective breath at this threshold to examine our surroundings with new clarity. In questioning the ways our needs have been systemically neglected and how embodied practices and connections have been prevented, we must ask: what do we carry with us, and what do we leave behind? Through this discussion, facilitated by Diane Roberts, we discover what we can create together, and what can bloom from the ruins of dismantled structures.

Arrivals Legacy Project

From September 29th - October 4th, Arrivals Legacy Project (ALP), in collaboration with Prismatic Arts Festival, will activate their SeedPool digital gathering space for collaborative story-weaving for the first time in Kjipuktuk/Halifax as a part of the Prismatic 2023 Industry Series: Embodied Resonances.

ALP’s Moving Together / Arriving Together SeedPool Installation will offer artists and festival-goers new pathways for seeding, connecting with, and weaving ancestral stories.

“The events will allow us to return to the original design of this work - which is to build networks of artists, families, and communities in live spaces enhanced by digital technologies that have, and will continue to serve us.”

– Diane Roberts, Artistic Director Arrivals Legacy Project ALP guides, gathers and challenges artists and creators to access and re-route their creative impulses by attuning to the wisdom of their ancestral stories.

ALP is here to ignite the joy of deepening creative collaborations that amplify and re-centre the rich cultural legacy of BIPOC artistry.

Living History at the Crossroads: Arrivals Legacy Project Meet & Greet

Monday, October 2nd | 1:45PM - 3:45PM Africville Museum

Showcase featuring Arrivals Legacy Project SeedPool & Diaspora Kidz

Wednesday, October 4th | 3PM - 5:30PM The Bus Stop Theatre

Akpik Theatre Community Tour

In October 2023, Akpik Theatre and Prismatic Arts Festival will embark on a tour to visit various Mi’kmaq communities. Akpik Theatre will share their community telling of Pawâkan Macbeth, creating space for learning, connection, and cultural sharing between Cree and Mi’kmaq cultures.

Over several days, Prismatic and Akpik Theatre will visit the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre (Kjipuktuk), Membertou First Nation, Eskasoni First Nation, and Millbrook First Nation.

Each stop will involve a gathering and feast with local youth and community, giving artists and community members alike opportunities for cultural sharing, storytelling, and connection through the arts.

Empowered by

Mi’kmaw Craft Market

Saturday, October 7th, 2023 6:30PM - 10:00PM

Sunday, October 8th, 2023 1:00PM - 4:30PM

Neptune Theatre

Curated by:

Scotiabank Stage Lobby

Open to the public

Masterclasses

Weaving New Ways of Knowing

Masterclass – An Arrivals Taster with Diane Roberts

Tue, Oct. 3rd | 2:35PM - 5:25PM

Studio 2, Dalhousie Arts Centre

Open to 4th year FSPA students

Joy of Jigging with Jeanette Kotowich

Fri, Oct. 6th | 2:30PM - 4PM

Studio 2, Dalhousie Arts Centre

Open to the public & FSPA students | FREE

Workshops & Events

Roast the Coast Dance Battle featuring Crazy Smooth & Bboyizm

Powered by Prismatic Arts Festival x Live Art Dance x The Woods x Onset x Hopscotch x Unity x Atlantic Breaking Alliance

Sat, Sep. 23rd | 1PM

Breaking Circus Studio

Welcome & Land Based Movement Workshop with Syreeta Hector

Mon, Oct. 2nd | 12PM - 1:30PM

Africville Museum

Open to the public | FREE

Singing Workshop with Anyma

Wed, Oct. 4th | 3:45PM - 4:45PM

Club Inclusion

Open to Club Inclusion members only

A Fictional Self: Demystified Creation Masterclass with Jiv Parasram

One Week Teaching Residency Final Showcase

Fri, Oct. 20th | 1PM - 2:30PM

Studio 2, Dalhousie Arts Centre

In partnership with

Open to the public & FSPA students | FREE

The Griot in You: Poetry Writing Workshop with Guyleigh Johnson

Thu, Oct. 5th | 3PM

Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk

Open to the public | FREE

Mending Fibres and Stitching Stories: Workshop with Lux Gow-Habrich

Fri, Oct. 6th | 11AM

Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk

Open to the public | FREE

OKAN’s Open Rehearsal with Symphony Nova Scotia

Fri, Nov. 10th | 10:30AM

Dalhousie Arts Centre

Rebecca Cohn Auditorium

Open to the public | FREE