The Coast Halifax

F O R P E O P L E W H O L OV E H A L I FA X

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VOLUME 29 NUMBER 3

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OCTOBER 14, 2021

110+ people, places and works you need to know

Nocturne Halifax becomes an outdoor art gallery this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with more than 60 installations including this 30-foot Chinese dragon by Stephanaie Yee (pictured at left) and Lux Habrich (right), which will hang out beside the harbour all Nocturne long

FALL ARTS PREVIEW Nova Scotia’s POV reopening plan comes along at the perfect time to enjoy the best season for going out and taking in all the culture this creative city can provide.

Here’s your guide to a fall full of music, movies, visual arts, theatre and books, starting with Halifax’s free arts festival

BY MORGAN MULLIN

Halifax Burger Week Guide inside!

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Issue 1,254

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A special print edition of The Coast to celebrate Halifax’s cultural reopening from COVID.

As normal as possible under the circumstances

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all it Phase 4.5: Close to, but not quite, the restriction-free new normal promised in Phase 5, the final step of Nova Scotia’s COVID reopening plan. Call it modified Phase 5, like the media does. Or call it reality, a plan that both top doc Robert Strang and premier Tim Houston can support to let the province reopen more despite the disease’s fourth wave of infections. Whatever the name, under this latest stage of pandemic life that opened October 4, we find ourselves still required to wear masks, but many capacity caps are gone.

Restaurants, bars, theatres and event spaces can now host all the people they did before the pandemic began. Of course, to be out in these spaces you have to be double-vaxxed, and have the POV, proof of vaccination, to prove it (unless you’re one of about 2,000 Nova Scotians with a legit medical contraindication to the COVID-19 vaccine).

Modified Phase 5 with POV allows dancing and mingling outside of a dedicated group for the first time since March 2020. And for the first time since 2019, The Coast’s Fall Arts Preview is here to be your guide to the season of culture. Use it to get out in the world, enjoying music, dance and theatre—and The Coast’s Burger Week—amid the fourth wave.

If this Phase 4.5 world is still new to you, the way it works is when you go to a restaurant or cafe, sporting event or concert, a gym or a dance class, you will be asked to show your POV along with identification. With QR codes now available on the CanImmunize vaccine portal, and all older forms of vaccine proof still accepted, flashing your POV should be a breeze. For easy access you can save the QR code as your phone background, or put it in your favourites photo folder to find it quickly.

Soon restaurants and bars will be provided with QR scanners for added efficiency while checking vaccine proofs.

One side effect of restricted reopening is that nastiness and aggression towards service workers has escalated. In many cases, staff say the frustration and occasional verbal abuse is in response to the provincially-mandated public health restrictions. These restrictions, which keep Nova Scotians safe, have nothing to do with the hosts, retail workers or servers who are doing their jobs. The rules are provincially mandated and Nova Scotia businesses must adhere to them if they are to remain open. To get the point across, premier Houston asked people to give him the finger if that would help direct their frustrations at the

government, rather than hospitality workers.

“If you’re unhappy, feel free to flip me the bird when I'm walking down the street,” Houston said at a recent COVID briefing. A week later, he confirmed that a few people had taken him up on the invitation.

Still, anti-vax and/or anti-POV protesters decided to disrupt downtown’s reopening reality. A group of more than 20 people camped out along Argyle Street on October 8, blocking businesses from serving. East of Grafton shared on Instagram that the demonstration meant a dead Friday night for the restaurant.

“This [is] our amazing staff, standing around on a Friday night because a group of Anti Vaccine protestors decided to camp out on Argyle street. This kind of demonstration hurts local small businesses and their employees first. Lemme tell ya...we’re pretty bummed,” reads the post.

These misguided demonstrators are causing real harm. The rest of us, the vast majority of Nova Scotians, are getting ready to be out and about safely, enjoying local food and art and culture again. And we’ll have our masks and POV and ID, the tools we need to get back to normal, or as normal as possible under the circumstances. —Lyndsay Armstrong

VOLUME 29, NUMBER 3 PUBLISHED OCT 14, 2021 On the cover: Photographer Meghan Tansey Whitton shot this portait of Stephanie Yee, Lux Habrich and their dragon.

Contents Art, this fall and forever Fall screen Fall visual arts Fall music

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Fall books Fall stage Free Will Astrology Savage Love

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2309 Maynard Street, Halifax, NS B3K 3T8 Phone 902-422-6278 Fax 902-425-0013 Email coast@thecoast.ca The site www.thecoast.ca

EDITORIAL Editor Kyle Shaw (editor@thecoast.ca) Arts & Entertainment Editor Morgan Mullin (arts@thecoast.ca) Staff Reporter Victoria Walton (vic@thecoast.ca) City Reporter Lyndsay Armstrong (lyndsay@thecoast.ca) Reporter Chris Stoodley (chris@thecoast.ca) Copy Chief Andrew Bethune Happy Birthday to Social Media Manager Oriol Salvador (oriol@thecoast.ca)

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OPERATIONS Office Manager Audra McKenna (audram@thecoast.ca) Distribution Team David MacPhee and Bob Mitchell Publisher Christine Oreskovich (christineo@thecoast.ca) The Coast is essential media for Kjipuktuk/Halifax. Through fact-based and fearless journalism we provide a way in for citizens to find community, disrupt systems that govern us and show up for local culture. We are responsible to our readers and membership who share our belief that a free and independent press can build a just and thriving city. The Coast is published by Coast Publishing Limited, the newspaper version printed locally on recycled stock with 23,000 copies distributed throughout Halifax, Dartmouth and Bedford. Mailed under Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40027554. Please return undeliverable addresses to the Distribution Department, 2309 Maynard Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 3T8 (email distribution@thecoast.ca). Staff and management of The Coast neither advocate nor encourage the use of products or services advertised herein for illegal purposes. All rights reserved. © 2021.

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FALL ARTS PREVIEW

THE COAST

The show must go...where?

Art has always been there for you. But what happens when "there" disappears? BY MORGAN MULLIN

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’m tired of explaining why art matters, because I always figured it was something we understood, really, when we got out of our own way—a riff on Picasso’s old, coffee mug-ready quote that “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once [she] grows up.” We know it because, when the world turned upside down and closed its doors, we gathered around our phones for livestreamed plays and webcast concerts, and it provided a lifeline of community and connection. We know it because when the world showed us its ugliest parts, art was there with its most beautiful ones, waiting as a respite. Art matters because it reminds us we’re alive—and sometimes, it helps us stay that way.

I’m tired of talking about how theatres, music venues and artist-run centres are money-makers, both because they offer meaningful employment and because they create economic spinoff and foot traffic in the neighbourhoods they enrich. I’m tired of explaining that art makes places interesting: Something to see and hear and feel and maybe even identify with, breaking up our routines and getting us out into the city we choose to live in, engaging with a place instead of just existing in it.

I’m tired of finding new words to say art makes people interesting, too. That in our consumption and metabolising of art, it becomes a little part of us, the same way our bodies hold onto calcium we eat for stronger bones.

These days call for strong bones—and stron-

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ger wills, of course. And I know I’m not the only one who’s tired (we have all been burdened and broken in unique, awful ways this past year). I can’t help but think at this point, though, that art’s ability to survive—despite the ways we expect it to be cheap or free, despite the way it’s been scrubbed out of public schools—is becoming its own, additional burden. Art’s always been there for us and we expect it to be, even as venues struggle and funding falls chronically behind. We undervalue it with one hand and ask for more from it with the other.

As the province approaches a post-COVID normal, we have the chance to imagine a better society. How does art fit in? How can we show up for what’s always been there when we needed it most?

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ll this is rattling in my mind while speaking with Vanessa LePine, vice president of the Dartmouth Players Society. She isn’t just in the business of making plays come to life onstage. She’s also in the business of letting the idea of theatre pollinate in people’s minds, rooting and blooming in spite of themselves.

“People come in and be like, ‘I’ve never gone to a theater show before, but this is my first one and it was fantastic,’ and they become regular customers or clients who come to see our shows,” she explains over the phone.

LePine’s work is about to get harder as the Dartmouth Players struggle to find a new stage.

Right now, they're prepping to stage Molière's classic comedy Tartuffe, a story about a 1600s Caroline Calloway-type, from Oct 22-Nov 6.

But, the company’s current home—Sawmill Playhouse, inside St. Peter’s Church—is on its last legs, with the Dartmouth Players needing to vacate by July 2022. The substantial work needed to make 33 Crichton Avenue a viable option (“over $100,000 worth of renovations and that’s just a bare minimum,” LePine says) mean Dartmouth's only community theatre needs to find a new place to call home.

In today’s Halifax Regional Municipality, though, the question often is: Where?

“I think that it’s been an ongoing crisis, maybe 10 years in the making,” Emily Davidson, president of the Turret Arts Space Society, tells me, speaking by phone on another rainy morning. “But I do think that COVID has changed some of the aspects around arts spaces, and worsened the realities in many ways.”

What does that worsened reality look like?

In part, it’s talented creators unable to display work, bands without a venue to play, and the few spaces that are doing well drowning trying to meet everyone’s needs.

Davidson knows all about it: she’s been part of the team working to reopen an arts and culture hub in the historic Khyber Building downtown since 2014. (That’s the gothic, turreted building at 1588 Barrington Street— not to be confused with the Khyber Centre For The Arts, an artist-run centre on Hollis Street.) “You need a big multiplicity so that there’s opportunities for people to plug in—in their neighborhoods, in central areas, and for people to go see this stuff,” she explains, comparing the city’s arts scene to an ecosystem.

FALL ARTS PREVIEW

“The arts work because there’s an audience and artists. And so we actually need the spaces to connect audiences and artists together.”

Without spaces for emerging artists as well as established ones to exhibit, for different genres and subcultures to convene, for different communities to take part in art, we run the risk (and arguably, the result) of atrophy.

All this was already on Halifax’s plate prepandemic, but after 500-plus days of financial and societal upheaval, it’s just one more turd in the shit sandwich that life is handing the city’s creative sector. Sweeping changes COVID demanded from arts organizations in the time of physical distancing—pivoting to online shows, slashing already-small in-person capacities, cancelling programming altogether—cascaded into trouble for venues, where business models are based on in-person attendance. The recently shuttered Cunard Centre is a highprofile pandemic victim.

“We are faced with a real problem of where to put on arts shows right now,” Davidson says, “because not all the venues that existed before COVID are going to reopen.”

To build on Davidson’s analogy, right now in the reopening, getting-back-to-normal Halifax, the arts ecosystem reflects the brittleness of the actual ecosystem in the climate change era. We need more spaces in more places to make more art. Today’s surviving venues have to be different things for different crowds, evolving into multi-purpose spaces that mimic a 10-function pocket tool.

We would rather be spending our time developing amazing shows with great sets, with fantastic people instead of putting our time into ‘Well, where are we going to have this next show?’

Vanessa LePine Dartmouth Players Society

On its own, that versatility is not a bad thing—but when one space is booked (which is often the case for successful ones, like the recently reopened Bus Stop Theatre, which evaded the chopping block last year when it purchased its building at 2203 Gottingen Street), there isn’t always a guaranteed second place in town to show your event.

Before COVID, The Bus Stop tended to be booked more than 250 days out of roughly 340 operating days of the year, and that’s only stage performances. “In 2019, our last full year of operations pre-pandemic, we had turned away 69 booking requests, translating to 213 days of artistic activity lost or delayed,” TBS’s executive director, Sébastien Labelle, explains one September afternoon in the building’s main room. (It’s worth remembering The Bus Stop is the city’s last-standing indie theatre, with the north end’s two other theatres—The Waiting Room and The Living Room—papered 4 • OCTOBER 14, 2021 •

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over for condos and a doggie day care, respectively, in the last five years.)

Last summer, artist Emily Falencki, artists and Wonder’neath Art Society co-founders Heather Wilkinson and Melissa Marr, and artist/Wonder’neath board of directors president LaMeia Reddick announced a collaboration that would be called the 2482 Maynard project (home of the city’s buzziest new art gallery, The Blue Building, as well as Wonder’neath).

It was a runaway success. In the handful of non-locked-down months the space has been open to the public, it’s shown Sobey Awardwinning artist Ursula Johnson’s first solo Nova Scotian show in seven years and has become a new home for the chronically lease-insecure Eyelevel Gallery. (Eyelevel had been subletting upstairs at 2177 Gottingen Street, a building leased by Radstorm—another important arts space in the city. Radstorm has been fundraising to purchase the building since 2019.)

“You can count on one hand the number of spaces that are actually suitable on the peninsula anymore; those spaces are going permanently,” Heather Wilkinson of 2482 Maynard told me last August. “So if you want to keep artists in Halifax, we need to make a commitment to space.”

And while that’s exactly what Wilkinson and Co. did, it’ll take more than one or two success stories—as vibrant as The Blue Building and The Bus Stop are—to turn the tide. Wondering about The Lighthouse Arts Centre, the repurposing of the former World Trade and Convention Centre at 1800 Argyle Street? With its firmly downtown location, it can’t be a silver-bullet solution for all of Halifax on its own—despite talk of bringing an “unprecedented number of creative sector entrepreneurs” under one roof, as then-culture minister Leo Glavine said to The Coast in 2018, announcing $10 million in funding for the project. (Home to a TV production studio, a dance studio and a performance hall among smaller event spaces, The Lighthouse is scheduled to host its first events in 2022.)

When I dream my most utopian vision of Kjipuktuk, one aspect that always comes to mind is The Lighthouse and The Blue Building no longer being the types of stories I rush breathlessly to report on, because art incubators are so ubiquitous it doesn’t feel like news.

We’re not there yet, to put it mildly. (To put it strongly would be saying that we never will be without a major priority shift, a shouldershaking wake-up call.) The most exciting, highest-end venue alone won’t be enough— because an art-filled city requires art to have more than one postal code.

In the meantime, LePine keeps returning to the question of where Dartmouth Players’ fall 2022 slate will be held. “We would rather be spending our time developing amazing shows with great sets, with fantastic people instead of putting our time into ‘Well, where are we going to have this next show?’” she says.

“Let’s not mistake great creative problemsolving for no problem,” says Davidson. “And let’s not mistake the problem as the rents increasing—when the problem is under-funding from the city, the province and the federal government.” a Morgan Mullin is The Coast’s Arts & Entertainment editor.

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SCREEN

FALL ARTS PREVIEW

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Read our review of the locally produced, highly buzzed-about new movie Wildhood online at thecoast.ca: The sweepingly shot coming-of-age drama is a golden landmark of 2SLGBTQ+ representation.

Vinessa Antoine says she wanted to play Marcie Diggs because “she seemed very kind to me—which was something that I wasn't really used to seeing a lot.” SUBMITTED

Dig into Diggstown Floyd Kane’s Halifax-and-North Preston-set TV show returns for season three. BY MORGAN MULLIN

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SEE

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t’d be easy to compare Marcie Diggs—the main character of the sleeper hit, Halifaxset CBC legal drama Diggstown, returning for its third season October 6—to Annalise Keating of How To Get Away With Murder, since both are powerhouses in the courtroom. It

would be easy to cast her akin to Scandal’s Olivia Pope, thanks to the snappy suits. But Vinessa Antoine, the actor who brings Diggs to riveting, unvarnished life, says that just because these comparisons are easy doesn’t make them correct. “One of the things that

I was so attracted to with this character was she seemed very kind to me—which was something that I wasn't really used to seeing a lot,” she says, speaking by Zoom with The Coast. “When we talk about Black women and how they are depicted...I found them to be extremely strong, and perhaps even sexy or tough and intelligent, but I found that Marcie— maybe because of her Canadian side—always felt like she was coming from a place of kindness first. And that was something that I was interested in bringing to television.”

Just as Diggs is not your typical highpowered protagonist, neither is her namesake show. Diggstown sets itself apart from other legal dramas by not hinging on tidy answers or closing courtroom arguments that could be confused for campaign-trail stump speeches.

Instead, the series delves into the messy and the uncomfortable, exploring systemic racism (like in the subplot surrounding a pregnant Indigenous woman’s fight to keep her unborn child) and casual classism (like the series debut, where a truck driver has the cops called on him because he’s too loud at a south end baseball game). With its season three return this month on both CBC and its free streaming app CBC Gem (and on BET’s streaming app BET+ and FOX, showing a strong support for the show south of the border), fans can expect a doubling-down on this approach. “It continues to tell the narrative and drive home the truth of what's been going on in Canada, particularly this season,” Antoine explains, adding that the feeling Halifax itself is an extra character in the series is a deliberate choice.

“It's different when you can be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that's where I go shopping, that’s where I grew up, that’s where I take my dog to the park, they literally are showing my house right there. These are stories that are actually happening!’ And you can Google them and be like, ‘Whoa, this is real.’” a

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Bootlegger Screening Oct 20, 7-9:45pm, Scotiabank Theatre, 190 Chain Lake Drive, festival.imaginenative.org for ticket details.

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Turtle Island-wide celebration of Indigenous film, the imagineNATIVE Festival sees inperson screenings of a selected, seminal movie at some Cineplex locations across various cities. The flick in question for Kjipuktuk? Bootlegger by Algonquin director Caroline Monnet.

The story traces protagonist Mani’s return to the northern Quebec reservation where she grew up—and her joining in the dizzying debate on free alcohol sales that divides the community as it attempts independence. With awards like Best Screenplay from the Cannes Film Festival and an opening slot at Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Monnet’s latest work—her debut feature, following a resume of over 10 shorts—might be her most lauded yet.

“It is resilience for me that is the most important,” Monnet says during a recent interview with Radio-Canada, explaining that the film’s prohibition debate is a way to highlight the inequalities still faced by many Indigenous communities. “How over the generations, we have managed to always be there, to stand up and to be able to go through a lot of intergenerational trauma.” She adds: “Before having reconciliation, there should be conciliation. We should be able to coexist equally and I think that there are still laws in place, which make us secondclass citizens. The film is about that...how is it that we are not all equal before government structures.” —MM

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Scene Heard

News and notes from Halifax’s film and TV community.

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orgive us for saying that it’s been lights, camera, action for the film industry in Nova Scotia for a year now, with the movie Wildhood putting the industry back in motion when it filmed in Windsor last August.

Screen Nova Scotia told CBC then that our province’s handling of COVID gave us an edge in attracting big productions—that we might be bouncing back from the film tax credit cut in 2015. While the momentum keeps mounting, there are lots of productions shooting in-province right now that are worth getting excited about, including the second season of CBC’s dysfunctional family drama Moonshine; HGTV’s Trading Up; and the ninth season of the History Channel’s The Curse of Oak Island, to name just a few.

Another buzzy project being shot here is the horror/sci-fi series From, slated to hit Netflix sometime next year. Director Jack Bender (Lost and Game of Thrones) helmed the first four episodes, which trace an unravelling mystery in a small American town that “traps all those who enter,” as Deadline has reported. Oscar-nominated Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria, Full of Grace), Eion Bailey (Band of Brothers) and Harold Perrineau (Lost) comprise the show’s leading cast members, turning mild-mannered Beaver Bank into ground zero for pure nightmare fuel, as creepy sets transform the area during filming.

Meanwhile, Halifax director/actor Kevin Hartford has spent the summer shooting his debut feature film without any funding, working weekends on a dry comedy about a queer teen’s promposal gone (catastropically, biblically) wrong. Alongside this film, titled Lemon Squeezy, Hartford’s also hard at work on a fantasy film called To The Moon—which received funding from TELEFILM. (Other NS flicks to secure TELEFILM funding this year include Fawzia Mirza’s Me, My Mom & Sharmila and Barrie Dunn’s Three Schizophrenics Walk Out of a Bar.) Local award-winning actor, director, writer and producer powerhouse Koumbie (whose IMDb page mentions 41 acting credits alone) will begin work on a feature titled Betrayal this December, while Hobo With A Shotgun director Jason Eisener is rumored to be working on a local film this fall.

Film director Rebecca Falvey wowed at FIN Atlantic International Film Festival with two noteworthy shorts, Reservation Cove and The Agnostics, making her upcoming feature debut even more hotly anticipated (even if details are sparse as of press time). Actordirector Leah Johnston is shooting her latest short—a dive into a mother’s depression called Mother’s Skin—on 16mm film. Taylor Olson, director of the lauded film adaptation of Catherine Banks’s Governor General Awardwinning play Bone Cage, will spend the next several months shooting a feature about eating disorders titled Look at Me. As for where to watch movies? Carbon Arc returns to IRL screening Friday Oct 15 with two showings of Bergman's Island. –MM The Coast • OCTOBER 14, 2021 • 7

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VISUAL ARTS

Dragons usually have “so much colour,” says Yee, at left with Habrich. MEGHAN TANSEY WHITTON

Good night and “Good Luck To The People”

For Nocturne, Stephanie Yee and Lux Habrich create a pale 30-foot Chinese dragon to explore anti-Asian racism. BY MORGAN MULLIN

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ViewPoint Gallery, the city's champion of the camera, is celebrating 20 years with a retrospective show on until Oct 31. We caught up with the gallery—which just relocated to Bedford—at thecoast.ca.

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or performance and installation artist Stephanie Yee, creation has long been a way of examining identity. It was there thematically in her 2020 sculpture of a nonfunctioning water fountain, an “imaginary prop” from a fictional 1980s Chinese restaurant she doused in sweet-and-sour sauce. It was in performance-based work as far back as 2010, with her kneeling between money trees at galleries and making videos where she’d wedge oversized bundles of noodles into toosmall pots of boiling water. Now it’s showing up in her latest piece, a collaboration with Lux Habrich for Nocturne 2021 called “Good Luck To The People.”

A 30-foot-long dragon constructed of clear tarp, suspended in a scaffolding frame, “Good Luck” will be on view from Oct 13-16 (Nocturne’s duration) on the Halifax waterfront.

“It’s clear, it’s ghost-like, there’s no cues of celebration,” says Yee, describing the work.

It’s subverting the traditional Chinese dragon dance—something with “so much colour, so much music [and] aliveness” that is then “flattened through the lens of Western ideals,” she explains. “Specific images like sweet-and-sour sauce or the dragons become iconic Chinese imagery” to white audiences, stripping them of individuality or nuance.

“I think about this through imagery, because I’m often seen moreso as an image—in the way that stereotypes are created. It’s the way that things are, because if you really want to get to know something, you have to take time to forge that relationship and forge connection,” Yee says, when asked how antiAsian racism has informed her work. “I realized that I reflect in imagery, I reflect in my art and that just reinforced what I needed to do: It reinforced for me that [this is] my way of communicating this pain and confusion.

“And I think that my way of being able to share my questioning, what’s on my mind, is through being able to present something like this dragon, being like: ‘What’s it look like when a group of nuanced people have to be forced into a specific definition or a specific space?’” a

Family Patterns at the AGNS

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Family Patterns Oct 16-Feb 28, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1723 Hollis Street

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e’re not really represented a lot...or in a positive light,” artist Letitia Fraser told The Coast back in 2019, explaining why her portraits of the African Nova Scotian community are so vital as she was showcasing her first exhibit at the Anna Leonowens Gallery. “I just wanted to give people a look into my community through my lens and see what we're actually like, as opposed to what you might hear somewhere else.”

Fraser’s rich brushwork and warm tones have been capturing the art world by storm ever since, with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia even scooping up a few Fraser originals to keep for its permanent collection. Now, the AGNS gives the North Preston painter a much-deserved spotlight as part of the show Family Patterns, on view starting October 16. Sharing the exhibit alongside Fraser? The Halifax-based artist Darcie Bernhardt, winner of Creative Nova Scotia’s 2020 Indigenous Artist Recognition Award for their oil-on-canvas renderings of everyday moments of familial life from their childhood in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. –MM

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Scene Heard

A roundup of happenings in the Halifax viz arts community.

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et’s start with good news: The 2482 Maynard project—a multi-use arts hub that’s home to Wonder’Neath Society, Eyelevel Artist Run Centre and The Blue Building Gallery—has been a runaway success since it opened mid-2020. Now, as its reopening plans unfold and onsite programming for Wonder’Neath resumes in the near future, the space will be its most animated yet.

The Turret Arts Society’s mission to save the old Khyber Building at 1588 Barrington Street continues with its recent request for expressions of interest from architects. The deadline for submissions was October 8 and potential approvals are TBA. NSCAD’s Max TS. Yang took home Nova Scotia's prize from the BMO 1st Art! Awards, a national celebration of art in all mediums that picks 13 provincial works-of-note alongside a first-place, national piece. Yang’s artwork is called A Family of Ill, a found object sculpture of spiked metal chain wound around a broken dinner table. He pockets $7,500 for the autobiographical piece, which will be displayed alongside other provincial winners’ works in a free, virtual exhibit hosted by The Art Museum at U of T Nov 16-Dec 8.

Tough Guy Mountain, the Toronto artist collective mostly made up of Haligonians, is moving home for good this November. Known for its work with extended and virtual reality, TGM will be teaming up with Eyelevel to launch a Twitch-based project called “Escape From Interim Purgatory” on Nov 17.

TGM isn’t the only one exploring virtual reality-based work: The art form is hotter than ever as local arts organizations delve further into a medium that local name-ofnote Séamus Gallagher has long been making headlines for. What’s informing our prediction? The Centre For Art Tapes and Atlantic Filmmakers Co-op announced a joint artistin-residence call for someone to research VR. A salaried position that feels like a research fellowship, its example could suggest a way forward for artists to afford continuing their practices (most residencies do not have a salary—one source told The Coast this is “the first time I’ve seen an opportunity like this in Halifax”). The position runs from Nov 7 to March 2022.

Artist Arjun Lal is a name on industry insiders’ lips, both for his must-see Khyber show Fruits of The Forest (on until Oct 30), and because he recently received funding from the Canada Council of the Arts to develop a work centering around leather fetish wear, exploring themes of queerness and kink. Other local stars on the rise? Excel Garay, curator of 2020’s gutsiest art show, a searing response to last year’s controversy at NSCAD over deposed president Aoife Mac Namara, called Breach!

An antonym for Token shown at The Anna Leonowens Gallery. Garay’s collaborator Kayza DeGraff-Ford is also someone to remember: Since winning the NSCAD Student Art Award Exhibition in 2020, they’ve shown at both the MSVU Art Gallery and Hermes Gallery. –MM

WIN BEER 2021 Halifax Burger Week

BURGER FAQs Who puts on Halifax Burger Week?

The Coast, this newspaper you are reading, is responsible for Halifax Burger Week. We have done this promotion for the last 9 years after seeing a similar promotion in Toronto and getting that publisher’s approval to put one on here. We have added our own promotions and twists making it one of the biggest food promotions in the country.

Why doesn’t every participating restaurant donate to Feed Nova Scotia?

We love that so many of our participating restaurants fundraise for Feed Nova Scotia during Halifax Burger Week but we also recognize that many restaurants do a lot for their community by donating to Feed Nova Scotia and to other causes throughout the year as well. We leave it up to the restaurant.

FOR A YEAR

Fine Company Brewing is giving away 365 cans of beer to one lucky Halifax Burger Week eater! During Burger Week, scan the QR codes at participating Fine Company restaurants with the Get in The Loop app. Head out to participating restaurants and when you have scans from 3 locations you’ll be entered in a random draw to win beer for a year.

Winner will be notified by email. Must be 19+ to win.

No cash value. Winner must provide a governmentissued ID. This is a random draw facilitated by Get In the Loop with prizing from Fine Company Brewing.

Why $7 burgers? How come they don’t donate on top of that?

We want to make participation in Halifax Burger Week accessible for everyone!

Why doesn’t The Coast donate to Feed Nova Scotia?

We get asked this question a lot—our contribution is a little harder to realize. The fees collected from the restaurants pay for The Coast to put on the promotion. We use these fees to pay for event staffing and management, advertising, marketing collateral and street teams. We could use the fees to donate to Feed Nova Scotia but then the participation fees would have to go up.

Halifax Burger Week October 14 - 23, 2021

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Playing tribute to the friendly, quirky, and fun-loving people of the Maritimes. Fine Company is located in Moncton, NB and carries three brews including our Blonde Lager: Henry, Session IPA: Margaret and Radler: Hans. Fine Company is a local beer as fine as the people who inspired it. Made by Maritimers for Maritimers.

$7 Burgers Chicken Little Cafe LIL' CHICK BREAKFAST BURGER

Pete's Frootique (Halifax)

Toasted english muffin topped with egg, CLUB MED BURGER

Feed Nova Scotia Burgers 2 Doors Down THE BARCELONA BURGER $20

Battery Park Beerbar & Eatery

Byblos Indian and Lebanese Cuisine

100 percent chuck beef, spicy chorizo

OUT-'N'-IN JUGHEAD $9

NAWABI BURGER $10

cheese, sausage patty, hash browns

Mediterranean seasoned beef with

onion jam, crispy parma ham, Manchego

Our Jughead Burger dressed a lil’ different:

Tandoori chicken breast with Indian

and espresso mayo

grilled onions, seared halloumi, house-

cheese, romesco aioli, arugula. Includes

a mustard-cooked patty, grilled onions,

tzatziki sauce, tamarind BBQ sauce,

1527 Bedford Highway

made tzatziki, pickled turnip and garlic

choice of side.

tomato, lettuce, pickle, American cheddar

sweet onion, tomato, banana peppers,

sauce on a fresh focaccia bun.

$1 DONATION 1533 Barrington Street

and a Dartmouth-style spread.

romaine, cheddar, toasted bun topped

$1 DONATION 62 Ochterloney Street

with pepperoncini.

Clay West Bar & Grill SMOKY BACON CHEDDAR BURGER

1515 Dresden Row

$1 DONATION 644 Portland Street

100 percent chuck beef, spicy chorizo

Bedford Neighbourhood Pub

onion jam, crispy parma ham, Manchego

THE DORITOS BURGER $10

sauce, steakhouse bacon and zesty

CHILLI CHILLI BANG BANG BURGER

cheese, romesco aioli, arugula. Includes

Red or blue? The choice is yours. Cool

Our original 8oz patty, nacho cheese,

pickles.

Beef topped with house-made bacon

choice of side.

Ranch or Nacho Cheese Doritos infused

fresh pico de gallo, guacamole, chipotle

120 Susie Lake Crescent

and chive dip, local candied jalapeno

$1 DONATION 149 Hector Gate

burger.

sour cream crispy jalapenos, house fried

$1 DONATION 1658 Bedford Highway

tortilla.

Sirloin patty on a soft warm bun, smoked aged cheddar, secret loco BBQ

Doolittles Sports Bar & Grill

Pete's Frootique (Bedford)

2 Doors Down

relish, cheddar cheese and iceberg lettuce on a brioche bun.

1595 Bedford Highway

THE BARCELONA BURGER $20

5 Fishermen WAGYU BURGER $25

Bianca Aperitivo Bar

Fresh burger patty, Avonlea cheddar,

PERFETTO BURGER $13

with HS Fries. $2 DONATION 1919 Upper Water Street

Eliot & Vine

Hermitage

THE LARGE MACDONALD $24

THE 'OOH-MAMI' BORDEAUX $25

Two grilled 4-oz chuck patties, American

Bone marrow bordelaise, porcini duxelles,

cheese, minced onion, bread and butter

parmigiano frico, dark chocolate mole

pickles and shredded lettuce with “2000”

glaze, raclette on foie brioche bun.

island dressing

$3 DONATION 1460 Lower Water Street

$2 DONATION 1740 Argyle Street

tomato and bib lettuce.

Ground beef with cumin, taktouka,

$1 DONATION 1584 Argyle Street

smoked zaalouk, double cheese, Moroccan mayo & fried egg.

1855 Granville Street

CHICKEN KABAB BURGER $12

Big Leagues Pub THREE LITTLE PIGS $10

JALAPENO BEER CHEESEBURGER

Staggers Pub & Grub

Rashmi kebab patty, mint and coriander chimichurri, spicy chilli mayo, fresh

Beef patty drizzled in barbecue

BEER CAN BURGER

tomatoes, caramelized onions, lettuce on

sauce with pork belly, shaved ham, bacon

TRIO BURGER $14

Stout-braised local beef, fresh

Beef burger filled with cheeses, banana

a sesame bun.

and melted cheddar. Served with lettuce,

Celtic Corner's signature half-pound

jalapenos, IPA cheese sauce, stout-

peppers, onions, sweet heat spices and

$1 DONATION 5640 Spring Garden Road

tomato and onion.

Certified Angus burger with bacon,

candied bacon, topped with an onion

topped with bacon on our homemade

$2 DONATION 920 Cole Harbour Road

cheddar cheese and salad toppings.

ring on a fresh bun.

savory bun.

1678 Barrington Street

26 Portland Street

6-oz beef patty smothered in HP sauce

THE STEIN DERBY BURGER

and topped with mozzarella, crispy

All-beef burger enhanced with our

fried onions, chipotle mayo, lettuce

signature "Derby Sauce." Topped with

and tomato.

cheddar cheese, crispy onion curls,

189 Chain Lake Drive

house-made Root Beer BBQ Sauce,

King of Donair THE GARLIEBURGER Donair meat sandwiched between

lettuce and tomatoes on an Ace Burger Bun. 620 Portland Street, 6061 Young Street

two slices of garlic fingers and

The Chickenburger

smothered in Donair sauce. Ask for

THIRSTY ELVIS

extra napkins, you'll need them.

Two local beef patties and smoked

6420 Quinpool Road

bacon, cheddar cheese, Coca-Cola

Le Bistro By Liz

reduction, smooth peanut butter and

$2 DONATION 1532 Queen Street

Celtic Corner

$1 DONATION 69 Alderney Drive

house-made labneh cheese, mint pickles,

brisket and topped with cheddar, bread

A tropically inspired 6-oz crispy

Evan's Seafood

tomato, onion.

and butter pickles, crispy onions, house-

chicken burger with barbeque aioli,

$2 DONATION 1360 Lower Water Street

made BBQ sauce, roja aioli served on a

mozzarella cheese, tropical mango slaw.

brioche bun.

$1 DONATION 480 Parkland Drive ,

$1 DONATION 367 Bedford Highway

392 Pleasant Street, 5990 Spring Garden

Black Sheep

balsamic jam, maple bacon, beer cheese

DON'T BE SHELLFISH $19

fondue, truffled mayo, fermented mustard, Oulton's beef, crispy crab and shrimp

seed bun.

pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber and

$2 DONATION 1496 Lower Water Street

kewpie mayo.

SMOKIN' CHORIZO BURGER $12

$1 DONATION 6024 Quinpool Road

Cheese Curds

on a toasted bun.

pork, caramelized pineapple ring, coleslaw,

brioche bun topped with sharp cheddar

sticks. Served on a warm brioche bun.

$1 DONATION 1824 Hollis Street

onion ring and sriracha-infused BBQ

cheese, house-made tartar, red onions,

$1 DONATION 1667 Argyle Street

#HFXBurgerBash

Armview Restaurant & Lounge

BOOMburger ZESTY LOCAL $8.69 Local flavour with a zip! Oulton's fresh

sauce on a brioche bun. $1 DONATION 380 Pleasant St,

Dartmouth 277 Lacewood Drive, 600 Windmill Road, 507 Larry Uteck Blvd

NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN BURGER $16

beef, Cows cheddar and local torshee pickles and relish plus zesty pepper mayo.

District Five Bar and Grill

Nashville hot chicken breast, sliced dill

$1 DONATION 64 Dellridge Lane

DARKSIDE CHUCKY $18

pickles, cheddar cheese, bacon, shredded lettuce and garlic mayo on a potato bun. $2 DONATION 7156 Chebucto Road

Brewster's Bar & Grill

Two 4-oz hand-smashed chuck patties, caramelized onions, D5 sauce, cheese,

BEEF DO-NUT KILL MY VIBE $11 Revana’s donair meat inside AND on top.

Fresh Burger patty topped with

$2 DONATION 65 King Street

Auction House

bacon jam, crispy jalapeno, monterey jack

THE COWABUNGA $11

cheese, and drizzled with maple mayo.

Durty Nelly's Irish Pub

Fresh burger patty topped with

Served in between a delicious glazed

DURTY MOZZANARA $16

tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, ham,

donut.

Seasoned beef patty, panko-fried

crispy pepperoni, jalapeno, grilled

$1 DONATION 961 Bedford Highway

mozzarella bite, arugula, red onion, garlic

pineapple and drizzled with roasted garlic aioli. $1 DONATION 1726 Argyle Street

Brooklyn Warehouse BETWEEN TWO FARMS $15

mayo, topped with marinara sauce. $1 DONATION 1645 Argyle Street

Getaway Farm grass-fed beef patty,

East of Grafton

Oulton’s Farm BBQ pork belly, crushed

GRAFTON ROADSIDE $13

BR HEAT BURGER $18

chicharrones, American cheese, Alabama

Atlantic Beef smash patty, swiss cheese,

Beef patty, jalapeno monterey jack

sauce, shredded lettuce, Stone Hearth bun. mayo, dijon, bacon and beer jam & onion

Baton Rouge cheese, sautéed mushroom, red pepper and onions, arugula, house-made spicy mayo, served with fries. $2 DONATION 1877 Hollis Street

$2 DONATION 1537 Barrington Street

pickled veggies, Evan's signature tartar, pickled jalapenos and cheese.

HopYard onion mayo, apple chutney, two 3-oz beef

Fried Chicken or Beyond Meat patty, sweet gochujang glaze, rice crispies,

Bluenose II Restaurant

pretzel bun with au jus

shrimp, onion ring, cucumber, greens,

cheese, bleack garlic & rosemary aioli on a

Finbar’s Portland Hills

new bay aioli, pickled fennel on a sesame

two 3-oz beef and pork patties, melted

Spicy haddock patty, crispy Cape Breton

SNAP CRACKLE K-POP $10

$2 DONATION 2540 Agricola Street

A bed of jalapeno mustard slaw with

Duck burger, smoked shallot jam, blue

HOPDADDY $16

cake, cream cheese, jalapenos, sprouts,

MONTON DE CARNE $14

BLUE MOON OF KENDUCKY $28

HADDOCK BURGER W/ CRISPY SHRIMP $12

Cheeky Neighbour

lettuce, buttermilk fried onion, potato bun.

Antojo

HopScotch Dinner Club

$2 DONATION 2 Ochterloney Street

carnitas and topped with tajin tortilla

1333 South Park Street

$1 DONATION 1721 Brunswick Street

$2 DONATION 5775 Charles Street

Hoisin-glazed beef patty, BBQ pulled

lettuce and tomato.

on marble rye.

Bakery bun.

TROPICAL CRISPY CHICKEN $10

tangy goat cheese, lemon aioli and arugula

1531 Bedford Highway

crunchy mustard, sauerkraut and served

onion ring, and lettuce on a 24 Carrots

Charger Gourmet Burgers

House-ground Atlantic beef patty, tomato

7-oz Angus beef burger topped

chipotle sauce, ranch, grilled pineapple,

House-ground patty stuffed with smoked

Road, 477 Herring Cove Road

THE BIG SMOKE $13 with smoked meat, deep fried pickles,

THE GRAND BIRCH $21

BOUGIE B $16

HFX Sports

Seitan patty with bacon, smoky BBQ

burger salt, smoky babaganoush, bacon,

and topped with warm and smoky adobo

Panko-crusted fresh haddock on a

BBQ CHIPOTLE RANCH $17

5-oz beef patty seasoned with aFrite

HOG 'N' SLAW $14.95

chipotle mayo on a brioche bun.

enVie A Vegan Kitchen

Birch & Anchor

cheddar cheese, 2 strips of fried pork belly, 5-oz chorizo spiced local beef patty with

CRISPY HADDOCK BURGER

$6 DONATION 2305 Clifton Street

BABABACON BURGER $15

Agricola Street Brasserie

"BACON EH" POUTINE BURGER $18

Road

A crunchy fried chicken burger

CHIPOTLE STEAKHOUSE BURGER

WHISKEY CHIPOTLE CHICKEN BURGER $18

Harbourstone Pour House

$1 DONATION 1980 Robie Street

slammed to perfection, with cheese,

Steak and Stein Family Restaurants, Dartmouth

Edible Matters Food Co.

bacon relish, scallion potato bun. Served

MOROCCAN BURGER $15

Jungle Jim's Eatery

$1 DONATION 1717 Brunswick Street

$1 DONATION 1663 Argyle Street

$5 DONATION 1345 Hammonds Plains

pepper basil jam, prosciutto, mozza,

aFrite Restaurant

brioche bun.

smoked avocado aioli on a classic bun.

curds, mac sauce, bacon gravy, maple

Atlantic Beef patty, Bianca sauce, red

Elle's Bistro

salsa, jerk mayo and plantains on a

cheese, lettuce, tomato, applewood

semolina bun.

leeks, tarragon aioli.

Adda Indian Eatery

crispy fried pulled pork belly, cheddar

PEI beef, cured NS pork, fried cheese

caramelized onions, port preserves, crispy

cheddar and spicy mayo.

Jamaican jerk. Topped with pineapple

aioli, slaw, and tomato on a homemade

CHEETO CHICKEN BURGER

90 Tacoma Drive

7-oz Angus beef seasoned with Hill's

House-made burger patty topped with

Whiskey chipotle chicken burger with lime

Split Crow Pub with cheddar jalapeno Cheetos,

THE BIG JERK $13

NACHO BURGER $8

Ground beef patty with a coffee rub, fried onions, bacon and dill pickle.

Halifax Alehouse

CRISPY PORK SMOKED AVOCADO BURGER $12

Cannery Kitchen & Social

Casablanca Authentic Moroccan Cuisine

THREE MEN AND A BURGER

Economy Shoe Shop

Buttery toasted brioche, caramelized

THE LUCKY DELUXE $15

patties, melty cheese, crispy pancetta

Chuck, crispy peppered pancetta, smoked

bacon and crispy fried onions.

Gouda, chipotle ketchup, mustard aioli,

$1 DONATION 2103 Gottingen Street

leaf lettuce, tomato and grilled onion on a pretzel bun. $2 DONATION 635 Portland Hills Drive

Freemans Little New York

John's Lunch BIG JOHN $11 House-made 2 Boys Smokehouse ground beef patty, deep-fried marble cheddar patty, lettuce, onion, pickle and

SPICY "BITE-YOU-BACK" BURGER $18

homemade special sauce, 24 Carrots

Our Famous bacon, cheddar, lettuce,

$2 DONATION 352 Pleasant Street

onion and tomato burger topped with a spicy jalapeno popper and chipotle mayo.

Vegetarian option available. $3 DONATION 3671 Dutch Village Road

1726 Grafton Street, 6092 Quinpool Road,

Bakery bun.

Johnny K's LAMB & BEEF GYRO BURGER $11 Lamb and beef gyro with lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, oregano-spiced feta

552 Sackville Drive

cheese, with an olive tapenade spread and

G Street Pizza

$1 DONATION 5246 Blowers Street

GAUC ON FIRE $13 Crispy plant-based vegan chicken burger tossed in 3rd degree hot sauce, served on a guacamole dressed bun, lettuce chiffonade, sliced tomato and red onion.. $1 DONATION 2302 Gottingen Street

Gahan House Nova Centre THE GAHAN HOUSE BEACON $10 Chorizo and beef patty topped with American cheddar, crispy jalapenos, chipotle aioli and house-made spicy queso sauce.

tzatziki sauce.

Julep Kitchen + Cocktails THE KENTUCKYAKI BURGER $20 Bourbon teriyaki BBQ, muffuletta relish, peameal bacon, applewood smoked cheddar and sesame bun. $3 DONATION 1688 Barrington Street

Kai Brady's | Fancy Dive bar THE DOWN UNDAH W/ THE F@#%NG LOT $20 Kangaroo patty, cheddar, lettuce, tomato,

$1 DONATION 5239 Sackville Street

onion, pickle, back bacon, jalapeno

$1 DONATION 1580 Argyle Street

Good Robot Brewing Co.

fried egg on a brioche bun.

THE HUNGRY HUNGARIAN $11

Easy Street Diner

MUCHO GUSTO BURGER $14

Seasoned pork patty stuffed with lamb

REUBEN BURGER $13.50

and smoked cheddar, topped with gouda,

4-oz all beef patty, housemade pastrami,

pickled red onions, lettuce, roasted red

swiss cheese, pickles, sauerkraut, and

peppers, paprika aioli, on a kaiser bun.

housemade Russian dressing.

$1 DONATION 650 Washmill Lake Drive

$1 DONATION 3625 Dutch Village Road

$1 DONATION 2795 Windsor Street

Budapest Bisztro

served on a potato bun.

pineapple beetroot relish, BBQ sauce and $2 DONATION 5679 Spring Garden Road

Herbed beef with charred scallion aioli, pickled red onion, tender greens, smoked cheese, pesto rosso aioli, on a brioche bun. $2 DONATION 2736 Robie Street

Fine Company Brewing “Win Beer For A Year” location. Scan QR code when on site to win.

These participating restaurants offer unique specialty burgers and will donate a portion of each burger sale to Feed Nova Scotia.

Kempster's Cookhouse APPLE JACK BURGER $8 Fresh burger patty, glazed with

Mezza Lebanese Kitchen

Side Hustle Snack Bar

"BRIE-EZY" BURGER $17

COCONUT FRIED CHICKEN $16 pineapple slaw, & sweet chili mayo is just

caramelized onions, deep fried brie,

one of the many burgers on Side Hustle’s

arugula on a brioche bun.

burger week menu line up

toasted bun.

$1 DONATION 1869 Upper Water Street

$1 DONATION 899 Portland Street

$1 DONATION 1558 Barrington Street,

Pilots Pub

caramelized apple chutney, bacon, sliced

pickles, pickled turnips, sumac-spiced

cheese and shredded lettuce.

onions, parsley and tahini sauce on a

$1 DONATION 3644 Kempt Road

278 Lacewood Drive

Seared beef patty, topped with Chinese

Millstone Public House

spiced braised beef, crispy wontons

PUMP UP THE JAM $13.50

topped with a sweet & spicy garlic ginger

Chorizo and beef patty with NS

DEJA MOO BURGER $12

Something Sweet Dessert Delivery

Fresh 6-oz beef patty, Deja Moo-glazed

SWEET DINER BURGER DUO! $10

bacon, gouda, crispy onions, greens,

Mexican vanilla cupcake "bun," fudgy

blueberry bacon Jam, PEI smoked

$2 DONATION 10 Atlantic Street

$1 DONATION 5680 Spring Garden Road

cheddar, NB radler aioli, arugula and

Primal Kitchen

Kyo Kitchen & Bar

$2 DONATION 250 Baker Drive, 50 Gary

SUSHI BURGER $1 Miso rice bun, salmon or tuna, wasabi mayo, squid ink calamari, avocado, pickled cucumber, pickled ginger. $13 DONATION 1715 Barrington Street

La Frasca Cibi & Vini LA GIULIETTA $20 Chopped beef tenderloin, seared provolone, radicchio marmalade, aioli, sesame seed brioche bun. Served with truffle frites $5 DONATION 5650 Spring Garden Road

Lakeside Bar & Grill BACON JAM BURGER $15 Two locally raised beef hand pressed patties, bacon jam, American cheese, lettuce, and tomato on a toasted bun. $1 DONATION 250 St Margarets Bay

pickled red onion.

Martin Drive, 102-67 King's Wharf Place

Moxie's Grill & Bar, Bayers Lake SWEET & SPICY ONION RING BURGER $18 Honey bacon, citrus mayo & chipotle BBQ sauce, topped with aged white cheddar, two onion rings, lettuce & tomato on a toasted sesame brioche bun $1 DONATION 182 Chain Lake Drive, 9

Countryview Drive , 1610 Argyle Street

Niche Lounge BEEF & REEF PO' BOY BURGER $15 Cajun fried shrimp, 5-oz beef patty, lettuce, tomato, remoulade and Louisiana hot sauce. $1 DONATION 1505 Barrington Street

THE BLACK WIDOW $15 Wild boar, smoked bacon, onion rings,

sweet balsamic onion jam, house special

Grafton Street

plantain tajadas with queso on a toasted

$1 DONATION 1685 Argyle Street

Tilted Tap Bar & Grill

$1 DONATION 1871 Hollis Street

locally baked bun.

The Foggy Goggle

House-seasoned beef patty with sliced

$1 DONATION 2290 Gottingen Street

THE CAROLINA SMASH $12

ribeye, house-made BBQ sauce, bacon,

Double smash patties, apple bacon

garlic aioli, greens, and havarti, topped

coleslaw, Carolina beer mustard, spicy

with onion rings, garlic buttered toasted

lime slaw, sweet and smoky BBQ sauce, pickles, fresh cilantro, crispy jalapenos,

popper.

THE SMOKE SHOW $18

$2 DONATION 2278 Gottingen Street

6-oz beef patty, Alabama white BBQ,

spanish onion and drizzled with truffled

THE HEAT WAVE $14

DON'T GO "BACON" MY HEART BURGER $17

beef gravy.

Getaway Farms double-smash patties,

$1 DONATION 30 Fairfax Drive

house-smoked bacon, pepper jack queso,

$1 DONATION 3428 Dutch Village Road,

THE MUKKBANG BURGER $15.49 General tso chicken, fried mozzarella,

OMG ORSO'S MIGHTY GROWL $17

caramelized onions, candied bacon

Riverside Pub IRISH YOU WERE A BURGER $8 Fresh burger patty topped with

PETER PRETZEL PICKLED PEPPER cheddar cheese, Jameson BBQ sauce, EATER $16 8-oz beef patty, provolone, lettuce, tomato Angus ground chuck patty, peameal

bacon, pineapple-jalapeno chutney, onion rings, pickled onions, arugula, roasted red pepper aioli, pretzel bun with cream cheese-stuffed bacon-wrapped jalapeno. $1 DONATION 3085 Robie Street

Lot Six Bar & Restaurant THE SWIMMING PIG $12 Oulton's ground pork burger, smoked bacon, pineapple relish, pepper

and mozzarella and goat cheese roll. $4 DONATION 1859 Brunswick Street

Parkside Pub & Smokehouse A BURGER NAMED JED $8 6-oz N.S. beef patty, brioche bun, bacon jam aioli, ham, shredded lettuce, and tomato slice topped with crushed cornpop fried brie. $1 DONATION 14 Highfield Park Drive

jack mac & cheese, jerk aioli, baby arugula,

Patrons Rec Room

on a toasted brioche bun.

TEX-MEX BURGER $12

$2 DONATION 1685 Argyle Street

1/4-pound patty, lettuce, mild salsa, lime sour cream, pickled jalapenos,

M&J's EAT MY LOAF BURGER $16.50 Meatloaf-style burger with a brown sugar red sauce, caramelized onions, bacon, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes on a toasted bun. $1 DONATION 813 Bedford Highway

Maxwells Plum THE BIG MAX $16 Our take on a cultural icon: two all-beef patties, hash brown, special

tomatoes and cajun nachos. $1 DONATION 27 Dellridge Lane

and drizzled with Guinness aioli. $1 DONATION 1552 Bedford Highway

Sea Smoke Restaurant THE TEPPANYAKI TRIBUTE $14 Seasoned AAA ground sirloin, sauteed shiitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, Japanese goma sauce, garlic aioli, brioche

garlic butter ciabatta. $1 DONATION 200 Wright Avenue

Piatto Pizzeria and Enoteca

sesame seed bun.

CAPRESE BURGER $14

$1 DONATION 1600 Grafton Street

A fresh 6-oz beef patty from Getaway Farms topped with fior di latte mozzarella, tomato, fresh basil and balsamic aioli on a wood-fired bun. $1 DONATION 1299 Hollis Street

slaw, green onions, sesame, on a grilled brioche bun. $1 DONATION 6021 Cunard Street

The Barrington Steakhouse & Oyster Bar THE SMOKY GOAT CHEESE BURGER $18

$2 DONATION 1662 Barrington Street

sriracha mayo, crispy onions topped with pickle.

Seaport Social YOLO $18 Ground beef patty, blue cheese, pancetta, house-made onion rings, spicy pineapple jam, fried egg, pretzel bun and side BBQ sauce. $1 DONATION 1181 Hollis Street

THE KITCHEN SINK BURGER $11 Beef patty, pretzel bun, bacon, cheddar,

pepperoncini aioli and caramelized onion brioche bun. Served with parmigiano frites. $5 DONATION 1475 Lower Water Street

The Bitter End

$1 DONATION 2094 Hammonds Plains

Road

Wild Leek

The Old Triangle Irish Alehouse

True North Diner

toasted bun.

OLD T DELI BURGER $18

Fresh burger patty topped with pastrami,

MEATZILLA BURGER $11

CHEESY FRIED PICKLE BURGER $13 Grilled seitan patty, cheese sauce, lettuce, house battered and fried dill pickle on a $1 DONATION 2156 Windsor Street

Your Father's Moustache

6-oz ground sirloin patty topped with

pulled pork, jalapeno jack cheese, and

herbed stuffing, cheese curd and bacon

maple banana pepper sauce.

croquette with grainy mustard aioli, fresh

$1 DONATION 1658 Bedford Highway

THE MOUSTACHE CLUB BURGER $16

Unchained Kitchen

mozzarella, fried pickles, house-made

greens, a splash of gravy and cranberry mayo. $5 DONATION 5136 Prince Street

The Press Gang Restaurant and Oyster Bar

pub club relish and pub club sauce,

Queijo Prato, Peri Peri pesto, ghee fried

served on an grilled brioche bun.

onion rings, chimichurri, avocado, bacon

$2 DONATION 5686 Spring Garden Road

and brioche bun. $2 DONATION 2606 Agricola Street

and red wine demi-glace on a grilled brioche bun.

LIGHTHOUSE LOBSTER DBL CHEESEBURGER $20 Creamy Atlantic lobster and cheese blend melted on our Atlantic grass-fed beef burger, topped with lettuce and tomato. $1 DONATION 178 Peggy's Point Road

BEEF 'N' CHEDDAR $14 Getaway Farms ground beef, house-cured horseradish ranch dressing with a side of fat chips. $2 DONATION 2534 Agricola Street

House-ground patty with bacon,

THE BRAZILIAN BUTTER $18

POU-TINE ON THE FRITES $25

beef bacon, cheddar cheese sauce,

$2 DONATION 1572 Argyle Street

lettuce.

caramelized onions, secret mayo with a

Battered fried chicken breast, deep fried

arugula. Served on a challah bun.

house-made BBQ sauce, tomato and

$1 DONATION 15 Spectacle Lake Drive

The Stillwell Freehouse

jalapeno jack cheese, chipotle mayo and

jalapeno popper, onion rings, Vernon’s

wing.

THE SMOLDERING HABANERO CHICKEN BURGER $17 habanero pepper, apple wood bacon,

Fresh ground beef patty, topped with a

$2 DONATION 1568 Argyle Street

The Sou'Wester Gift & Restaurant Ltd

mozzarella, jalapenos, house-made

Trendz Gastro Pub

VERNON'S THUNDER POPPER BURGER $12

on a challah bun.

House-ground tenderloin, fontina,

8-oz house-made ground beef burger,

$1 DONATION 172 Wyse Road Plaza

Vernon's Thunderbird Diner

onion ring, chicken finger and chicken

$1 DONATION 1477 Lower Water Street

tomato jam, arugula, crispy pancetta,

bun.

arugula and bourbon BBQ sauce. Served

$2 DONATION 5218 Prince Street

SEAMUS' SPICY JALAPENO BURGER $18

and pineapple marmalade, topped with

mozza stick and bbq aioli, all topped with

VALLE D’AOSTA BURGER $22

Seamus Davids Pub

Coconut-crusted chicken with our lime

TILTED BURGER $15

7-oz dry-aged beef patty, fried goat cheese, Grilled Wagyu beef patty with cheese smoky red pepper remoulade, prosciutto, curds, bacon-wrapped bundle of frites arugula, tomato, toasted onion bun.

EL POLLITO COSTEÑO $13.50

bar chips, buffalo chicken ranch dip,

garnish.

$1 DONATION 21 Logiealmond Close

tomato sauce and four-cheese blend on

bam bam sauce, cucumbers, heaven

Verano Food Purveyors

maple applewood bacon, cheddar cheese,

The Bicycle Thief

PEPPEREKA CHICKEN PARM $10 bread crumbs and panko. House-made

$2 DONATION 1672 Barrington Street

spicy mayo, ketchup, mustard and chips.

Double stack beef, brown sugar bacon,

bun, prosciutto wrapped asparagus

Peppereka

sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a

Coca Cola “Sip To Win” location. Scan QR code when on site to win.

onion rings, Bailey’s candied bacon jam

artisan lettuce, tomato and a crunchy

All-white chicken breast dredged in spices,

on a toasted bun

Stillwell

adobo-jalapeno burger sauce, tomato,

topped with brie, fried onion straws,

bread and butter pickles and crispy onions brioche bun.

smoked gouda, red pepper, green pepper,

2186 Windsor Street

Orso Pub & Grill

sauce, served with a toasted sesame bun.

The Loose Cannon

topped with a pile of matchstick potatoes.

Lion's Head Tavern

fries.

deep-fried pickle, smoked cheddar cheese $2 DONATION 2057 Gottingen Street sauce, candied bacon and Hickory Sticks.

Studio East Asian Gastropub

$1 DONATION 6430 Chebucto Road

on our sesame bun, served with hand-cut

$1 DONATION 247 Herring Cove Road

Swiss cheese, pickles, bearnaise sauce,

Doughnut bun glazed with bacon bits.

$1 DONATION 88 Alderney Drive, 1707

Station Six Food & Drink

Rinaldos

VANDAL CRUNCH BURGER $11.50

topped with blue cheese, a tangy and

Hearth bun, with house made jalapeno

Fresh burger patty topped with

Vandal Doughnuts

Stonehearth bun.

A jalapeno queso-stuffed burger with

$1 DONATION 900 Windmill Road

sauce, lettuce, pickles and frizzled onions

The Wooden Monkey, Dartmouth

Ground beef cut with ground bacon

La Piazza Ristorante

burger bun.

Two local all-beef patties, havarti, special

mustard, sauerkraut, organic greens on a

lettuce, fresh jalapeno, Martin’s potato roll.

bun with crispy coated fries.

THE CANTEEN BURGER $19

grilled NS apples, Big Spruce Stout

NACHO NORMAL CHEESEBURGER THE STEAKHÄUSER $14 $17

and cheddar cheese sauce on a brioche

$1 DONATION 612 Windmill Road

$1 DONATION 1579 Grafton Street

BEAT THE BLUES BURGER $10

Old Port Pub & Grill

Pulled pork shoulder, homemade coleslaw, shredded lettuce, fire-roasted salsa, pickled onions, pickles, banana peppers nacho crisps and lime crema on a grilled

The Canteen on Portland

The Carleton

Road

THE LAVA BURGER $18

house fries.

sauce, masa tortilla chips.

$2 DONATION 1525 LeMarchant Street

Organic quinoa and soy patty, creamy

PHILLY CHEESEBURGER $11

cremosa, brioche bun, queso cheese

banana "mustard" Italian cream.

$1 DONATION 1463 Brenton Street

Redwood Grill

bbq aioli on a Brioche bun. Served with

$1 DONATION 540 Southgate Drive

$1 DONATION 2150 Gottingen Street

strawberry "ketchup," vanilla "mayo," and

VEGAN BBQ BURGER $10

lettuce, tomato and spicy mayo on a Stone

brisket, apple slaw, dill pickle and Memphis

relish, charred tomato salsa, avocado

tomato, mayo and cheddar.

Seasoned Meadowbrook pork patty

beernaise on a black bun.

Crispy mac 'n' cheeze and RFM patty with

Beef patty with barbacoa pulled beef

Getaway Farms beef-pork patty, jalapeno

Southern-style fried chicken with lettuce,

BARBACOA BURGER 3.0 $16

$1 DONATION 22 Portland Street

toasted coconut "grilled onions," with

Springhouse Market

MAC 'N' POPPER $14

QUESO GRANDE $16

Angus beef patty, pickled onions, cheese,

spicy slaw, chimilantro and stout

Real Fake Meats

Upstreet BBQ Brewhouse

THE CRUNCHY CLUCKER BUFFALO $15

SWEET ONION ORCHARD BURGER $11

sriracha aioli and house-made BBQ sauce. brownie "patty," cream "cheese" frosting,

mayo.

The Stubborn Goat Gastropub

The Butchers Block

Coconut brined crispy fried chicken,

blueberry jam, Pickford spiced bacon,

Beef shawarma with lettuce, tomatoes,

EGG ROLL BURGER $12

Pickford & Black

BEEF SHAWARMA BURGER $13 Fresh Atlantic beef, with bourbon

a whiskey sauce and topped with

Krave Burger

VISIT BURGERWEEK.CO

Winner will be notified by email. Must be 19+ to win.

No cash value. Winner must provide a governmentissued ID. This is a random draw facilitated by Get In the Loop with prizing from Fine Company Brewing.

WIN BEER

FOR A YEAR

2021 Halifax Burger Week

$560,000 BURGER AMBASSADORS Halifax Burger Week Ambassadors are deep down burger lovers with a passion for posting their love for the burg.

We choose two dedicated individuals and give them $500 cash each to eat their way through Halifax Burger Week!

Learn more about our trusted ambassadors and make sure to follow them at their handles below. Oh, and thanks for all the amazing #HFXburgerbash entries, there were some truly great ones this year!

RAISED

840,000 MEALS DONATED 8 YEARS OF #HFXBURGERWEEK

2021 HBW #PROTIPS

 Treat all resto staff with respect They are working hard to make sure you have a burger-ific good time. Remember to tip your server and post about your burger on social media so the restaurants feel the love, too! Above all, be kind to each other—in the end, it’s just a burger. #hfxburgerbash #halifaxburger  Come prepared! Have your government issue ID and POV ready to show upon restaurant entry Nova Scotia now requires all individuals going out to restaurants to provide a proof of vaccination along with a gov ID. Most of you have already done this but if you haven’t already done so, you can get your Nova Scotia COVID-19 proof of vaccination by putting in your email at novascotia.flow.canimmunize.ca. It’s easy and you can take a picture to have on your phone. Proof of vaccination isn’t required for children 11 and younger and they can come into a restaurant with a fully vaccinated adult.  Tag us in your burger photos on Instagram @thecoasthalifax  Burger Fraud is real and can affect even the most vigilant of burger lovers. Our advice?

Stick to the Halifax Burger Week website for the list of participating burgers. If it’s not on burgerweek.co, it’s not official. Another option is to download the Get In The Loop app to get a complete list of participating burgers and see how you can participate in all the weekly contests including #BeerForAYear!  Don’t limit yourself to the traditional 3 square meals a day—this is a week to celebrate the round ones too, about 140+ of them.

Speak up, speak out

2021 Burger Week Ambassadors Abby and Juliana.

Meat Abby Instagram @HalifaxMuskoka Twitter @abbyvan TikTok @HalifaxMuskoka

Food is essential to our happiness and our health, but we can’t stop there.

Take time to learn about initiatives that are pushing for long-term, sustainable change—things like basic income, affordable early learning and childcare, and a national school food program.

Poverty reduction has to be a priority for everyone, not just for those living it.

What does #burgerpride mean to you?

It’s all about sharing your love and passion for burgers.

In Halifax it is demonstrated by the talented and creative folks in the restaurant industry and by the ferocious appetite and appreciation of the community.

Fast facts

What is your favourite side to eat with your burger?

Poutine. With a dark beef gravy. Through Halifax Burger Week I usually try to do a side salad for balance, to get them greens in!

• Single individuals on Income Assistance live about 30% below the poverty line

What is the weirdest topping you’ve eaten on a burg?

On vacation in 2019 I created a snack bar burger that had a slice of cantaloupe pizza on it—it was pretty good!

What makes you most excited about being a Burger Ambassador?

I am most excited about the opportunity to push my enthusiasm for Burger Week to the absolute limits.

Burgers for breakfast lunch and dinner. I will go out of my comfort zone and plan to try a wide variety of all the burgers Halifax has to offer!

Meat Juliana

 Going out to different restaurants in one evening?

Consider getting a rapid test at least once during Halifax Burger Week. Updated dates, locations and times are available at nshealth.ca. Most sites are offering take-home tests to test yourself.  Branch out from your burger basics! Now’s the time to try something new, maybe a new restaurant or even just a new twist on an old classic. Be brave, burger fans! Boldly go and get sauced!  Practise good social distancing There are no longer social distancing requirements for businesses, services and gatherings in Nova Scotia but if you see a lineup please be mindful, give each other space. There are lots of burgers to choose from in each neighbourhood, so plan ahead with a PLAN B(urger) location.

• One in 7 households in Nova Scotia are food insecure • One in 5 children in Nova Scotia live in poverty

• At least 41,000 Nova Scotians are supported by a food bank each year

EVERY $2 RAISED DURING BURGER WEEK

ALLOWS FEED NS TO DISTRIBUTE

Instagram @julianagmurphy TikTok @julianaeatsburgers Who is your go-to burger buddy?

My go-to burger buddy is definitely my mom. She has gone with me for nearly every Burger Week burger I’ve attended so far. She was the one who originally got me excited about Burger Week and was my biggest supporter when I started applying to be an ambassador! A special mention as well to my good friend Jessica who joins me for at least one burger every year!

What is your favourite side to eat with a burger?

Give me all the fries—there is plenty of time for salad after Halifax Burger Week!

3 MEALS WORTH OF DONATED FOOD

FOR NOVA SCOTIANS

If you were a type of bun, what type would you be?

I think I’d be a toasted brioche bun, a sweet classic!

The Coast • OCTOBER 14, 2021 • 15

MUSIC

FALL ARTS PREVIEW

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New bands we're excited about these days include the country-cool Horsebath, indie duo Pillow Fite and punk act Cluttered, which counts Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace as a fan. (Yes, really!) Read more about each soon on thecoast.ca.

SUBMITTED

Sit up and Let Dreams Be Noticed Catch the infectious ambition (and addictive bars) of Halifax's hottest hip hop collective. BY MORGAN MULLIN MAJE w/LDN Collective Dec 5, 9pm, The Seahorse Tavern, 2037 Gottingen Street

I

n a west end backyard shed, there’s a framed photo of Drake drinking a shot out of his upturned Grammy award. It’s lit with a soft reverence, hanging above recording equipment like a cross above an altar. Aydan Brown, Cornell Reddick and Luke Berryman— a handful of members of the 11-person

SEE

hip hop collective Let Dreams be Noticed, Halifax’s answer to Odd Future—are looking down, backs facing Drake, harvesting the perfect words from the shed’s low-pile carpet.

“That first song...if I dropped that and the next day in school I got roasted by everybody, I just wouldn't even be here right now,” says Brown,

who raps under the moniker Mano SOS. “But it didn’t go like that.”

Luckily for him (and luckily for all of us who love rap that skews boom-bap), hyper-local fame came knocking instead. Brown recalls the night his Snapchat was lit up with everyone at the school dance rapping along to an LDN—hit and the mushrooming Soundcloud streams. He and his best friend Kye Clayton— the group’s nucleus, who isn’t hanging out today because he’s in the studio with local hip hop heavyweight MAJE—both had a knack for MCingg, so they kept going, bringing other friends along in their against-the-odds plan to make professional music. Never mind that most of them are under 20—most of the rappers they idolize started in grade school, anyway. The result? A group of galling young talent calling a host of influences (like J Cole, Future and, yes, Drake) to mind—all over beats composed and verses spat in this very shed.

“We put a beat on and then we’d all just take turns rapping, singing, doing whatever,” explains Berryman, who knows that a beat he made is hitting when everyone pulls out their phones to start writing a verse. Two sonic generations after The Roots crowned themselves the last hip hop band, LDN rounded out its hefty catalogue of solo albums with this summer’s eponymous group LP—a brash, addictive effort with bars that lacerate. If they believe in the old adage that dreams don’t work unless you do, these kids are making sure theirs are clocking overtime.

“I feel like it’s more or less just keep working towards it,” comments Reddick, who performs as Nelly2Drippy, when asked about the air of possibility that surrounds him and his friends. Adds Berryman: “We genuinely believe that we are different than everybody else making music right now, and that we will be at the top.” a

Zamani at St. Andrew’s Zamani w/Patrick and Daniel at The Stage at St. Andrew’s Nov 1, 7:30pm, St. Andrew’s Church, 6036 Coburg Road, $16.93, tickets via eventbrite.ca (search “The Stage Mondays”)

Z

SUBMITTED

17 • OCTOBER 14, 2021 •

The Coast

amani cemented her status as a name-to-know back in 2019 when she went from making bedroom beats to playing an attention-grabbing set at OBEY Convention (which is now called EVERYSEEKER Festival). Since then, her star has been rising ever higher, burning a trail through the exosphere as she nabs awards like the SOCAN Young Songwriters Award and Artist of the Year at the African Nova Scotian Music Awards. Her creamy-vocalled brand of R&B is a blend of India.Arie and Solange—and has propelled her to stages from Rotterdam to Taiwan.

Along the way, it’s made fans of the likes of underground hip hop legend Tracey Lee, who asked her and local neo-soul mainstay Kwento to perform on his 2020 album, Glory.

Now, though, the certified triple threat (she writes, produces and sings her own work) is getting the hometown headline show she’s long deserved, taking to the newly active Stage at St. Andrew’s the first night in November to remind your ears how a hot bassline and cinnamonspiced vocal delivery can change everything and can combat any windchill. "I think the goal, for me, in music, is to be able to impact other people," she told The Coast back in 2019, days before the OBEY show that put her on the map. “Because I don't want fame or that kind of stuff...

I really want to impact other people with my music the way that it helps me.” Here, she’ll do just that, with supporting act Patrick & Daniel rounding out the bill. —MM

&

Scene Heard

Your record of news to note from the Halifax music scene.

F

or all the new goings-on in the Halifax music scene this fall, we’re gonna start with one thing that won’t be happening: The Halifax Pop Explosion appears to have shuttered, with no word yet of festival dates and no updates to the safer spaces survey it promised to deliver back in March 2021. The Atlantic Restorative Company—an outside consultant HPX hired to help mitigate its social mediafuelled firestorm and the underlying systemic racism it failed to address—has confirmed in emails to The Coast that it severed the festival as a client in late March 2021.

And while live music in general is back with a bang (notably Nova Scotia Music Week, lighting up Truro Nov 4-7 and Symphony Nova Scotia’s slated return in late October), the recent introduction of proof of vaccination to enter cultural gatherings means our dreams of mosh pits are one step closer to returning (the communal chip bowl at Gus’ Pub, however, will rest in power forever).

A stalwart of the scene and a frequent handup to about-to-break acts, producer, mixer and composer John Mullane (who you may know as the vocals and guitar of David Bowie-beloved band In-Flight Safety) recently launched a new studio space, called Future Dad, in Spryfield. We hope it comes with ample shelf space to show off Mullane’s past and future wins at Nova Scotia Music Week and the East Coast Music Awards.

Joel Plaskett’s Dartmouth destination New Scotland Yard has changed its name (presumably to avoid any New Scotland-based confusion happening in the area). The spot now goes by Fang Recording and Morely’s Coffee.

“We’re keeping it hi-fi,” main studio engineer and alt-country king Thomas Stajcer promises in an email, a sentiment applicable to both the coffee and music. Alongside both (and alongside Taz Records’ Dartmouth foothold), a new bookshop will also squeeze into the location at 45 Portland Street, called Friction Books.

R&B scene mainstays (including Keonté Beals) are putting their metaphorical money on Harmz, a Halifax-by-way-of-Nigeria musician, as a star on the mic. The artist dropped his debut album in late September, an effort infused with calypso and Top 40 vibes. Also file under one to watch: The honey-voiced Laviita Shanel, whose song “It Ends Today” was one of the best tracks of 2020.

Halifax’s bearded balladeer Ben Caplan is releasing new music this fall ahead of a string of North American and European tour dates: Recollection will be landing on streaming services this week. Meanwhile emo rocker No, It’s Fine. is putting the spit and polish on its second album of 2021, a to-be-named effort dropping in November. Other Halifax musicians of note in the studio right now?

Boom-bap behemoth MAJE, triple-threat singer-songwriter-producer Zamani (see more on both at left), the ECMA-nominated aRENYE and high-energy hip hop sibling duo Advocates of Truth. —MM

BOOKS

FALL ARTS PREVIEW

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All your must-read fall books await online at thecoast.ca, along with the only book club guide you'll ever need.

One of Canada’s most lauded authors releases his most vulnerable work yet. BY MORGAN MULLIN hen he answers a phone call from The Coast days before his latest book is about to hit shelves, George Elliott Clarke isn’t afraid to admit his nerves. “I don’t have protection of fiction,” the Order of Canadaappointed poet and author says. While writers “are always revealing ourselves,” Clarke adds, his new memoir means “much more exposure of who I am, whatever that is; whoever my fundamental identity is.

"Drive and desires and wishes and fears: It’s all there. Any armchair psychologist or psychiatrist can sit down with this book, and probably do a better job of figuring out who I am than I’ve ever been able to do myself.” He laughs.

To have such stage fright now, over 30 published books in, is at once surprising and endearing of the writer, easily one of Canada’s most lauded. But really, considering the work at hand—a 337-page tome whose title, Where Beauty Survived, feels like a one-line poem— it sort of fits.

Clarke has long arranged the branches of his family tree in vases of books for others to read and relish (like his African Nova Scotian answer to Steinbeck’s East of Eden, 2005’s George and Rue or its sibling work, 2001’s Execution Poems). But, he’s never quite turned

the mirror back on himself as plainly as he does here.

Where Beauty Survived weaves memories of his childhood in Africadia (a historical, geographical term Clarke coined: “I believe that the historical Black Nova Scotian community created an independent, separate, North Atlantic, African diasporic culture—and it should have a name,” he explains) into a tight tapestry that shows how he was shaped into the poet and author he is today. Clarke is quick to promise that the story delivers laughter and lightness alongside loss and grief, his signature alchemy. Time is charted from his early childhood to teen years through the culture and music around him, “from the Beethoven of my father and the James Brown of my mother to Miles Davis,” he adds. His relationship with his father, the womanizing maverick who inspired his 2016 novel The Motorcyclist, is the book’s beating heart (the diary his dad left him as an inheritance provides inspiration for both works).

“Everywhere you look, in Nova Scotia, there are incredible stories involving Black people: Historically, as well as right down to the present,” he adds.

Clarke should count his own story amongst them. a

It started from a place of: Who else carries a type of wisdom or lessons that can be passed on?”

“Any armchair psychologist or psychiatrist can sit down with this book and probably do a better job of figuring out who I am than I’ve ever been able to do myself.”

SUBMITTED

The livestream launch of Jesse Wente’s Unreconciled

HEAR

Jesse Wente in conversation via livestream with Matt Galloway Thursday October 14 at 9pm. Attendee info available at Bookmark Halifax (5686 Spring Garden Road) with purchase of Unreconciled.

C

hances are you don’t know arts journalist and Canada Council for the Arts chairperson Jesse Wente, but you certainly know the cultural riches Turtle Island gets to boast about, thanks to his hard work: A 20-year stint covering pop culture and film on CBC’s Metro Morning, combined with being the first director of Canada's Indigenous Screen Office, he’s the type to not stop until everyone’s as hyped on the project he knows is head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Now, though, he’s trading advocating others’ art for sharing his own with the hotly anticipated memoir Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenious Resistance. Billed as “uncovering the lies and myths that affect relations between white and Indigenous peoples,” the book—printed

by Penguin Random House Canada—highlights ”the power of narrative to emphasize truth over comfort.”

Now, an online book launch celebration sees Wente chatting with Matt Galloway, host of CBC’s The Current. You can tune into the livestream by purchasing a copy of Unreconciled at participating independent bookstores—namely, Bookmark Halifax. —MM

18 • OCTOBER 14,2021 •

The Coast

I

n the soil that feeds Abena Beloved Green’s family tree, a place of nutrients and knowledge that helps grow chlorophyll-packed leaves, inspiration was waiting to be dug up like treasure. “I always had a reverence for grandmothers and always envied classmates who were close to their grandmothers and would talk to them,” the lauded slam poet and author says. But when her own grandmother (who lived in Ghana) passed away, it was a door closing—and a seed of an idea erupting to fill the loss’ space. “It started from a place of : who else knows her? Who else carries a type of wisdom or lessons that can be passed on?” Green, who grew up in Antigonish, explains, speaking by phone with The Coast. “I just wanted to gather from elders, because I knew that they knew things that I would find important but I didn’t know what it was...

Anything from having lived in a colonized country to how to plant seeds according to the

George Elliott Clarke knows Where Beauty Survived W

A journey of rediscovery

Abena Green Author of the Ode to The Unpraised season, to how they solve conflict to relationships: Just things that they knew, that I knew I would never know, I would never read about, there would be no way of knowing unless I asked.”

The result of that digging and asking? Ode To The Unpraised: Stories and Lessons from Women I Know, an ambitious mix of prose and poetry that feels equal parts soul-salving succour and handy life hack.

With a writing voice influenced by Nikky Finney and Jericho Brown, Green cut her creative teeth in the world of slam poetry, where she was a finalist in 2017’s Canadian Individual Poetry Slam and winner of the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia Atlantic Writing Competition in 2016. She has since become the first writer-in-residence for YWCA Halifax. Her first book was a collection of poems, called The Way We Hold On—but Ode sees her moving more towards words that “have not lived off of the page as much.”

Since its mid-pandemic release and official launch last month, Ode has landed on Bookmark Halifax’s bestseller list (a fact Green learns in our interview), proof that while these are words that haven’t lived much off the page, they do have residence in many a reader’s mind.

“Stretch out your hands and see who you can touch in your life. And looking at those people in a new way: That was how it happened for me,” Green adds. Looking anew at people you see every day “makes much more fascination into your life, like: Oh, like I didn’t know that that’s who this person was.” —MM

STAGE

FALL ARTS PREVIEW

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More of the season’s must-see dance and theatre shows are listed online now at thecoast.ca.

The cast and crew of Fat Juliet during rehearsals. DANIEL WITTNEBEL

Fat Juliet takes her story back Stevey Hunter’s play riffing on Shakespeare “won’t change the world,” but it just might change yours. BY MORGAN MULLIN

I

t might seem trite to say Eastern Front Theatre’s Fat Juliet is a Romeo and Juliet adaptation unlike any you’ve ever seen—yes, even counting the dreamy Leonardo DiCaprioClaire Danes redux from 1996. But what if I was to tell you that this spin on Shakespeare’s

star-crossed story, debuting at Alderney Landing from Oct 22-31, is also more fun and relatable than any you’ve ever heard of?

“The very first moments of the play, we see Juliet in a bathing suit, considering herself in a mirror—perhaps not so favourably. And then,

a little bit conspiratorially, she announces to the audience: ‘No one can love you if you’re fat, you know. My mother told me that.’” Kat McCormack, the show’s director, leans over the table at rehearsal for emphasis and says, “That, to me, is a little bit of the thesis: Do we actually have these thoughts about ourselves, or is this something that someone has put in my own mind?”

The story—written and starring playwright Stevey Hunter—reframes the story from Juliet’s perspective, smuggling themes of self-love and body positivity into the historical play.

“I never saw myself as Juliet, until I actually was like, ‘Oh, unless she was fat, because when I was 16, I was fat’—and I've never seen that. Why haven’t I seen that? Why don't we see fat people falling in love? Because fat people fall in love all the time,” says Hunter, seated near McCormack. “So then it just turned into: OK, well let’s see this timeless love story, but this time it’s from the perspective of what it would have been like for me, as a fat 16 year old.”

That means the entire stage at Alderney Landing is being constructed to look like a Billie Eilish tour, with a 20-foot-high four-poster bed and big sleepover vibes. Body-positive illustrations by Coast contributor Mollie Cronin of Art Brat Comics round out the scene.

“The Shakespeare language kind of comes out like regular conversation,” Nathan Simmons, the actor who plays Tybalt, adds, while Lou Campbell (playing Angel) nods next to him. Another departure? “It's going to totally smash everybody’s idea of who Romeo is and totally dethrone Leonardo DiCaprio,” says Peter Sarty, who’ll be playing the heartthrob.

“He’s a bit of a fuckboy!”

“I know this play won't change the world,” adds Hunter. “But it might change someone’s world.” a

HEIST’s Frequencies

SEE

Frequencies Livestreamed from The Bus Stop Theatre’s stage to be watched virtually, Nov 5-6, tickets are $15, tune in to https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/29336

I

SUBMITTED

20 • OCTOBER 14, 2021 •

The Coast

t’s true that a thing cannot be defined by what it is not, but that didn’t stop Halifax’s indie theatre scene from stripping its art to the core foundations during COVID-19. Without a traditional audience or stage, theatre-makers like Aaron Collier and his Frequencies collaborators Stewart Legere and Francesca Ekwuyasi put forth abstract new visions of what theatre can be. Now, the National Arts Centre is helping Collier and Co. restage their pandemic hit from The Bus Stop’s newly renovated theatre as a livestream spectacular, calling the show “one of the most exciting inventions to have emerged from livestreamed theatre.” The play will be viewable from your phone screen, yes, but still worth the watch.

Collier’s company, HEIST Live Art, has made a name for itself by blending technology and theatre since its breakout 2016 Halifax Fringe Festival play The Princess Show, which went on to win Best of The Fest (and is currently up for the 2021 Nova Scotia Masterworks Award). “We had already invested a significant amount of our time and energy into figuring out how to make sort of 3D digital worlds and these fantasy drag performances in the digital domain,” Collier told The Coast last summer. “So at that point we thought...maybe there’s something in this.

Now, here we are, trying to discover if there’s something in this.” It looks like there is. —MM

&

Scene Heard

What’s going on behind the scenes in Halifax’s theatre and dance community.

T

he world of live performance is returning to the stage at last—and it feels like a big exhale. Halifax’s indie theatre scene was a cultural liferaft during COVID, since it had already been exploring innovations to the form that made digital theatre not only possible but actually worth watching. One of the brightest examples? Zuppa Theatre, which added app-based shows to its repertoire years ago.

(If you’re wondering what that means, these shows explore a story through a narrated walking tour.) Zuppa is keeping with this innovation this fall with its newest app-based show, 50Things. Co-artistic director Ben Stone explains it as “a scavenger hunt to 50 art pieces around Nova Scotia,” including short films, paintings, spots by local musicians and special guests. A work that’s in support of the Ecology Action Centre, you can download 50Things from EAC’s website.

But if you’re elated at the thought of an IRL show, you’re in good company. The Bus Stop Theatre, which had a soft reopening for the Halifax Fringe Festival last month, is throwing a reopening fundraiser party October 23.

Since buying its building last summer, the Gottingen Street theatre has been undergoing massive renovations to create a second performance space in the basement and make the space fully accessible. “Prior to these renovations, The Bus Stop was known kind of by default as one of the most accessible venues in the city, but that's only because everywhere else is so inaccessible,” Sebastien Labelle, executive director of TBS told us in September. Making the most of the improved space?

Kitbag Theatre and Page 1 Theatre, two newto-the-scene production companies arriving in Halifax from New Brunswick and PEI. Both companies will be performing shows on The Bus Stop stage this fall.

Meanwhile, Eastern Front Theatre is celebrating a return to roots as it packs its bags for Dartmouth’s Alderney Landing Theatre. It’ll debut a new work there this month, directed

by EFT artistic director Kat McCormack.

And let’s pour one out for the doomed work-life balance of Neptune’s Jeremy Webb: the theatre’s artistic director will also direct all the shows it stages this season—including the upcoming must-see ghost play Woman In Black. It’s also going to be a busy fall for the multidisciplinary artist Liliona Quarmyne, who not only curates this weekend’s Nocturne Festival (which you can read more about on page 8) but also kicking off a new season at Kinetic Studios, where she is artistic director. The dance stalwart’s upcoming November Open Studio Series (Nov 12-13) will be a blended IRL and online performance, featuring works by Olivia MacLean, Vanessa Furlong and April Hubbard, among others.

Also in the world of dance, The Woods, Halifax’s first professional hip hop dance company, celebrates a decade of keeping the beat this year—and we’re still trying to copy the company’s choreography from its last performance. —MM

Free Will Astrology “In my astrological opinion,” says ROB BREZSNY, “the time is right for Gemini to be cagey, cool and crafty.”

Libra

(Sep 23-Oct 22 ) "We must never be afraid to go too far, for truth lies beyond," declared novelist Marcel Proust. I wouldn't normally offer that counsel to you Libras. One of your strengths is your skill at maintaining healthy boundaries. You know how to set dynamic limits that are just right: neither too extreme nor too timid. But according to my analysis of the astrological potentials, the coming weeks will be one of those rare times when you'll be wise to consider an alternative approach: that the most vigorous truths and liveliest energies may lie beyond where you usually go.

Happy birthday this issue to: Pete Clive, Brad Fraser, Holly Gordon, Scarla Julian, Phoenyx Wolfe, James Wilson, Maryanne McLarty, Allison Tweedie, Ansgar Gruber, Elly Hannon, Charlotte Roshni Nette, Jacob Boon, Clare Tew and Sandra Brownlee. Share with bday@thecoast.ca

Scorpio

(Oct 23-Nov 21) Author William S. Burroughs claimed his greatest strength was a "capacity to confront myself no matter how unpleasant." But he added a caveat to his brag: Although he recognized his mistakes, he rarely made any corrections. Yikes! Dear Scorpio, I invite you to do what Burroughs couldn't.

Question yourself about how you might have gone off course, but then actually make adjustments and atonements. As you do, keep in mind these principles: 1. An apparent mistake could lead you to a key insight or revelation. 2. An obstruction to the flow may prod you to open your mind and heart to a liberating possibility. 3. A snafu might motivate you to get back to where you belong.

4. A mess could show you something important you've been missing.

Sagittarius

(Nov 22-Dec 21) In her novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Sagittarian author Shirley Jackson wrote, “Today my winged horse is coming, and I am carrying you off to the moon, and on the moon we will eat rose petals.” I wonder what you would do if you received a message like that—an invitation to wander out on fanciful or mysterious adventures.

I hope you'd be receptive. I hope you wouldn't say, “There are so such things as flying horses.

It's impossible to fly to the moon and eat rose petals.” Even if you don't typically entertain such whimsical notions, the time is favourable to do so now. I bet you will be pleased with the unexpected grace they bring your way.

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 19) Capricorn author Susan Sontag wrote about people who weren't receptive to her intensity and intelligence. She said she always had “a feeling of being 'too much' for them—a creature from another planet—and I would try to scale myself

down to size, so I could be apprehendable and lovable by them.” I understand the inclination to engage in such self-diminishment. We all want to be appreciated and understood. But I urge you to refrain from taming and toning yourself down too much in the coming weeks. Don't do what Sontag did. In my astrological opinion, it's time for you to be an extra-vivid version of yourself.

Aquarius (Jan 20-Feb 18) “I am diagnosed with not having enough insanely addictive drugs coursing through my body,” joked comedian Sarah Silverman. Judging from current cosmic rhythms, I'm inclined to draw a similar conclusion about you. It may be wise for you to dose yourself with intoxicants. JUST KIDDING! I lied. Here's the truth: I would love for you to experience extra rapture, mystic illumination, transcendent sex and yes, even intoxication in the coming weeks. My analysis of the astrological omens suggests these delights are more likely and desirable than usual. However, the best way to arouse them is by communing with your favourite non-drug and non-alcohol inebriants. The benefits will last longer and incur no psychological cost.

Pisces (Feb 19-Mar 20) “The truth is,” writes cartoonist Bill Watterson, “most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.” I sense this will describe your life during the next six weeks. Your long, strange journey won't come to an end, of course. But a key chapter in that long, strange journey will climax.

You will be mostly finished with lessons you have been studying for many moons. The winding road you have been following will end up someplace in particular. And sometime soon, I suspect you'll spy a foreshadowing flash of this denouement.

Aries (Mar 21-Apr 19) According to my understanding of the upcoming weeks, life will present you with unusual opportunities. I suspect you will find it reasonable and righteous to shed, dismantle and rebel against the past. Redefining your history will be a fun and worthy project. Here are other related activities I recommend for you: 1. Forget and renounce a long-running fear that has never come true. 2.

Throw away a reminder of an old experience that makes you feel bad. 3. Freshen your mood and attitude by moving around the furniture and decor in your home. 4. Write a note of atonement to a person you hurt once upon a time. 5. Give yourself a new nickname that inspires you to emancipate yourself from a pattern or habit you want to leave behind.

Taurus

(Apr 20-May 20) Taurus poet Donte Collins' preferred pronouns are “they” and “them.” They describe themself as Black, queer and adopted. “A lover doesn't discourage your growth,” they write. “A lover says, ‘I see who you are today, and I cannot wait to see who you become tomorrow.’” I hope you have people like that in your life, Taurus—lovers, friends, allies and relatives. If there is a scarcity

of such beloved companions in your life, the next eight weeks will be an excellent time to round up new ones. And if you are connected with people who delight in your progress and evolution, deepen your connection with them.

Gemini

(May 21-Jun 20) Gemini author Lisa Cron advises her fellow writers, “Avoid exclamation points! Really!! Because they’re distracting!! Almost as much as CAPITALIZING THINGS!!!” I'll expand her counsel to apply not just to writers, but to all of you Geminis. In my astrological opinion, you're likely to find success in the coming weeks if you're understated, modest and unmelodramatic. Make it your goal to create smooth, suave, savvy solutions. Be cagey and cool and crafty.

Cancer (Jun 21-Jul 22) Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu told us that water is in one sense soft and passive, but is in another sense superb at eroding jams and obstacles that are hard and firm. There's a magic in the way its apparent weakness overcomes what seems strong and unassailable. You are one of the zodiac's top wielders of water's superpower, Cancerian. And in the coming weeks, it will work for you with even more amazing grace than usual. Take full advantage of your sensitivity, your emotional intelligence and your empathy.

Leo

(Jul 23-Aug 22) Leo author James Baldwin told us, “You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to [Russian novelist] Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

This is a great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone.”

In that spirit, Leo, and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to track down people who have had pivotal experiences similar to yours, either in the distant or recent past. These days, you need the consoling companionship they can provide. Their influence could be key to liberating you from at least some of your pain.

Virgo (Aug 23-Sep 22) Poet Octavio Paz described two kinds of distraction. One is “the distraction of the person who is always outside himself, lost in the trivial, senseless, turmoil of everyday life.” The other is "the distraction of the person who withdraws from the world in order to shut himself up in the secret and ever-changing land of his fantasy.” In my astrological opinion, you Virgos should specialize in the latter during the coming weeks. It's time to reinvigorate your relationship with your deep inner sources. Go in search of the reverent joy that comes from communing with your tantalizing mysteries. Explore the riddles at the core of your destiny. a Go to freewillastrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO and DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES. The audio horoscopes are also available at 877-873-4888.

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Savage Love SEX ADVICE FROM DAN SAVAGE questions@savagelove.net trans woman here, Dan, Q Thirty-year-old and I have a question about what is surely

says, “and in my experience, that’s not always the case.” Additionally, condemnations of reone of your favourite subjects: the “age gap lationships and/or hook-ups with significant discourse.” age gaps—the kind of puritanical “discourse” About four years ago, I had a sexual experi- that has left you feeling so isolated—often fails ence that I go back and forth on whether to la- to acknowledge, much less grapple with facbel as sexual assault. When I was 26 years old, tors besides age that can make a person vulI met a 19-year-old on a dating site and drove nerable to abuse and exploitation. to a neighbouring state to hook up with them.

“Being a trans woman in itself can make you I'll spare you the details, but after we started more vulnerable,” says Greig. “But it could be doing things we had mutually agreed upon, just about anything: wealth, status, even just one of them didn't feel right in the moment, disposition or temperament—some people are so I withdrew my consent. They respected my more domineering or cruel than others.” boundary for about 15 minutes, then tried it And some people don’t understand that again. I said no again, they refrained for an- only yes means yes, that no absolutely means other 15 minutes, then tried it again. The cycle no and that withdrawing consent doesn’t continued until I just got worn down. The mean, “Ask me again in five minutes.” night ended with me trying to fall asleep so Sometimes a person guilty of the kind of I at least wouldn't be conscious for what they consent/boundary/physical violation you enwere going to do. It didn't work. dured isn’t acting maliciously and is capable I’m friends with a lot of social-justice- of learning from their mistakes—here’s hoping focused millennials, and discourse about age that message you sent that 19-year-old had an gaps in romantic and sexual relationships impact—but some people know what they’re occasionally appear on my social media. doing when they pressure a person to engage The consensus seems to be that there is a in (or submit to) unwanted sexual acts and vast maturity gap between someone who is don’t care. Those people can be 19 and those 19 and someone who is 26; therefore, some- people can be 99, AGE, and their victims can one in their mid-twenties has an affirmative be younger or older. duty to make sure nothing sexual happens “Life is too complicated for one-size-fits-all with someone who is 19. It is also suggested prescriptions like ‘age gap relationships are that someone like me is a creep and a preda- bad’ to be of much use,” says Greig, “and that tor for even thinking about hooking up with means we have to take these things on a casea 19-year-old. It's hard to not apply my own by-case basis.” experience to the discourse, and boy, is it a And in your case, AGE, neither of us thinks mind fuck. Hearing people go on about how you were the bad guy. vulnerable teenagers are or how I occupied a All that said, driving to a neighbouring state position of power not only dredges up painful to hook up with a teenager—yeah, the optics memories, but also makes me feel like a creep. aren’t good, and a lot of people aren’t gonna Did I do something wrong? I’m leaning be able to see past them. But just because some towards no. I didn't have any institutional very online people (and some very offline power over the other person, it wasn't an people) will look at your respective ages at the ongoing relationship, nor is it a pattern of time, do the math and label you a predator, behaviour. (Like hell am I going to trust a AGE, you aren’t obligated to slap that label on 19-year-old again.) I also tried to follow your yourself. You were consenting adults until you campsite rule. Instead of ghosting them, I sent withdrew your consent, at which point you them a message explaining why I wasn't going were the victim of a sexual assault. You may to play with them again—the boundary viola- have to be selective with who you confide in tions—in the hope that they would do better about this, AGE, but you don’t have to shame in the future. I'm about 80 percent sure I have yourself. You lived, you learned, you’ve tried nothing to feel guilty about, but that other 20 to do better. Here’s hoping the other person— percent just won't shut up. Was I the bad guy now in their twenties themselves—learned here? —Am Getting Exasperated something too and has also tried to do better.

You can follow James Greig on Twitter “I feel for this woman and, it should go @JamesDGreig. without saying, she shouldn’t feel guilty about having been sexually assaulted,” says James Greig, a London-based writer whose The letter in last week’s column from work has appeared in The Guardian, Vice PERV—in which the writer sought an and other publications. “And to my mind, alternative label to “perv”—left me slightly this incident shows that things are often more confused. I would have thought that the obvicomplex than the online ‘age gap discourse’ ous answer was “kinkster.” When that wasn’t acknowledges.” your response, I wondered what the difference Greig has written about the online age gap is between the two. In today’s world, one can’t discourse for The Guardian, AGE, and while afford to get these things wrong. —Thought I he feels the conversation is motivated by legit- Knew It All imate concerns about unequal power dynamics and their potential for abuse and exploitaKinkster was the right answer. I mean, tion, he worries the black-and-white nature obviously. So why didn’t I suggest it? of the age gap discourse can lull people into Well, I’ve always partial to perv—that’s pillow a false sense of security. “People imagine that talk at my house—but to be perfectly honest, abuse is less likely to occur in relationships I was high when I wrote that response and where both parties are the same age,” Greig kinkster slipped my THC-addled mind. a

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The Coast