Back in February, Director and CEO of Canada Council for the Arts - a governmental entity which supports the arts and literary scene in Canada through grants, services, prizes and payments - issued a letter to the community in which it announced that the Council will be lowering its spending incrementally over three years, as part of the federal government’s Refocusing Government Spending initiative, for a grand total decrease of $9.88 million.

I recently got together with local musicians Debbie Christ and Booster Fawn to talk about their projects, their upcoming mini-tour, their plans for the future, and staying sober in a city that loves to drink.

It was a genuine pleasure having coffee with Wine and Halva’s playwright and director, Deniz Başar and Art Babayants, respectively. The title of Başar’s script comes from a poem by Arkadaş Zekai Özgür, a queer, Turkish communist who ultimately died in his mid-twenties after being arrested and brutalized by police.

Held Wednesdays at the charming Notre-Dame-des-Quilles in the Mile End, the Polycule set out to provide a safe space where queer, trans and BIPOC performers would be welcomed to try out new material of any artform in a weekly open mic.

The hospital closed in 2017, bought in part by the City of Montreal with a plan to transition the site into a “shared public space”. The reinvented space, now called the Cité-des-Hospitalières, had strict guidelines when considering who would occupy the space, including preserving the spirit of the grounds, and responding to the needs of the community.

According to the Oxford dictionary, busking is defined as “the activity of playing music in the street or another public place for voluntary donations.” People have been busking for hundreds of years, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of (regardless of what your family says).

“Forever”, that’s what Jesse Winchester told the immigration officer when asked how long he would be staying in Canada. Then, all of a sudden there he was, a draft dodging asylum seeker at the Dorval Airport with a guitar in hand.

Funny Women began in the UK in 2002, organized by Lynne Parker. Parker was sick of comedy spaces being dominated by men and the narrative that women don’t carry the same calibre of humour. Their goal was simple yet challenging: to see and support more women in comedy spaces.

The Chemical Valley Project is a production about the Aamjiwnaang First Nation on the banks of the St. Clair River, near Sarnia, Ontario, and the physical and emotional damage done to its people by the over 60 petrochemical plants and oil refineries operating in the surrounding area.