This wonderful story by Catherine Banks (and equally wonderful illustration by Kate Phillips) is our thank you to all our readers and friends who struggle to make ends meet but refuse to let poverty define them. Next year we’ll fight for a living wage and decent income assistance benefits even harder, but for now, have a great holidays!

With some footage of Mi’kmaw poet and elder Rita Joe herself, we are delighted to present this wonderful musical interpretation by students of the Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Eskasoni of what is probably Rita Joe’s best known poem, I lost my talk.

As a bit of a follow-up on last winter’s very successful Women’s March on Washington here in Halifax about three hundred women and allies gathered at Province House today at noon to remind the world they’re still here. We hope to do a bit more on today’s rally, but for now, here are a couple of photos, and El Jones’ contribution, on Nova Scotia’s women who live in poverty, published with her kind permission.

Dancer and choreographer Rhodnie Désir, a resident of Montreal with Haïtian roots, has arrived in Nova Scotia on a mission to explore through her art the many connections between slavery, the rhytms long kept alive within African Nova Scotian, Acadian and Mi’kmaq communities and resistance. This weekend we feature a short documentary about her visits to Martinique, Brazil and Haiti. We also gave Rhodnie a call to find out more about the Nova Scotia leg of the project.

This weekend we feature the wonderful Mi’kmaq multidisciplinary artist Ursula Johnson in no less than three short videos. Johnson was recently shortlisted as the Atlantic nominee for the Sobey Art Award, which is a pretty big deal. For us any excuse to feature these three short intriguing videos will do. Check it out!

A new poem by El Jones. TRIGGER WARNING: 80-90 percent of women in prison are victims of physical and sexual assault. Yet because they are “criminals” what happens to them at the hands of the system must be something they deserve. When we talk about injustice to rape victims in Canadian courts where are their stories?

From Joel and Bill Plaskett’s last album Solidarity, here is its title track performed live in front of a small CBC audience.  It’s summer, the sun is shining, it’s a father-son duet, which is so neat. Those are just a few of the reasons why we picked this video.  Most of all, it’s a lovely song.