These are very difficult times for people who make their living in the arts sector in Nova Scotia. To do our tiny little thing to help, the Nova Scotia Advocate, in yet another bad business decision, commits to featuring (at least) one poem or piece of short fiction each month, for the next five months. And we pay.
“Things move slowly, but change comes, and it comes from us,” somebody said at yesterday’s rally against the warmongering Halifax International Security Festival. Here are some photos, and a poem by El Jones.
Nothing like a good old fashioned anti-war poem on Remembrance Day, and local poet Charlie Toth delivers.
Remember the ones have fought bravely
Think hard before sending more in,
The meat grinder that is war time
Doesn’t care if you have mother or kin.
A poem by Angela “Angee” Bowden, to remember that this month 400 years ago slaves first arrived in North America.
When the past is my present
And my scars still remain
And our lives still don’t matter
I am living in that pain
“I wrote this piece for the brown and black children who have to walk everyday in this world under a microscope that wasn’t created to get a better view, to understand, or to be seen, but to be defeated.”
A poem and an essay by Guyleigh Johnson.
A poem by Chad Norman about the men of the N.C.A, and others as well, dressed in whiteness, the little fellas with big hatreds. Donald, Jared, Andrew, Jason, Doug, and even Stephen…
It’s exhausting
The way we live
Taking home microaggressions
That we never ask for
From Tired bodies, a poem by Martha Mutale, a poet from Zambia who now lives in Nova Scotia
Kinda hate, a poem by activist and spoken word artist Angela (Angee) Bowden.
In 2018 white supremacists joined the Apple Blossom parade in Kentville to spread their hateful anti-immigration message. Chad Norman wrote this poem in response.