PSA: BPH presents: Public Resistance
As public debate rages about public space and memorialization, this is a chance to come and walk through the history together.
Local history
Weekend video: Once upon a Black Halifax
This documentary puts a face to the rapid changes gentrification has brought to the Halifax North End. We meet some of the older residents who reminisce about life in their old neighborhood, one that actually deserved to be called vibrant.
Planning the gentrification of the North End, an interview with Ted Rutland
“We’d all benefit from living in a city that was less racist, that was less unjust, that was less oppressive, that was less centered on displacement in the interest of white supremacy and profit.” An interview with professor Ted Rutland about urban planning as a misguided strategy to reduce crime and poverty and pave the way for gentrification of the historic Halifax North End.
Lawren Harris’ “Miners’ houses, Glace Bay”
Canada Post recently issued a stamp of Lawren Harris’ painting ‘Miners houses, Glace Bay’. Fiona McQuarrie writes about her personal connection and the painting’s significance in terms of Cape Breton labour history.
Weekend video: Uprooted – The little known story about Mi’kmaw history of forced relocation
An excellent multi-part documentary by APTN journalist Trina Roache tackles yet another historic effort to destroy Mi’kmaw culture.
Brenda Thompson: Built on history – Old cemeteries
Brenda Thompson on Potters Fields and unmarked Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian graves in Halifax and elsewhere.
Brenda Thompson: The Halifax Poor House dead are safe…for now
Brenda Thompson, author of an excellent book on poor houses in Nova Scotia, expresses her relief that the unmarked burial ground on Spring Garden Road will remain preserved.
Book review: Before the Parade is a must-read on gay, lesbian and bisexual resistance in Halifax
Documenting the histories of local activism is of vital importance, and Before the Parade, a wonderful new book by Rebecca Rose on the history of Halifax’s gay, lesbian and bisexual communities in the seventies and early eighties is a very welcome addition.
The workers’ revolt in Amherst
Historian Nolan Reily chronicles how one hundred years ago workers in Amherst, Nova Scotia, —women and men, union and non-union—shutdown the town’s industries. Even the mechanics in the local garage went on strike. It was a community strike, just like the one that had started four days earlier in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
This May 1st is the 100th anniversary of the Halifax General Strike of 1919
May First, international working class day, also happens to be the 100th anniversary of the Halifax General Strike of 1919 against war profiteering and super-exploitation of the construction trades in the wake of the Halifax Explosion of 6 December 1917. Tony Seed looks at the circumstances that triggered this strike, and many others like it in Nova Scotia and all across Canada.