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Prismatic Arts Festival

Founding
This cultural arts festival, which takes place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was created in 2008 by regional theatre managers Shahin Sayadi and Maggie Stewart because they recognized the lack of space available for culturally marginalized artists. The Prismatic Arts Festival, according to its founders ten years later in 2018, has helped set the stage for “Indigenous and culturally diverse artists in the region and across Canada with performance and professionalizing opportunities.”

Evolution
Over time, the Prismatic Festival has developed entrepreneurial programs such as the “Level Up” initiative, which “commissions Indigenous and culturally diverse artists and arts organizations to create new works or expand existing ones.” Prismatic has also fostered open forums such as “The Talk” which are meant to give space for diverse artists to talk about their work with each other and share their thoughts with community members. In 2023, Prismatic partnered with the Arrivals Legacy Project (ALP) so that BIPOC artists could have more opportunities to network as well as engage in creative storytelling informed by ancestral teachings with the aid of digital technologies provided by ALP.

Events and Programming
The festival features a diverse range of events, including:

Performing Arts: Dance, theatre, music, and other live performances that reflect the cultural richness of participating artists like Mali Obomsawin.

Visual Arts: Exhibitions, installations, and screenings that showcase the visual creativity of artists, exploring themes related to identity, culture, and societal issues.

Workshops and Panels: Educational and interactive sessions that encourage dialogue and learning among artists and audiences.

Impact
The Festival has had a significant impact on the cultural landscape, contributing to the recognition and appreciation of diverse artistic voices. It has also served as a catalyst for collaboration among artists and organizations committed to promoting inclusivity in the arts.

Challenges and Obstacles
The Prismatic Festival has faced several challenges, both during its initial foundation as well as after it had already been an established event. Initially, the Festival had trouble distinguishing itself from other multicultural festivals held around Halifax. Prismatic had attempted to highlight the professional nature of their artists to frame them within dominant frameworks of professionalism and success.

Onelight Theatre, the company behind Prismatic, also struggled with getting funding during the initial years. The Canadian theatre establishment has had a history of centering European performers due to funding being provided to artists whose work had already been presented frequently, and who had already received funding in the past.

Prismatic decided to move from Halifax to the Dartmouth’s Alderney Landing in 2013. While the move resulted in the Festival’s largest turnout ever in 2014, it also came with a few setbacks. The cost to have the Festival at Alderney was high. The move from a multi avenue event to a single avenue one also resulted in the Festival turning into more of a music festival, which resulted in the Festival having to re-examine their diversity mandate to sell more tickets.

The Festival has had to renegotiate their diversity mandate a few times over its lifetime. There was an absence of Indigenous artists from their first Festival. In 2016, the diversity mandate was once again modified to feature only Indigenous and culturally diverse women, after founder Maggie Stewart felt the 2014 and 2015 editions were dominated by men.

Theatre companies and the arts sector across the province faced a lot of difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic. Neptune Theatre lost around $1.7 million in the first three months of the pandemic, and a rural Nova Scotian theatre named Two Planks and a Passion saw a 93% decrease in revenue in 2020. Onelight Theatre and Prismatic faced similar challenges. The Festival was forced to postpone two productions they had planned with Neptune and resort to an abbreviated, online version of the Festival in 2020. They were able to expand their line up in 2021 but still had to implement a hybrid model with many virtual performances.

Recent Changes
After moving to Alderney Landing in 2013, Prismatic moved back to Halifax and their original multi venue format in 2016.

In 2019, Prismatic went out of province for the first time, having their Festival both in Halifax and in Ottawa.

At the end of 2022, the founder and executive director of Prismatic Shahin Sayadi departed from his position. Sayadi reflected on the Festival’s success and credited it to staying authentic and listening to the artists they worked with.

Some Notable Artists and Productions
Over the years, the Prismatic Arts Festival has hosted numerous notable performances and exhibits, contributing to its reputation as a hub for innovative and thought-provoking artistic experiences. Some of the standout artists include: Syreeta Hector and Lux Gow-Habrich; artworks include: Pawâkan Macbeth and The Mush Hole among others.

"Prismatic Arts Festival"/"Syreeta Hector"

Syreeta Hector

A Canadian dance performer and instructor with African and Indigenous heritage Syreeta Hector has been a part of dance workshop programs such as the Creators in Residence Program at Canadian Stage, the Creative Encounters Residency Program at ProArteDanza as well as the Artist in Residence Program taking place at Luminato. Syreeta has also been called upon as a dance clinician by the dance companies Mocean Dance in Nova Scotia and ProArteDanza in Ontario. She has just performed at the 2023 Prismatic Arts Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia and is currently based in Toronto, Ontario.

Early Life
Syreeta was born and raised in Quispamsis, which is a suburb of Saint-John in the province of New Brunswick. Syreeta began with dance at 6 years old and attended her first dance-a-thon in a rural New Brunswick community. However, she had experiences with racism there being the only black kid to attend.

Dance Education
Syreeta began to start taking dance seriously when she attended a North Carolina High School where dance classes were an option. It is there that she was encouraged to pursue dancing by an African American dance instructor called Ms. Alicia Long Allen. Syreeta fondly recalls Ms. Allen telling her: “Syreeta, I think there might be something for you in this art form.” It is likely that this inspirational teacher is who motivated Syreeta to become a professional dancer.

Syreeta furthered her training in dance through Canada’s National Ballet School Teacher Training Program, and also has obtained a Master of Arts degree specializing in Dance at York University, in Ontario, Canada.

Signature Artistic Work
Syreeta has also begun creating a set of dance pieces called Black Ballerina. The first of these was commissioned at the SummerWorks Festival in 2019, and although only a shortened version of the piece was performed, it still garnered the Stratford Festival Lab Award for Research and Creation.

Black Ballerina, in the words of Syreeta: “expresses the wonderfully fractured nature of my identity. I love the dynamic aspects of classical ballet-the rigour that’s required to carry out a rapid jumping sequence, the meditative stability it takes to stand on one leg gracefully.”

Political Vision
Syreeta has been outspoken about the lack of progress towards racial equality in Canada. She argues that the things corporate businesses and other major organizations have done in the name of diversity is insufficient. Instead she proposes sustainable measures taken in order to truly advance the cause of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) so that it becomes more normalized over time. "Syreeta Hector"/"Lux Gow-Habrich"

Lux Gow-Habrich

Profile
Lux Gow-Habrich (she/they) is a multidisciplinary visual artist of mixed Chinese and European heritage. She also works as an arts facilitator and a support worker in Halifax. She is drawn to the power of unearthing buried intergenerational trauma and resilience by using tactile craft and installation processes.

Early Life and Education
Gow-Habrich is originally from Montréal, Quebec but moved to Atlantic Canada in 2012. She completed an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Artistic Influence
Gow-Habrich has always been interested in accessing and promoting ancestral knowledge through craftwork. Her work centres the diasporic feelings of belonging and taps into feelings of untold stories and unspoken legacies. Themes of temporality, gender subversions, concepts of home and family all also play a big role in her work.

Notable Works
08/2023 Queen Mothers of Eastern and Western Skies, The Bus Stop Theatre Lobby Gallery (Halifax, NS)

09/2020 Resistance and Resilience, Warren G. Flowers Gallery (Montréal, QC)

01/2020 Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure. Gallery 1C03 (Winnipeg, MB)

10/2019 Many things at once, Alberta Craft Gallery (Edmonton, AB)

"Lux Gow-Habrich"/"Pawâkan Macbeth"

Pawâkan Macbeth

Backstory
Pawâkan [means “dream spirit” in Cree] Macbeth, an inventive work by Indigenous playwright Reneltta Arluk, offers a unique reinterpretation of Shakespeare's most somber piece, integrating Cree historical narratives, myths, and the cosmological viewpoint. It is situated in the Plains Cree territory of the 1870s, prior to the establishment of First Nations reserves, capturing a period of strife between various First Nations and the Canadian Government, contending for control over land, resources, and trade. These challenging circumstances fostered widespread fear, starvation, and a sense of unpredictability, paving the way for the emergence of the most ominous of Cree spirits, the Wihtiko, a malevolent force driven by a ravenous appetite for human flesh.

Synopsis
Drawing inspiration from oral traditions shared by Indigenous Elders of Frog Lake First Nation, Arluk has skillfully crafted a vivid rendition of Macbeth—a synthesis of Shakespearean language, contemporary English, and Plains Cree. Set against a backdrop of historical conflicts involving the Cree, Nakoda, and Blackfoot, Macikosisân (Macbeth), a respected Okihcitâw (Warrior), succumbs to the influence of the cannibalistic spirit Wihtiko. Collaborating with Kâwanihot Iskwew (Lady Macbeth), he hatches a plot to assassinate their Chief, Okimâw Wîpâstim (Duncan). Pawâkan Macbeth takes audiences on an unsettling journey through themes of love, greed, honor, and betrayal, featuring trickster entities that blur the boundaries between truth and deception.

Connection to Akpik Theatre
Pawâkan Macbeth was first performed at the Akpik Theatre in Northwest Territories (N.W.T.), that Arluk herself founded in 2008 and the play features an entirely Indigenous cast. Akpik Theatre finds its muse in the enduring cloudberry, flourishing amidst the northern landscape. This creative hub specializes in breathing life into circumpolar tales, whether traditional or contemporary, crafting them into dynamic theatrical spectacles. With a dedicated focus on nurturing Indigenous narratives, the theatre fosters their growth within northern communities and tailors them for captivating live performances. Akpik Theatre not only presents professional scripts from northern and Indigenous origins to audiences at local, national, and international platforms but also actively collaborates with actors and theatre experts hailing from across Canada. Whether in live shows, audio renditions, or film adaptation s, their productions consistently radiate these distinct and compelling qualities.

The play Pawâkan Macbeth was co-presented with Neptune Theatre at the Prismatic Arts Festival in Halifax in 2023.

Reneltta Arluk
In addition to being an Indigenous playwright and the founder of Akpik Theatre, a lot of her work is around fostering and advocating for Indigenous histories and cultures. For example, another role of Arluk is that she is a senior manager for the National Gallery of Canada’s Indigenous Ways and Decolonization unit.

"Pawâkan Macbeth"/"The Mush Hole"

The Mush Hole

Created by Santee Smith, The Mush Hole is a live-stage production that includes a heavy emphasis on dance. Its material is derived from the testimony of survivors of the Mohawk Institute, one of the most infamous Residential Schools in Canada. It evolved out of the 2016 Mush Hole Project at the University of Waterloo which consisted of prototype performances with support from the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario.

Setting
This dance-themed theatre work takes place during the height of Canada’s Residential School System in the mid-20th century and as such, it evokes the climate of state-sanctioned anti-Indigenous racism of the time.

Synopsis
The Mush Hole opens with a chilling quote from John A. MacDonald, the former Canadian Prime Minister who advocated for the Residential School System (RSS).

Throughout the production, the cast of performers move through different parts of the stage, which resembles various parts of the Mohawk Institute. This includes the Boys Playroom (known as a grim basement), a cramped Cubby Hole located under the stairs (known as an isolation room), a Boiler Room that is known for being noisy and muffling the cries of Survivors, the Laundry Room where girls would work until the point of exhaustion, and the Visitation Room where parents would come visit their children and give them presents that staff would steal from the children afterwards.

Stage Design
The on-stage set consists of parts of the original building materials from the Mohawk Institute in addition to blown-up historical photographs of the Institute as well as digital reproductions of different pieces of it. A group of apple trees is also featured in the background, which the Survivors were forbidden from eating.

Calls to Action addressed
This production responds to the following Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) commitments: Call #46 (ie: Covenant of Reconciliation), Calls #62 & 63 (ie: Education & Reconciliation), and Call #92 (ie: Canadian Newcomers sharing stories of Canada’s actual history involving injustices such as the RSS).

Performance at Prismatic
The Mush Hole was premiered at the 2018 Prismatic Arts Festival in the Spatz Theatre. At Prismatic, the cast, which was entirely Indigenous, gave a very moving performance re-enacting the experiences of the survivors of the Mohawk Institute. In fact, it was considered the highlight of the 2018 Festival, given the theme of this production.