What is your relationship with rest? Our personal experiences with burnout led us to global rest movements and the anti-capitalist rest manifesto of “Nap Bishop” Tricia Hersey. What changes when we recognize exhaustion as a collective issue rather than a personal one? In this three-hour workshop, we invite participants into a guided, communal resting space. Through gentle, unstructured opportunities to listen, write, draw, move, and make sound—or simply rest—the artists will guide participants to reflect on these questions, emphasizing the role of rest as a natural and necessary balance to labour.
Participants will be invited to share their ideas and experiences with the artists following the workshop session. Cushions and blankets will be available and you are welcome to bring your own comfort items to use during the workshop.
Age:
Workshop geared for adults and mature youth. No arts experience required.
Accessibility:
Please indicate accessibility needs in the registration form by Monday, April 29th.
Note:
We will try to accommodate accessibility requests, however we cannot guarantee as all requests can be met. We will email you if we cannot fulfill your request.
Childcare:
On site childcare available upon request, please fill out child care info in the registration form above and submit by Monday, April 29th.
About Becoming Old Growth:
Becoming Old Growth is a multidisciplinary, participatory trio that uses sound, listening, movement and poetry to encourage a deeper inhabitation of place, awakening our selves and senses to the future already enfolded within past and present. BOG’s kinetic name, inspired by a provocative article by Dan Longboat and Joe Sheridan, reflects our shared desires to learn, evolve, and deepen our understandings, as non-Indigenous residents of Mi’kma’ki, of “the relationship between where one is and what one thinks”. In their article, Longboat and Sheridan write that “Old growth minds…build an ecology of mind that stands in the middle of the temporal arc to see future and past synchronically in equal bending horizons.” Contemplating the rhythms and cycles of the living earth through our work, the histories of this place and its possible futures, we take the first steps along a path to Becoming Old Growth—shifting away from disconnection and placelessness towards “recovering the necessary relationship between healthy ecologies of land and human minds.”
2203 Gottingen Street Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 3B5
Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax
May 1st is marked throughout the world as International Workers’ Day, or May Day. A day when the workers of the world take to the streets (when not facing a pandemic) in every major city around the globe demanding justice, fairness and dignity for all. In North America, May Day has not been as prominent as it is in other parts of the world, but it is still celebrated in most major cities with a variety of political and community actions. However, May Day isn’t simply a celebration of labour. It is a rallying call against our current economic system, a public declaration that “Capitalism Isn’t Working For Workers,” and an affirmation that a better world is possible.
One of the ways various labour councils and unions mark May Day is through the Mayworks Festival. Mayworks was originally conceived in 1986 by the Toronto and York District Labour Council and the idea has since spread to many cities across the country. The goal behind Mayworks is to bring workers and artists together and to use art to explore themes of justice, solidarity and liberation. Art has always been an important way of expressing political statements and Mayworks continues a long tradition of building bonds of solidarity between artists and labour organizations.
The first annual Mayworks Halifax festival took place in 2009 thanks to the organizing efforts of the Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council. Our festival has since grown exponentially from year to year and has now become Nova Scotia’s largest social justice-themed cultural event. Annually, our festival attracts over a thousand diverse audience members who take interest in issues of social, economic and environmental justice.
Add To Calendar
Share 
