The Tideline - Halifax Examiner Tara Thorne

After two years and 95 episodes The Tideline is washing up but one last time. It's a bit of a format flip, featuring first guest and perennial mention Kat McCormack in the host chair, talking to Tara about the history of arts coverage in Halifax, the dire straits of the local music venue, the disconnection of the disciplines, and some fun stuff too! Thanks to the team at the Halifax Examiner and engineer/mixer Palmer Jamieson for a fine little podcast. And especially thanks to you for listening.

Halifax poet laureate Sue Goyette, an early-run Tideline guest, returns one last time to discuss her new book Monoculture, out in October. Neither poetry nor fiction, its hybrid form imagines a near future where Nova Scotia's last living forest has become a tourist attraction and explores our relationship to trees and the land through the website's comments section. It's ever evocative and poignant and at turns funny, enraged, and in awe of its surroundings. Sue speaks to its creation, her deep relationships to the elements, and the deplorable way they've been treated.

The debut feature of Halifax hyphenate Koumbie — known as an actor for the stage and screen, a writer, and a director — will have its world premiere at the Atlantic International Film Festival on September 22. Bystanders tells the story of a lifelong friend group rocked to its foundation by accusations of sexual misconduct against one of their own. He's their friend, brother, even ex-boyfriend — so now what? As Koumbie puts it, "What do you do when someone you love does something you hate?" A thoughtful conversation that digs into the grey areas of so-called cancel culture, how it is to be an actor directing actors, and what the filmmaker hopes you'll take away from the experience.

The multi-hyphenate Jackie Torrens — we're talking writer, director, actor, broadcaster, icon — stops by ahead of the Atlantic International Film Festival screening of her murder mystery doc Bernie Langille Wants To Know What Happened To Bernie Langille, which had its world premiere at Hot Docs this spring. Between the military, the time (50 years ago), intergenerational family trauma, and advances in science, Torrens has crafted an intriguing and emotional look into one man's search for answers. She speaks to all of this plus the innovation of using miniature sets to recreate the scenes of the day.

The Halifax-based poet and university professor Annick MacAskill has crafted a beautiful (and beautiful to touch thanks to Gaspereau Press) ode to a common but still stigmatized subject matter: pregnancy loss. Shadow Blight considers the pain of pregnancy loss through the classical myth of Niobe, whose grief for her dead children was so monumental she turned to stone. MacAskill speaks to the process of crafting and presenting such intimate, personal thoughts and the lack of popular culture on the subject, among other things. Plus a song from the new Klarka Weinwurm album.

The Halifax Fringe Festival is celebrating its first full in-person festival since 2019, which itself was cut short by hurricane Dorian. And that's not all—after seven festivals, executive director Lee-Anne Poole will head out the revolving door of Halifax arts org leaders and hand the reigns over to Sara Graham. Both are on the show this week to talk entrances and exits, why they do the work that they do, the festival's present and future, and all the details you need to attend. Plus a song from the new surprise Hello Delaware album.