PHOTO CREDIT: Mayur Kakreli
JUNE 7
SPECIAL EVENT THEATRE | POETRY
BLACKOUT
ERASURE ART COLLECTIVE
BLACKOUT is an interdisciplinary art project that recreates historical slave ads using ‘erasure’ or ‘blackout’—a form of poetry created by erasing words from an existing text to create a visual poem. The project uncovers messages in ads that appeared in local newspapers during slavery—a legal practice of buying and selling human beings that saw millions of Africans and people of African descent enslaved over hundreds of years. While Halifax was never a major slave trading port, fugitive slave advertisements appeared in local newspapers asking for the sale of “Several Negroe Slaves” (Halifax Gazette, 1752), and for the return of “a Negroe Girl named Thursday” (Nova Scotia Gazette, 1772) and “a Negro Boy Slave Named Dick” (Royal Gazette, 1790) among others. BLACKOUT reworks slaveholder’s texts to reveal new narratives honouring those who challenged one of history’s most inhumane systems, and championing their bold acts of resistance.

Presenting the art of erasure poetry in non-traditional form, this presentation of BLACKOUT combines poetry with visual art and live performance.
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Friday, June 7 @ 6:00pm*
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RUNTIME: 30 minutes
AUDIENCE NOTE: Mature content
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*NOTE: This event is only open to Passholders.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mayur Kakreli
ERASURE ART COLLECTIVE
Nova Scotia / Mi'kma'ki
Erasure Art Collective is an interdisciplinary arts group committed to researching and reinterpreting archival texts using visual, poetic, and performative erasure. Since forming the collective in 2022, co-founders Shauntay Grant and Tyshan Wright have taken their inaugural BLACKOUT project to various events including Nocturne Halifax, the Arts Atlantic Symposium, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia's Creative Minds series, and the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference. Shauntay Grant is a poet, playwright, children’s author and multidisciplinary artist with roots in Nova Scotia’s historic Black communities. She edited the From The Ashes: Six Solo Plays (Playwrights Canada Press, 2023) and has written several works for theatre most recently the TYA play Colonial Park which toured with Neptune Theatre's Tour Co. in 2023.Regarded as a ‘Keeper of the Heritage’ of the Jamaican Maroons (Jamaican Gleaner), Tyshan Wright has been shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, and an Artist-In-Residence Fellow at Slavery North. His work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Canada and the Nova Scotia Art Bank, and exhibited at galleries and museums including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Confederation Centre for the Arts.
CREDITS
Shauntay Grant
Tyshan Wright
FESTIVAL FUNDERS
FESTIVAL SUPPORTERS
