A nine-day festival celebrating Indigenous artists and artists of colour is set to kick off in Halifax this Saturday. Prismatic Arts Festival features a lineup of theatre, dance, and music performances as well as visual art displays. The festival’s artistic and executive director Raeesa Lalani refers to it as a boutique-style festival, with multiple venues around Halifax for attendees to experience. “One of the things that we always say to audiences is you probably won’t know who these artists are, which is a shame because they’re incredible, professional, they’re some of the best in their craft,” she explains. At its core, Lalani says this is what Prismatic has been bringing to the community since 2008. “We bring new artists and voices to audiences here, asking that they trust us and come and step out of their comfort zone to see shows that they may not have necessarily thought they’d go see,” she says. This year, the Scotiabank Studio Stage at Neptune is set to hold a performance of the theatre production “Women of the Fur Trade,” a historical satire sharing three women’s journeys on life, love, and Louis Riel. African Nova Scotian Walter Borden will present a one-person show called “Metamorphoses,” and Dalhousie and NSCAD are set to host art gallery displays for the Prismatic festival. A dance performance called “Paratopias” from the company Pratibha Arts will combine Kathak and Tabla rhythmic language, and traditional Indian dance known as Bharathanatyam. Internationally acclaimed artist Bageshree Vaze will lead the performance. She explains it centres on her life growing up in St. John’s, N.L., and how she started to learn the dance there. “You learn about your culture through the dance, even the language,” she says. “This piece is really about how people create their own spaces of this alternate reality that they imagine for themselves, because, during the week we’d navigate this white world. We were always really aware that we had to keep our Indian identity or our Indian persona separate at that time.” Her parents moved to Newfoundland in the 70s, she says the story represents Canadian culture and artistry. “It’s easy to be dismissed in white culture but at the same time, we had our own space. So, that’s what Paratopia is. You have to create your own reality of empowerment,” says Vaze. She credits the dancers and musicians that will be coming with her from Toronto for the performance, including her husband and his brother who grew up in Truro, N.S. They are set to perform on Oct. 2 and 3 at the Dalhousie Arts Centre. “We prioritize solely programming Indigenous artists and artists of colour, so we really try to make space for marginalized and racialized voices that have traditionally been underrepresented on main stages around the city,” Lalani says of the festival. Prismatic began 18 years ago after its founder Shahin Sayadi immigrated from Iran to study performance at Dalhousie. At the time of his graduation, Lalani explains “it was very apparent that there was no room for him in the arts sector here, no opportunities.” She says it was important for Sayadi to create a profession in the arts and when he realized how many other artists were in similar positions he began the festival. “The fact of the matter is, we still have to carve out that intentional space for these but, you know, the hope is in the future for them to be presented and represented in mainstream cannon,” Lalani says. Prismatic is set to run until Oct. 4. More information about the festival lineup and tickets are available on its website. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
