It's About Time: Performance and Panel

Join us in the gallery for an evening of performance and conversation presented as part of our current exhibition It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900–1970 and Now curated by Seika Boye.

Halifax/Kjipuktuk-based artists kay macdonald, I’thandi Munro, and Chris Cochrane (Elle Noir) will gather for a moderated discussion reflecting on Black performance as lineage and living practice. Together, they will explore how movement carries memory, how artists prepare to be seen, and how performance becomes a site of community, survival, and transformation.

The evening begins with a live activation by macdonald within their immersive installation in this room – at the beginning of the night/at the end of the world. Evoking backstage, altar, and dance floor, the installation frames “getting ready” as ritual, an act of self-fashioning, resistance, and collective care. Following the performance, macdonald will guide the conversation.

Rooted in activism, dance, drag, and interdisciplinary practice, this timely gathering invites audiences to engage in a shared reflection on Black performance and its ongoing presence in Mi’kma’ki.

About the Artists

kay macdonald (they/them) is an African Nova Scotian and Acadian queer and trans interdisciplinary artist, educator, and community facilitator based in Kjipuktuk. Their practice brings together movement, sound, and visual art to explore lineage, identity, and collective care, grounding performance as a space for connection, decolonial engagement, and cultural continuity.

I’thandi Munro is an award-winning performance and visual artist whose practice centres movement as a framework for memory, identity, and cultural continuity. Drawing from her African Nova Scotian, First Nations, Gaelic, and Swedish ancestry, she creates interdisciplinary works grounded in lineage and embodied knowledge.

Chris Cochrane (Elle Noir) is a Black trans activist, public speaker, and celebrated drag performer based in Halifax. A recipient of the YMCA Peace Medal and former Vice Chair of Halifax Pride, she advocates for equity and visibility for 2SLGBTQIA+ and QTBIPOC communities both on stage and beyond