Anyone in Halifax this weekend?

[Large Marge]

From a street-performing friend of mine in The New Kings:

Dear civic-minded artists, activists, musicians, performers, and cultural revolutionary types.

We've been invited to come to Halifax to be part of the Make Great Streets Conference at Dalhousie and were hoping to get into a little street action

ruckus while we're there. Does anybody in Halifax like to party? How about in the cold winter streets?

We are a group called Streets are for People! We are based out of Kensington Market in Toronto. What we do is find fun ways to take public space away from cars and give it back to the community. We worked with our neighbourhood to hold a festival called PS Kensington in which for seven Sundays of the year, the streets are closed to cars and open to people. Bands play, artists paint, dancers dance, and childrem run and laugh and play games, all in the space usually taken by pollution-belching automobiles.

We are working with a Halifax group called TRAX to bring the same type of thing to a neighbourhood there. But we need help to find the right area.

Here's what we’re thinking:

Where’s a neighbourhood that has a good sense of local community, maybe home to students and artists, a street lined with mom&pop shops instead of corporate chain stores?

As part of the conference we’ll go to that neighbourhood and consult with the residents and merchants, see if there’s any interest. We'll also do a presentation on these type of events at the conference. That’s all on Thursday Feb. 8.

Then on Friday Feb. 9 we’ll give them a little taste of what we’re talking about with a Parking-Meter Party. That’s where you come in. For a pocket full of change you can reclaim a 6’x12’ patch of concrete and do with it what you will: paint a picture, play music, play badminton, (there’s one idea to get three spots in a row and make a curling rink, another to build a car out of snow and plant a tree in the roof.) All you have to do is pay the meter and park a vehicle, ie. A bike or a trike or a skateboard, given that it’s winter, a toboggan should count too. It’s fun and it’s legal.

Oh and we can’t forget, the ReEvolution Day Arkestra. This is a giant street band. All musicians of all skill levels are invited out to join the band and turn the street into a dance hall. Please spread the word or help us contact drum bands, horn bands, school bands, indie bands, any and all are welcome.

We, there’s four of us coming, Kelsey, Shamez, Michael and Graham, we are arriving by train on Tuesday evening. We’re planning to meet any interested folks on Tuesday evening, after 9pm at a bar called the Economy Shoe Shop. Come have a beer and brain storm about the action/party.

Looking forward to some of that famous Halifax culture,

Michael Louis Johnson

Ps, How are the roads? We were thinking of bringing our bikes, but I understand there are lots of hills in Halifax. Does anybody have a bike-trailer or two we could borrow while in town.

MJ

For background info check out www.streetsareforpeople.org

www.pskensington.ca and www.myspace.com/reevolutiondayarkestra

contact. Michaelj@thenewkings.ca or phone Kelsey Carriere’s cell 416-841-8549

[livingstoned]

I've forwared it along to a bunch of friends in Hali hopefully it's not too short notice....

[NewRider]

Kat is in Halifax right now, she'll be there for three weeks.

[mister slippery]

cool.

way to go, Mikey J.