Stories by Louise DeLisle, Wanda Robson, Vetty Thomas, David Woods
Edited and directed by David Woods
Four noted storytellers present African Nova Scotia tales taken from history (Birchtown Loyalists), family (Viola Desmond and family, Halifax; Fraser family, North Preston; Maxwell family, Marble Mountain, Cape Breton) and contemporary tales of Halifax (from Natal Day stories to even partying at the Derby Tavern in the 1980’s!). The emphasis is on humour but each tale will reveal important truths about Nova Scotia. In ‘The Iceman Cometh’ a story by Wanda Robson (the 89 year-old sister of Nova Scotia human rights icon Viola Desmond) set in the 1930’s, a delivery man in the habit of delivering ice to Black families on Gottingen only at the end of the day run when the ice was bad prompts Robson’s father to buy the first refrigerator in the community. In ‘Natal Day’ North Preston storyteller Vetty Thomas hilariously describes the hundred year old tradition of Blacks from Preston attending the annual Dartmouth birthday celebration en masse (every man, woman, senior and child!) and how the tradition came to an abrupt end when the popular route ending at Lake Banook was changed by City officials in the 1990’s. There are also stories from around the province like the story of the Marble Mountain Maxwell’s: twin brothers who worked on fishing schooners on the Grand Banks in the late 1800’s (one of whom appeared as the Gaelic-speaking cook in the famed Rudyard Kipling novel Captain’s Courageous).
The stories are true stories of events, personalities, and communities that are also declarations of pride and triumph in the often difficult racial climate of Nova Scotia…And they are as ‘Nova Scotian as the Bluenose’ declares David Woods- the show’s creator and one of its storytellers.
Performance History
- 2016 Atlantic Fringe Festival Sept 1-11, 2016
- ReFringed Festival (Best of 2016 Atlantic Fringe Festival) Sept 16-17, 2017
Awards/Achievements
2016 Atlantic Fringe Top Five of Festival Hit Award
