BLACKOUT 2.0

BLACKOUT 2.0 is an interdisciplinary 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. Working from K'jipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia)—the unceded and ancestral homeland of the Mi’kmaq people—Erasure Art Collective (EAC) has special interest in documented evidence of persons of African descent being bought and sold locally during the 1700s and 1800s.

While Halifax was never a major slave trading port, fugitive slave advertisements appeared in local newspapers asking 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. These ads, which were written by slaveholders, often positioned persons of African descent as prey: hunted, hopeless, and weak. BLACKOUT 2.0, therefore, seeks to rework the slaveholder’s text to reveal new narratives honouring those who challenged one of history’s most rigid and inhumane systems, and championing their bold acts of resistance.

Inspired by their ancestors' journeys and struggle towards self-determination, EAC presents the art of erasure poetry in non-traditional art forms including painting (acrylic on paper) and film/video. The collective’s inaugural BLACKOUT installation was presented at Nocturne 2022 in a series of two live performance installations at Sackville Landing and Halifax Central Library. Since then, EAC has expanded their process- driven project to include visual art, performance, music and film. Join them at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia for an intimate presentation featuring art installation, short films, and live performance collaborations with African Nova Scotian musicians working in a range of musical genres.

Performance times 7:00pm, 8:00pm, and 9:00pm

Installation 6:00 pm - midnight

erasureart.com