A group of young singers are preparing to raise their voices for Butare. Rather than participate in the upcoming New Glasgow Music Festival, their mentor and voice teacher Sister Lillian Gaudet said she decided to provide her students with another opportunity to show their talents. “It is about young people lending their voices and providing a helping hand,” the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Martha members said. This year, [...]

Where some people my view a dense forest as mysterious and foreboding, Antigonish artist Abbey Allen sees comfort and adventure. “I kind of grew up in the middle of the woods,” Allen said, referring to land extending from her parents’ property off of the old Maryvale Road. “It’s what I’ve always seen… a lot of trees and nature.” Allen said she would often find a quiet spot in amongst the [...]

It’s a different dynamic these days when Dylan Guthro joins his dad, well known singer-songwriter Bruce, on-stage. Prior to this month, Dylan was the young guy, starting out to try and follow in his dad’s successful, musical footprints. Now though, with the release of his debut CD, All That’s True, earlier this month, Dylan joins his dad on-stage as a fellow recording artist. The two Guthros will play a show [...]

The build-up for Big Brothers Big Sisters major fundraiser, Bowl for Kids Sake, begins this Sunday (Feb. 26) with a kick-off breakfast event. The kick-off will be held in conjunction with an Antigonish Lions Club pancake breakfast. Crystal Gallant, from Big Brothers Big Sisters, hopes joining forces with a popular Antigonish tradition will introduce Bowl for Kids Sake to a new audience. “We always have a kick-off but this is [...]

History buffs will want to make plans to attend all or part of the annual Atlantic University Undergraduate History and Classics Conference 2012 coming to St. F.X. March 2 to 4. This is the sixth year for the conference which was previously held at Mount St. Vincent University. At the conference, students from across Atlantic Canada share their research and take part in friendly, scholarly debate with their peers. “We [...]

For Antigonish County-based singer-songwriter Kim Wempe, a cover of Willie Nelson’s famous song On the Road Again might be appropriate. Wempe, who will be playing a sold-out show at Justamere Café in Antigonish this Friday (Feb. 17), said she has done a “ton of touring” over the last year. “I played some amazing festivals last summer like the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival and the Larlee [...]

A large empty building sits on Victoria Street in Antigonish. Paint is flaking off the shingles and loose ragged pieces of plastic flaps from broken windows on its second floor. Though it still looks solid, its days are numbered. The building, once known as the “old gun shed” has played many roles in the town over the years. Built in 1897, it was owned by Leonard Kerry Archibald who used [...]

Instilling “confidence.” That is what Kerrin Duggan sees as the biggest benefit to a five-week computer course she has been conducting at the People’s Place Library. The course was originally put-together for seniors but Duggan, a Community Access Program (CAP) trainer with the Pictou Antigonish Regional Library (PARL) in Antigonish, noted it has become more of a basic computer skills course with a focus on internet applications. “It’s going really [...]

Wednesday (Feb. 15) is the day to wear purple. That’s the request from the Antigonish Interagency Committee on Family Violence as they recognize Family Violence Prevention Week which runs from Feb. 12 to 18. The Antigonish Interagency Committee on Family Violence includes members from local groups; the Naomi Society, Kids First, the Department of Community Services, Antigonish Women’s Resource Center, addiction services, family services, victim services and St. F.X.’s Human [...]

Awakening Souls continue to deliver music with a message to appreciative audiences. The African Nova Scotian youth choir, which is based in Upper Big Tracadie, formed in 2007 for what was supposed to be a one-time performance as part of Tracadie United Baptist Church’s 185th anniversary celebration. “Usually, the church would bring in a guest choir to perform at such a celebration. I made the suggestion that we use some [...]

Although it has been almost one year since she returned from Africa, part of Janelle MacKay has never come home. “I kind of feel like I have one foot in Rwanda and the rest here,” she said. Last March, she travelled to the other side of the world as a member of A Partnership in Caring, an Antigonish-based group of healthcare professionals that makes an annual visit to the country [...]

Like many university students, Kaitlin Knox has a part-time job. However, her work doesn’t involve flipping burgers, but flying to places such as Italy as a model. “I love it, but it is a lot of work. It pays well, which certainly makes it a great part-time job for a university student,” Knox said. The Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School graduate got her start in front of a [...]

A group of men have been spending Saturday mornings on a journey of self improvement. They are participating weekly in the internationally-known That Man is You! program at John Paul Centre in Antigonish. “It is amazing. I would recommend this to anybody, any man,” Peter Gosbee, one of the participants, said. That Man is You!, as the initiative outlines, is an interactive men’s program focussed on the development of men [...]

Haley MacDonald loves to sing – it’s that simple. Her most recent performance provided the St. F.X. fourth-year human kinetics student with national exposure. She sang O Canada to open Standardbred Canada’s annual O’Brien Awards, which recognizes the best in harness racing. “They call them the Oscars of harness racing. If you are nominated for an O’Brien you have really made it,” she said, describing the black-tie event as the [...]

It is safe to say few bands – if any – have gotten their start at St. F.X.’s Mount Saint Bernard. Nevertheless, an up-and-coming sextet can make that claim. The Fourth Well got its start – and band name –from their early days playing together at the university residence. “We started jamming and decided to put the band together,” Ryan Levangie said. After playing together over the past few years [...]

As director Genevieve Steele acknowledges, it’s no coincidence that Theatre Antigonish artistic director Ed Thomason scheduled I Love You, You’re Perfect… Now Change! for mid-February. The musical, noted as the second longest running off-Broadway musical with more than 5,000 performances, is the perfect complement to Valentine’s Day with its central them of love and relationships. The play’s tag line is “everything you have ever secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, [...]

Friday, the community room at the People’s Place Library was overflowing with dignitaries and supporters recognizing Family Literacy Day. The event was scheduled for Jan. 27 but was postponed due to weather conditions. The delay did little to dampen the celebration of literacy which started out with traditional Mi’kmaw drumming from Paqtnkek First Nation’s Kiju’s Boyz. The music was followed by greetings from Town of Antigonish Deputy Mayor Diane Roberts, [...]

The Awakening Souls and their up-lifting message have been recognized with an East Coast Music Award (ECMA) nomination. The African Nova Scotian youth choir, whose mission is “to provide a Christian and healthy environment for young people to sing and praise the Lord,” is just one of the many nominees from the Strait region for the 2012 ECMAs, which will be handed out April 15 in Moncton, New Brunswick. “I [...]

It doesn’t take long to realize that Mary Beth Carty loves what she does. Whether she is penning songs, singing or playing one of her up to 10 instruments, the Lanark, Antigonish County native has gained a reputation for entertaining her audiences with each performance. “I think I came out of the womb singing. I started as soon as I could talk,” she laughed while closing a book of song [...]

It may not have resulted in a big investment, but former St. F.X. students A.J. MacQuarrie and Christina Wilson said they were very happy to have gone through the Dragons’ Den experience. The two expressed the sentiment as they chatted, via Skype, with students and professors who gathered at a Schwartz School of Business classroom for the Jan. 18 broadcast of the popular CBC program. The actually taping of the [...]