No industrial music festival existed in Montreal for a decade until AMP launched one last year. In a city with such an alternative, rebellious streak as Montreal, this absence strikes as strange. After all, there was once an era where Montreal was one of North America’s capital for the industrial music scene.

The photography exhibit was curated by Maggie Rossy-Aulman, bringing together the work of Simon Suparatana Blitzer and Maxwell Lincoln Neubacher, whose works contrasted in form and style, but met at the intersection of themes like belonging, coming of age, and identity formation in unfamiliar spaces.

As I approached the group, I noticed a Tiny Desk-esque environment fashioned together on a bed of grass: a large, green armchair sat surrounded by two guitars, some decorative lamps, and a microphone. A group of seven or eight people lounged around it, chatting amongst each other.

How is identity created in an era of deep isolation and overwhelming individuality? How much of us is left behind in the snippets of memory of the places we used to inhabit, and the people we’ve shared our lives with?

On September 10th, I attended the opening of Between Two Seas: a collaborative exhibition presented by the New York-based Rukh Art Hub, a women-run creative initiative, and Galerie Angelina. Located at the heart of Old Montreal, Galerie Angelina sits between a boat-tour agency and a dentist's office,…

On August 13th, I climbed into the Bootlegger Magazine x Earth Tones finissage through a darkened, irregular flight of stairs. I nearly missed the entrance when walking past, positioned between an Indian restaurant and a deserted storefront. There hid the side door to ESC, a warehouse-like maze of a venue…

The opening of a new theatre venue, ANY new venue in Montreal, is cause for celebration. It's fitting, then, that Teesri Duniya Theatre has chosen to inaugurate their new space with a festival of three powerful pieces.

The world was awakening from the First World War and searching for hope in progress. Yet, for Black people, everyday life was defined by discrimination and restricted rights. Against this backdrop, jazz was transforming Montreal’s music scene, introducing new sounds and new names to the city.

It’s a cool evening on the patio of Le Billy, and murmurs ripple through the crowd as they await the band’s entrance. The audience is a mix of fans, some wearing their Hot Girls Listen to Museums merch, and some coming out to see the band for the first time.

Located at 87 Sainte-Catherine East, Foufs has been home to Montreal's alternative community for more than forty years. Punk, metal, goth, rock, new wave: basically all the loud music our parents hated has passed through its doors.

There are plenty of shows currently running, but if you’re looking for truly high-calibre, professional quality theatre this weekend in Montreal, your best choice is Sweeney Todd at the Centaur.

Amélie is a 2001 French film that follows the titular character as she learns how to break out of her shell after a very isolating childhood, including losing her mother at a very young age. Over the years, the film has gained a cult following…

469 Milton Street: A two-storey brick building painted an unforgettable greyish blue. Stacks of books line the outside sill of the huge, streetlevel window. Behind the two dusty panes of the upstairs windows, books pile on top of each other to see me better as I look up at them.

Recently, I attended the second night of Moment Theatre Collective’s Stage Fright, a festival of one-scene plays. I spent the night on the edge of my fucking seat, both to get a better sight line, and because what I saw on stage gave me such an itch.

On Tuesday night on St. Denis, a little crowd lounged on the terrace, guitars unfurled, half talking and half focusing. Passersby stared or kept moving; Open Haüs, open mic, at Turbo Haüs, is hardly the strangest sight on the street.

Although you can find hundreds of Montrealers lounging at the city’s many parks on any given summer day, the Lesbo-Queer Picnic is specifically geared towards facilitating a low-pressure environment to chat, meet fellow community members, and simply hang out.

This summer, Repercussion Theatre is back for their annual Shakespeare-in-the-Park tour with performances of the Bard’s The Winter’s Tale.

It’s around 8am on a Saturday and I’m sitting at my kitchen table, eating a quick breakfast. I open my phone and sift through saved songs, artists, and albums until I find what I’m looking for. I press play. Twelve songs and forty-two minutes later, I’m still sitting there, unable to press pause on Julie Neff’s debut album, fine.

This week is Fantasia International Film Festival’s 30th birthday, and they’re kicking off this year’s 18-day blowout celebration with the opening of Her Private Hell. Founded in 1996, and running for 30 consecutive years, Fantasia has become a celebrated festival, a centre of genre filmmaking, and a breeding ground for successful World Premieres.

The sentence “I’m going to a spelling bee this weekend” is one that can usually only be met with looks of confusion and/or concern if you’re a grown adult, but if you’re in Montreal, chances are that the other person will say, “Oh, I know someone who’ll be spelling there!”