Never Apart Equinox 2020 Festival Announced

This edition called Cultivate / Cultiver will take place September 26 2020 and will focus on cultivating culture and the roots that make humans creative by food, art and wellness thru workshops and conversations.

The one day event, hosted by Never Apart from Montreal, shifted from being an Electronic music event to a brand new format, is ONLINE and FREE and you should save your seat as soon as you can. The full program will be announced soon.

This is the official NVA statement:

“CULTIVATE — at the root of the word, we find its meaning in “tilling the land to grow crops.” To cultivate also carries notions of care, labour and tending to. Devoting one’s attention to something in order to see it grow. Cultivate shares kin with another word: culture. Culture is both a crop and way to speak of human creativity—food from the land and food for the soul. Land and art are thus deeply enmeshed through the practice of cultivating; this is what we explore in the 2020 edition of Equinox.

Known for its previous five editions as a one-day electronic music festival—this year’s context of confinement has us branching out, growing roots towards a different source of water: more conversation, more intimate performances and a pause before the autumn season to reflect and honor the harvest of the year, both physical and spiritual.“

Saturday, September 26, 2020 at 1 PM – 10 PM

ONLINE EVENT / FREE

Full lineup and schedule:

1 PM ► Ziibiwan
Live music set

Genre hopping from ambient experimental electronics to hip hop, trip hop, R&B, and more, Ziibiwan is an electronic musician/producer with a no-holds-barred approach to production. Beautiful and tension-filled soundscapes follow dense, calm, trap-inspired epics. Their ethereal sonics open into deeply hypnotic spaces where land, sky, and deep sea meet. Ziibiwan is Anishinaabe from Wiikwemkoong, based in Tkaronto (Toronto). FADER described the EP “Time Limits” as “… bright, curious, meditative electronic music, that’s a little reminiscent of Bonobo.” They’re currently working on their debut LP. Ziibiwan has also composed music for two short animations by Amanda Strong which premiered at TIFF.

For Equinox, Ziibiwan will be presenting a new live set with their own visuals.

2 PM ► Jade Konwataroni McComber
Performance, curated by Dayna Danger

“Kwe! My name is Jade Konwataroni McComber and I am Kanien’kehá:ka from the Mohawk territory of Kahnawà:ke. I generally identify as queer and use she/her pronouns. I studied in the First Peoples Studies program at Concordia University for 4 years before transferring to the University of New Brunswick where I am studying to become a registered Nurse. My studies and work have surrounded Indigenous food sovereignty and traditional means of seed saving, planting and harvesting our foods and medicines, as well as youth engagement with my work in Nunavik, Eeyou Istchee and my own community. Generally, I’m all about health and healing within Indigenous perspectives. I have not always been graceful in holding my Indigenous identity alongside my queer identity in the same space, but am learning that bringing all of myself to the table has allowed me to braid meaningful relationships with others, finding community and kin.”

Jade Konwataroni McComber will present a live streamed, site-specific performance exploring the theme of cultivation.

3 PM ► Les Jardins de Lakou: Afro-descendant culinary and agricultural traditions in Quebec.
Mini-documentary premiere (in French)

Jean-Philippe Vézina, a Quebecois vegetable grower of Haitian heritage, founder of Les Jardins de Lakou, has made it his mission for the past year to help Afro-descendants in Quebec to reconnect with their culinary and agricultural traditions through ecological agriculture. He grows vegetables such as ocra, sweet potato, malanga, chayote, Lalo (Callaloo) leaves, giraumon squash, Jamaican pickles, varieties of eggplant and hot peppers popular in Afro-Caribbean gastronomy among others, right here in Quebec. It is also accompanied by local Quebec products such as tomatoes, peppers, celery, cabbage, lettuce, onions, cucumbers, broccoli, fresh herbs, melons and berries.

Discover this project through a mini-documentary, premiered for Equinox 2020.

4 PM ► Cooking with Wet’suwet’en Chef Marlene Hale
Online Cooking Demonstration (in English)

Marlene Hale, widely known as Chef Maluh, is a Wet’suwet’en chef, educator and activist. She was born in Smithers, British Columbia, a town at the foot of the Hudson Bay Mountains. After graduating from the culinary program at Vancouver Community College, she worked in several professional kitchens and opened her own catering business, Chef Maluh’s Catering, specializing in West Coast First Nations Cuisine. Hale has worked with several First Nation’s organizations, for instance helping Indigenous people living with HIV/AIDS learn about accessible healthy food and getting back in touch with nature and their cultural heritage. Since 2012, Chef Maluh has been living near Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, where she also teaches Culture & Cuisine classes at schools, universities, art centers and festivals such as Native Montreal.

For Equinox, Chef Maluh presents an online cooking class where she shows you how to make Bannock bread, salmon on cedar, wild rice with cranberries and grilled vegetables, accompanied by Labrador Tea.

6 PM ► Adrian Stimson
Live Zoom Q&A (in English)

Adrian Stimson is a renowned interdisciplinary artist, member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation in southern Alberta. Stimson’s performance work investigates identity construction, specifically the hybridization of the Indian, the cowboy, the shaman, and Two Spirit being. His installation work primarily examines the residential school experience and speaks to genocide, loss and resilience. He was awarded the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), Blackfoot Visual Arts Award (2009), and the Governor General Award for Visual and Media Arts (2018). The British Museum recently acquired two of Stimson’s paintings for their North American Indigenous collection. He received his BFA from the Alberta College of Art + Design (now Alberta College of the Arts) and MFA from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.

For Equinox, Stimson will join a live talk on Zoom where he will discuss his recent move back to the land where he is growing food, raising chicken and beekeeping, and how it connects with his artistic practice and previous community work.

8 PM ► Ouri
DJ set online

Ouri is an electronic producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist. Her training in piano, harp and cello are what primarily influence her shape-shifting relationships with melody and bass. Her creative collaborations with artists such as Odile Myrtil, Munya, cRi and Mind Bath showcase the range of her sound, from deep bass, slow breaks to melancholic and rhythmic voyages. Ouri’s approach to DJing is lush and melodic, both atmospheric and bass-heavy. Her latest album “We Share Our Blood” was released on Ghostly International and Make It Rain records. Ouri has performed at many renowned musical events such as MUTEK, Pop Montreal, Piknic Électronik, Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp Montreal, Boiler Room and more.

RSVP on Eventbrite to get the updates and links:
https://equinox-2020.eventbrite.ca