 |
magazine / ja09
 |
July/August 2009 issue |
|
|
|
FEATURE
Iqaluit arts
Iqaluit in the groove
As summer dawns, performers from around the world descend on Nunavut’s capital for an eclectic celebration
of the arts
By Dave Bidini with photography by Patrice Halley
The airport in Iqaluit looks like a giant yellow
Lego castle. Locals call it the “butterscotch palace,” sitting, as
it does, on the grey-brown tundra. The day I fly in, the
castle is busy with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians leaving
on a month’s furlough from working in northern mines,
a wayward Korean film crew and Inuit men and women.
Mexican circus performers have arrived for the fourth annual
Alianait Arts Festival, an 11-day celebration of art, music, film,
storytelling and theatre. I am here to perform at the festival
too, but I feel as if I’ve wandered into a Tom Waits video shoot.
This is my first time in Iqaluit. The city sits at the edge
of Koojesee Inlet, on Frobisher Bay (Iqaluit’s old Anglo
name), where innumerable ice floes float in the water like
crackers in a bowl of soup. Iqaluit itself looks as if God had
scattered Monopoly pieces over the land, then headed to
more sensible places. A few new buildings — the pastel
blue hospital, shaped like a monstrous pillow mint, and
the windowless Nakasuk School — lord over modest row
houses and weathered buildings. Still, it is the open waters
of the bay and the great hill that rises above downtown that
characterize Iqaluit’s geography.
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
|
|
|
