ARTS EAST

Nova Scotia singer/songwriter Izra Fitch has just released her latest single, The Hollywood Kids. Recently we spoke her about her passion for her profession. When and why did you start playing music? It really started when I was a teenager. I grew up as a fairly reserved and observant person, with a really dramatic way of thinking underneath. Maybe it was from watching movies or feeling like an underdog or being raised by artists. In any case, I felt things deeply. Those first teenage heartbreaks and initial bouts of mental illness tied in with hormones, paved the way for me to put it into noise. Writing songs - and singing them – became a real outlet for those feelings. Are they the same reasons you do it today?   Absolutely. Although where I used to compose solely for myself, I now love the opportunity to share songs with an audience that can relate to them. Each song comes from a very personal place, and I try to ensure that they can be felt universally. W...

For a poet and author, publishing a book is a major milestone. To publish 100 books is truly something else. Lesley Choyce recently hit that century mark with the publication of  Saltwater Chronicles , a memoir set by the sea. What are the major influences for your writing? It was surfing that brought me to Nova Scotia in 1978, where I settled into an old farmhouse at Lawrencetown Beach and started writing novels and poetry and soon started teaching at Dalhousie, making for the most perfect combination of activities. Everything about the sea has influenced my work. Even lessons from surfing are powerful in professional activities. When you wipe out, you stay deep until the wave passes over, then surface, regain your board and dignity and paddle back out to the line-up and try again. I’m originally from New Jersey, where I started surfing at 13. My move to Nova Scotia changed my life in many ways and, as soon as I settled here, I committed myself to becoming a better su...