www.tryhealingarts.ca H-ealing A-rts R-econciling P-eoples March 8, 2026 Happy International Women’s Day, Honourable Michelle Thompson & Honourable Tim Houston: I write on behalf of HARP The People’s Press (www.tryhealingarts.ca), Nova Scotia’s independent multi-media publishing house and shareholder-owned Community Interest Company, dedicated to the healing arts for health equity. After the huge rallies across Nova Scotia […]
by Maurice Switzer* In grade school I recall having to memorize poems by Duncan Campbell Scott, oblivious to the fact that the author was responsible for devising a network of residential schools that caused irrevocable damage to the lives of thousands of Indigenous kids like me. We were assigned to read the rhymes of venerated […]
by John Graham-Pole I’ve been reflecting on words I rarely heard during my fifty-plus years of medical practice. Words I was especially drawn to in later years, when making rounds, when writing chart notes, especially when listening and responding to my patients and their families. These are some of the words I’m thinking of: purpose, […]
By John Graham-Pole For more than three decades, the University of Florida’s Arts in Medicine program (AIM: artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org) has brought visual, literary, and performance artists into the hospital’s wards and clinics. Its mission has been simply to enrich the experience of patients and caregivers through countless forms of creative expression. When my nurse colleague […]
Dorothy Lander, co-founder of HARP Publishing: The People’s Press, was devastated to learn of the death of her long-time friend, Jeannie Mackay, on August 23, 2025. As a deeply passionate thespian and humanitarian her entire life, Jeannie Mackay personified the mission of HARP, dedicating her enormous talents and sharp wit to support the healing arts […]
Join us on August 26 for a festive book launch in Antigonish, NS, as we celebrate the power of creativity with poet, dancer, and educator Celeste Nazeli Snowber. Antigonish is about to welcome acclaimed poet, dancer, and educator Celeste Nazeli Snowber to the Highland Heart of Nova Scotia for a celebration, the launch of her […]
Art is an essential nutrient for human culture. Every society has used art to create a social glue, to express its faith and ideas, and to interpret the world.
Only rarely do we get to learn where our shadow falls. Here is one of those instances. Dr. John Graham-Pole, pioneer in bone marrow transplants for children and the arts-in-medicine movement, received this surprise email from a patient 38 years on…
On Jan. 11, 2025, Cathy Hassels Monning of Amsterdam, posted on LinkedIn Example2 of 25 in a series of powerful examples of arts and health to start the new year.Example 2 refers to the attending physician for a patient who has sickle cell disease,and to Jill Sonke, former artist-in-residence at University of Florida, Centre for […]
If children being treated for cancer can give themselves a boost of healing humour, then let’s all of us follow their example.
