The Halifax festival says the incident involved a white volunteer photographer and several white audience members who reacted negatively when Pimienta invited “brown girls to the front” during her Oct. 19 show. While Dudka doesn’t offer much detail in his post, festival spokesman Trevor Murphy confirmed Allie O’Manique’s account of what transpired. O’Manique says the problems started when the volunteer female photographer refused to step away from her spot near the front. Julia-Simone Rutgers, one of the Halifax women invited by Pimienta to shift closer to the stage, says she was surprised by the photographer’s refusal to move. The clash was emblematic of the opinion that prioritizing people of colour — particularly women — is “reverse racist,” says Rutgers.

Source: National Post October 27, 2017 14:37 UTC