Akụkọ Ifo: Moonlight and Snowfalls – The Stories We Carry: Mama’s Halloween

Akụkọ Ifo: Moonlight and Snowfalls – The Stories We Carry
​A new Igbo storytelling theatre series from the Ndi Igbo Cultural Association of Nova Scotia

​Where Igbo moonlight folktale tradition meets Nova Scotia snowfalls, and where memory, migration, and family become a celebration of who we are and who we are becoming together. ​Akụkọ Ifo: Moonlight and Snowfalls is an inaugural NICANS theatre project celebrating Igbo memory, migration, family, and storytelling in Nova Scotia. Come witness a story that belongs to all of us!

​Akụkọ Ifo (pronounced ah-KOO-koh EE-foh) is the Igbo phrase for the moonlight folktale tradition: the stories told under lantern light in the evenings, the way an entire people passed down what mattered. ​Moonlight and Snowfalls moves between southeastern Nigeria and Nova Scotia. The Stories We Carry names what every immigrant knows: our stories travel with us, and they find new homes when they meet new audiences.

​Join us for the inaugural production on Sunday, July 26, entitled Mama’s Halloween: An Igbo Grandmother Discovers Nova Scotia.

​Mama Adaeze has crossed an ocean to visit her grandchildren in Halifax. It is late October. Costumed children are knocking on doors, jack-o-lanterns are glowing, and her granddaughter is dressed as a butterfly. Mama has never seen anything like this, or has she?

​As the evening unfolds, Mama begins to recognize something familiar in the masks, the lantern light, the gathering of neighbours, the welcoming of strangers at the door. It is Mmanwu under a snow-grey sky. It is the same human heart.

​By the end of the night, two worlds have found each other, and both are richer for it.

Guests will experience:

• ​A warm welcome into a world where two cultures recognize each other.
• An original theatre production running approximately 50 minutes, family-friendly and performed in English with selected Igbo phrases and songs.
• ​A shared experience for Igbo Nova Scotians, newcomer families, settled Nova Scotian communities, and anyone who has ever carried a story across a distance.
• ​An evening celebrating Igbo memory, migration, family, and storytelling in Nova Scotia.

​This evening also features the Youth Cultural Showcase, presented through The Amara Project — a celebration of Igbo youth voices, creativity, and cultural expression. The showcase is part of the community’s broader preparations for the IRI-JI Festival, bringing together young artists and performers as they contribute to the living tradition of Igbo storytelling and heritage in Nova Scotia.

Event details

• ​Date: Sunday, July 26, 2026
• ​Time: 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM (doors open at 5:00 PM, show begins at 6:00 PM)
• ​Venue: Potter Family Auditorium, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, 6100 University Ave, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2
• RSVP/tickets: https://luma.com/z1nbl2p7

Presented by the Ndi Igbo Cultural Association of Nova Scotia (NICANS).