Survivor: A song cycle based on the poetry of Tona Mills

SURVIVOR
a song cycle based on the poetry of Tona Mills
Thursday, October 29th – 7:30pm
BUS STOP THEATRE
2203 Gottingen St.  Kjipuktuk / Halifax
“I spent years in a tiny cell / my captors never knew me well…” (From “The Scar” by Tona Mills)

In 1994, Tona Mills was sentenced to four years in prison for discharging a firearm during a time of psychological distress. She was 19. This was the first in successive sentences she survived in prison until 2003, six years of which she spent in solitary confinement.
“Sometimes when you’re in there you feel so desperate. And my anger would be building up and my anger would be building up and so then when they let me out of my cell I’d assault someone…and the snowball kept rolling and rolling and rolling and the four year sentence turned into 10 years…”” Tona was diagnosed with isolation induced schizophrenia after her release and was then held in forensic psychiatric detention for another 15 years.
Knowing too well that so many people experienced the terror of isolation, Tona dedicated energy toward the freedom of others by working with Senator Kim Pate to abolish solitary confinement – Tona’s Law, a step in this direction, passed its third reading in Senate this year.

Tona also wrote poetry. Before her passing in February 2026, she began collaborating with songwriter, Simone Schmidt, to relay her distinct experience in song. Join East Coast Prison Justice Society for a live musical performance of the resulting song cycle, Survivor.
Performed by Simone Schmidt, Nathan Doucet, Jeremy Costello and Rachel Kimmelman.

Entry is PWYC. All proceeds go to East Coast Prison Justice Society.
We acknowledge the support of Arts Nova Scotia. #ArtsNS