Kate Lahey is a writer, musician and educator who holds a PhD from the Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto. As frontperson of Weary, Kate recently released their sophomore album ‘Hush’. Kate is also a course instructor at the Gender Studies Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Kate’s work explores intergenerational trauma, material and visual culture and memory in Newfoundland. As a Newfoundlander, Kate’s practice engages family knowledge. Kate lives in a two hundred year old salt box house on the Atlantic Ocean in Holyrood, Newfoundland with her partner and aussie shepherd Leia.
Kate’s arts criticism has been published in Canadian Art, Visual Arts News and Peripheral Review. Kate was nominated for the 2019 EVA Critical Eye Award and gave the keynote lecture at the 2018 Atlantic Provinces Art Gallery Association conference. Kate was the writer in residence at Eastern Edge Gallery until February 2020, where they developed a series of critical audio essays, including conversations with Newfoundland artists, about visual culture and memory in Newfoundland.
As frontperson of the band Weary, Kate has released two albums: Feeling Things (2018) and Hush (2022). Kate was Lawnya Vawnya artist in residence in December 2020. Weary has been nominated for MusicNL Rising Star of the Year (2018), MusicNL Album of the Year (2018) and received the ArtsNL Professional Project Grant (2020), MusicNL Professional Development Grant (2019), ArtsNL Travel Grant (2018), and the City of St. John’s Grant to Artists (2017). Weary has performed across Eastern Canada at Lawnya Vawnya, Halifax Pop Explosion, Flourish Festival, Bloom Fest, and East Coast Music Week’s Rising Star showcase.
Kate directed the award nominated music video “Bruise” (2019) under the mentorship of Lian Morrison as part of the Nickel Independent Film Festival Music Video Incubator project.
As an academic, Kate has received the University of Toronto Graduate Fellowship Tuition Award, University of Toronto Graduate Fellowship Stipend Award and the University of Toronto Graduate Admission Award. They have published their research in peer reviewed journal Atlantis and presented her research at conferences including Women and Gender Studies et Feministes Recherches conference, Philosopha, Folklore Studies Association of Canada conference, and guest lectured at King’s College London and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Kate was selected to receive funding to attend to renowned Duke University Feminist Theory Workshop facilitated by Judith Butler and Audra Simpson in March 2020.
Kate is a board member of Girls Rock NL, is co-director of St. John’s Womxn in Music, and offers arts based programming at the Clarenville Women’s Correction Centre, the St. John’s Women’s Centre and Safer Harbour Outreach Program.
I love to chat! You can send me an email at katelaheymusic [at] gmail.com.