Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

DAVID WINS BIG ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT Photo by: Ceta Ramkhalawansingh Story by Stephen Weir  On Wednesday night Trinidadian Canadian writer David Chariandy’s award winning novel, Brother has won thi s year’s Toronto Book Awards. David Chariandy’s book is a devastating story about the love between a mother and her sons, the impact of race, masculinity and the senseless loss of young lives in Scarborough, in the violent summer of 1991. Brother was one of five books on the City of Toronto and Toronto Library‘s 2018 Toronto Book Awards shortlist. Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the awards honour books of literary merit that are evocative of Toronto. The 2018 shortlist  Dionne Brand “The Unpublished City“  David Chariandy “Brother“  Carrianne Leung “That Time I Loved You“  Lee Maracle “My Conversations with Canadians“  Kerri Sakamoto “Floating City“ The winner of the 2018 Toronto Book Awards was announced last night at the Toronto Reference Library. This i

There is a Rose in this Canadian Harlem Review by Stephen Weir   Harlem Duet, currently on stage at the Tarragon Theatre is attracting much attention. It is selling out most nights of its Toronto six-week run. There is nothing new about this 21-year old drama. Certainly not with the script which was written by Guyanese/Ja maican/Canadian Djanet Sears back in 1998. Nor  is there a new message found in the plot line  of the North American Black experience. It is a story of loyalty, revenge, love, madness and, of course, racism depress ingly repeated over three  generations in Harlem and the Deep South .  Virgilia Griffith So why is Harlem Duets packing the mid-town Tarragon Theatre these days?  It is the acting – the passion that some of Toronto’s best known Caribbean Canadian actors bring to the stage in a telling of age-old social problems that still impact the community today.   The standout star is  Virgilia Griffith  (who the Camera wrote about in reviews

Winning viewers for Caribbean Movies in Toronto and Trinidad By Stephen Weir The biggest news for the just completed Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF), took place not at home in Toronto but in Port of Spain, Trinidad. It was announced last week that  Frances-Anne Solomon, the head of the CTFF, and a filmmaker herself had just won the People’s Choice Award at the Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival Francis-Anne Solomon Ms. Solomon, in addition to spearheading the Toronto festival, has been hard at work all spring and summer completing her own film.    That movie,   HERO -- Inspired by the Extraordinary Life and Times of Ulric Cross ,  was previewed and premiered at the CTFF in Toronto and then rushed down to Port of Spain to be shown in competition in their T&T film festival a week later. The film is the first Trinidad / Canadian feature length film to be premiered and previewed in both country’s keynote festivals in the same year.    The movie tells t

THE WEEKEND:Canadian roots showing in new Black RomCom By Stephen Weir in today's Caribbean Camera When THE WEEKEND opens in the United States later this  fall, audiences there may assume that this Black RomCom movie is American. But one doesn’t have to dig deep to find its Canadian roots. Written and directed by Stella Meghie of Toronto, THE WEEKEND had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) where it was shown four times. Meghie, now based in the US, has made three films in the past three years, and some  of them have made big money in Hollywood. Her new romantic comedy is expected do the same. It is already attracting interest from film distributors on both sides of the border. “Stella Meghie was born in Toronto but we really have to call her Oshawa’s own,” said TIFF's Artistic Director, Cameron Bailey.“ Her new movie is different from the typical Black Romantic Comedy. There is a real Canadian edge to this one.” It's a

--> Giller Prize Longlist Has a Familiar Face  By Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camera The Scotiabank Giller Prize announced early this week its longlist for the 2018 Canadian book award. There are 12 works of fiction in the running for this year’s   $100,000 prize. Esi Edugyan, is one of the authors longlisted for Canada’s most prestigious Fiction Prize. She has been nominated for her new book Washington Black . Washington Black tells the story of George Washington Black; an eleven-year-old field slave living on a Barbados sugar plantation. From the brutal cane plantations to the icy waters of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-filled streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black is the tale – inspired by a true story – of a world destroyed by slavery and the search to make it whole again. Esi Edugyan made history in 2011 by being the first Black woman to win the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel  Half-Blood Blues . She is the only pa

No Cuss Cuss: All One-Love for Louise Bennett-Coverley  Photos and Story by Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camer a Tania Hernandes channels Miss Lou A Thursday evening Harbourfront event to promote a coming book and movie about the life of the Jamaican Canadian Miss Lou began with actress singer Tania Hernandez channeling the poet with the recital of her Noh Lickle Twang .   Wearing a costume befitting Miss Lou and using the pantomime acting style she was known for, Hernandez and several other guests spoke in the   patois that only a born and raised in Jamaica can fully understand. Noh Lickle Twang is one of Miss Lou’s ( Louise Bennett Coverley ) most beloved poems.   It tells a mother’s story of the return of her son to Jamaica after working in the US for six months. She is upset, in a humorous way that the prodigal son has returned without leaving his “patwah” behind. “Yuh mean yuh go dah Merica An spen six whole mont deh, An come back not a piece better Dan how yu