Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

--> Dance Caribe - the summer version March 2nd - Caribana On Ice -Free Show   By Stephen Weir The Caribana Arts Group (CAG) is planning to kick start the 2019 Carnival season in Toronto with Caribana On Ice , a free outdoor show   designed to compliment Black History Month celebrations .   Panman Pat   Caribana On Ice will be held at Mel Lastman Square (5100 Yonge Street) on March 2 , starting at 2 p.m.   Organizers say the show will be "a splash of culture, colour, mini Caribana TM  costumes, sweet sounds and lots of energy." “In the past, the CAG has held other Caribana On Ice events, albeit with a more informal approach," event programmer Amah Harris told the Caribbean Camera. “This year we have designed what one could described as a ‘mini’ Caribana on  the  ice presentation.” The show features Dance Caribe   and the Drumming Ensemble . Also on the showbill is veteran pannist/calyp...

The grand world tour for HERO begins next Thursday By Stephen Weir / Caribbean Camera For local filmmaker   Frances-Anne Solomon,   the best outcome for next week’s Canadian premiere of her new movie is that audiences in Toronto and Hamilton will give the feature a Hero’s welcome.  After a successful launch late last year in Trinidad, HERO,"   inspired By The Extraordinary Life & Times Of Mr. Ulric   Cross ," is about to be screened at theatres in the GTA and across Canada.     Filmed in Trinidad, Ghana, the United Kingdom and Canada, HERO is the  full-length docudrama  about Ulric Cross (played by Trinidad and Tobago singer  Nickolai Salcedo ) ,  t he famed Trinidadian World War II airman. This is a big vision film that tells the story of  the West Indies’ most decorated war veteran. Cross was a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force and went on after the war to become a jurist and an African diplo...

Celebration of Life and Memory of Don Moreland - photo by  Anthony Berot Amazing support: Don Moreland’s legacy lives on in Sunday’s Celebration of Life and Memory gathering By Stephen Weir Thanks to his ever present ladder, Don Moreland was a giant among photographers, and even more than that for the   annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival.   The popular photographer passed away January 18 as the result of a heart attack. On Sunday his family, friends and supporters gathered at a Dundas Street We Legion Hall to celebrate his life and legacy. Don’s partner of 22 years, Susanna Noel and her sons and daughters and his brother and sister welcomed over a 100 guests and well wishers to the afternoon event.   “Today Don would have turned 59,” said Susanna Noel “ So let’s all wish him Happy Birthday.”   Don Moreland - Facebook photo “(Don) was a beacon for all to see and admire. Bold and confident, his was a tenacious soul whose radiance was so grand h...

Eddie Grant, Prime Minister Manley shaking hands with Al Hamilton Contrast publisher with Anthony Hill 1980 Five Veteran Shooters Were the Eyes Of The Caribbean Canadian Community Back In The Day Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s a very small group of Caribbean Canadian photojournalists were literarily the Ears, Eyes and Voice of many Toronto community newspapers!  Press Photographs taken by Jules Elder, Eddie Grant, Diane Liverpool, Al Peabody and Jim Russell are on display at the Art Gallery of Burlington as part of that gallery’s Black History Month celebration. Ears, Eyes, Voice: Black Canadian Photojournalists 1970s - 1990s is an exhibition that brings together important visual works by the five “shooters”. Their combined collection of photographs is a comprehensive and rare record that have documented over three decades of stories about the history of Toronto’s Caribbean Canadian community. Organized and circulated by Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue (BAND), ...

Selina Thompson is worth her Salt on stage By Stephen Weir I have a fist-sized lump of salt on my desk.   Unlike actress Selina Thompson, I don’t know what I am supposed to do with it. “Just, mind you, don’t put this in your mouth,” she warned me when she handed over the rough pink triangle of rock salt. “This is for thinking on, not eating.” “ It was a piece of salt that convinced me I should continue living,” the young British actress told an almost full North Toronto theatre on Thursday night. As she has done at performances around the world, Thompson ended her one-woman play, SALT, by racing out to the front of the house in time to give each and every one of her departing members of the audience chunks of salt so we could ponder life too.   After watching her on stage pulverizing a block of salt while she was riffing on slavery, European racism and the utter freedom of walking the streets of Jamaica while Black, Thompson left us wit...