Posts

Showing posts from June, 2021

Poet wins the biggie - the Griffin Prize - takes home $65,000

Image
  It is a Two-Fer Day for St Lucian Canadian poet Canisia Lubrin   By Stephen Weir   Oh what a day it has been for one of the country’s most successful poets.   Canisia Lubrin   has just   learned that she has won one of the world’s richest poetry prizes.  She also had been told today that she has won a Canada Council administered literary prize too!   37-year old  Canisia Lubrin is the Canadian winner of the 2021  Griffin Poetry Prize.  She will receive $65,000 in prize money for her latest book  The Dyzgraph x st .   The Prize describes  The Dyzgraph x st  as a    “spectacular feat of architecture called a poem …  it is about  contemporary capitalist fascism, nationalism and the climate disaster, where Jejune, the central figure, grapples with understanding their existence and identity.”   The Griffin Poetry Prize  was founded in 2000 to encourage and celebrate excellence in poetry.  This year 682 books of poetry, including 55 translations from 28 languages from 14 different countri

A publishing mystery, how does this community paper survive Covid

Image
  For The Caribbean Camera Everything Is Local  The Caribbean Camera Newspaper  just celebrated its 21 st  anniversary.  If there had been a party, we might have been able to get publisher  Anthony Joseph  (pictured below) to tell us how he manages to keep the Toronto Black community newspaper afloat during a time when he is unable to sell advertising; distribute his 24-page weekly newspaper; and pay journalists (including me) all since the arrival of the Covid shutdown.   The paper and its online website is considered the voice of the Caribbean community in the GTA.  The paper is written by journalists who have a connection with the Caribbean (most learned their trade in Trinidad) except me. The 65-year old publisher gives his 80 something Trinidadian born editor a small honourium, has assist with his basement digs and from time-to-time makes sure that the editor gets his  three solids . Everyone else fends for themselves.   Pre-Covid the Caribbean Camera was given away free at Patty

Air Canada to begin flying to St Vincent in early September 2021

Image
  Beginning in September travellers can vacation in La La Land. St Vincent coming back! LaLa the volcano And now for the good news from the volcano ravaged St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)! At a Zoom presser with the Canadian Travel Media, Glen Beache, CEO of the nation's Tourism Authority said SV&G will begin welcoming Canadian tourists in early September. Mr. Beache told reporter Stephen Weir and other members of the press that he has just learned that Air Canada will begin direct flights to Argyle Airport on St Vincent beginning September 13th. Virgin Air is expecting to begin flights from the UK in September as well. Mr. Beache told the press that SVG has been hit doubly hard this year. Like other Caribbean destinations, Covid has caused them to establish protocols for visiting tourists. “And then there is LaLa – you have to smile even when things are rough – that is what we call our Volcano. She has been quiet for a number of weeks, but, there are still rumblngs.” B

No Toronto Caribbean Carnival Parade Again This Summer but Two Faces Of The Festival Have Lots To Promote

Image
  Two Faces For This Year And Next. Lateisha Williams And Celena Suesahai Meet  Lateisha Williams  and  Celena Seusahai , two well-known Toronto Mas Models and longtime Carnival organizers  At an online press conference earlier this week, both women were named the Face of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival Festival –  Ms .  Williams for 2021  and  Ms Seusahai   for 2022 . Lateisha Williams (above and r) For the past eight years the Festival has each year chosen a woman to be the brand ambassador for the annual  Toronto Caribbean Carnival  (some years men have also been chosen to share Face of the Festival duties - but not this time). On Tuesday the Carnival held a press conference online to introduce both this year’s Face of the Festival and next year’s ambassador as well.  Even though the annual summer long weekend Parade has been cancelled for the second year in a row (because of the Covid shutdown), there are still several events planned for this summer and the talents of  the Faces of

BTS - logos, BLM and hopefully doggie poop bag sponsorship

Image
The Globalization of Dumpster Diving Thanks To BTS Stock footage By Stephen Weir: I am a law-abiding guy. I always wear a mask when I am on Yonge St. I throw my McDonald’s wrappers in the trash and if I had a trendy Labra doodle I’d always pick up after him. Yesterday I went to McDonalds down the street to pick up my take-out order – Chicken McNuggets, Fries and Sweet Chili dipping sauce.  No place to sit-down, so I stood in the parking lot with all the waiting Dash and Dine delivery guys and managed to lift my mask up, eat the chicken, slurp my Diet Coke from a purple cup and hoover my fries without dropping anything. Not a self-conscious guy but I noticed a lot of people, especially a young crew slouching around the nearby communal trash bin, staring at me. They watched every chew I made and every fry I slayed! Didn’t take me long to finish my food.  I walked over to the trash bin and waited until a trendy guy put a Labra doodle waste bag down beside the can (he was too cool to put

Data Dive For Dead Scuba Divers

Image
Diving for Death Detail on ScubaBoard.com   Alternate Media go-to site for Forensics on dead Ontario scuba divers The OPP don’t know much about much when it comes to the investigation of accidental scuba diving deaths.  Oh they are top notch when a car hits a tree; when a snowmobile falls through the ice, or heck even when a cow delivers a fatal back-kick at the farmer milking her. But when it involves someone dying underwater, don’t look for our provincial police to figure it out beyond saying Cardiac Arrest. Windsorites don’t have much to do with the OPP beyond watching for their speed traps on the 401. Most don’t know they are charged with patrolling the lakes and rivers of the province, be it to arrest people drinking and boating; ticketing those not wearing life jackets; busting people fishing without provincial licenses and sadly three or four times a year investigating in-water deaths. In our local waters those jobs are also shared with the RCMP and the Coast Guard because the D