Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Costume Creators Unveil "A New Hope" for Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2024 By Stephen Weir, Photo by Anthony Berot Costume Creators Cultural Art showcased its much-anticipated "A New Hope" costume collection on Sunday, May 5th, in preparation for the upcoming Toronto Caribbean Carnival. The event, held at Mystic Resto & Lounge on Kennedy Rd South in Brampton, drew enthusiastic participants eager to join the festivities of the July 20th junior carnival parade and the August 3rd Grand Parade along the Lakeshore. The evening was a spectacle of colour and creativity as models of all ages graced the Mystic stage, showcasing this year's vibrant designs brightly coloured festival. From elaborate ensembles for adults to whimsical costumes for children, Costume Creators left no stone unturned in ensuring a memorable experience for carnival-goers. "A New Hope" received rave reviews from attendees, with many expressing admiration for Costume Creators founders W...

Paradise Lost is found on one side of PAMA the Brampton Art Gallery Yesterday, Brampton's Main Street received a striking makeover as a massive two-story art piece found its place outdoors on the side of PAMA, the public art gallery and museum located on Main Street, just across from Gage Park. This awe-inspiring creation, named "Paradise Lost," is the creative art of Caribbean Canadian artist Chris Louis and Dillon Douglas ( pictured ), and it promises to inject a new level of intrigue into the daily commutes of motorists. "Paradise Lost" is a triptych artwork spanning three outdoor banners, portraying a journey from a thriving, healthy Earth to a desolate wasteland. Bursting with repetitive and overlapping motifs, some whimsical and others peculiar, Douglas and Louis guide us through a humbling exploration of monumental human failures. Their intention is to serve as a stark warning of the grim potential for our own future. The official launch of "Parad...

  JAMBANA says FAB 5 not High 5 on August holiday Monday JAMBANA, the annual One World Festival, has found its perfect home for the free daylong cultural celebration. Gage Park in downtown Brampton will host the event on Holiday Monday, August 7, 2023, from 1 PM to 9 PM. This year's festival promises to be a vibrant showcase of Canada's multicultural communities, featuring internationally acclaimed bands, artists, dancers     and     Jamaica’s Fab 5.  The annual JAMBANA One World Festival has a rich history, originating from the efforts of Jones & Jones Productions Ltd, founded by the late Denise Jones and Allan Bucka Jones in 1987. The inaugural event, called Reggae On Yah, took place in 1987 at The Great Hall in downtown Toronto. It featured an all-night reggae music extravaganza, highlighting the best of Canadian Reggae. The event concluded with a feast of Blue Mountain Coffee and Ackee and Salt Fish. Since its inception, JAMBANA™ One World Festival ...

Brampton debut for the Freedom  Mas Band of the Toronto Carnival By Stephen Weir. Pictures by Des Photography This early bird didn’t get any worms, Johanna Grant, got something significantly better.  By holding her new Freedom Mas Band costume launch on Sunday she won bragging rights to being the first Band to hold a launch for Carnival 2022 and also the first band to open their Mas Camp doors and start making masquerade outfits. She set a couple of other milestones on the weekend. Her new band is the only group that will be based in the city of Brampton, and proudly waving the Black, Green and Gold down Lakeshore Blvd in Toronto's Grand Parade on Saturday July 30 th. “After a 16 years hiatus, the Jamaican Band is back, fully equipped with costumes to give revellers the full  carnival experience ,” said Johanna Grant shortly after the day long fete ended. “   We are excited to bring back the Jamaican culture to the Toronto Carnival formally known as Caribana!” “...

Gwyn Chapman to the rescue in Brampton Chapman and Toronto's Mayor Tory The Peel District School Board has just fired its education director over his handling of anti-Black issues in Brampton schools.  And the Peel Regional police are facing heavy criticism over two police shootings this month.  While things are looking very bleak in Brampton, help is on the way. Two days ago it was announced that popular columnist and photographer Gwyn Chapman has agreed to become a Senior Advisor of the just formed Black African and Caribbean Social, Cultural and Economic Empowerment and Anti-Black Racism Unit. The city of Brampton formed this new unit with the full support of its city council. It is the first of its kind in the city’s history. IT is estimated that there 80,000 Black African and Caribbean Canadian citizens living in Brampton. That is the second largest visible minority in the city. Ms. Chapman is a Caribbean Canadian who was born in St. Lucia. “I am please...

Reyez on the money with the world's best. Raise a Guinness to their records - by sweirsweir At a time when everything cultural is now only available via smart phones and computers, it is hard for a singer to get noticed when performing online, unless of course you are talking about Jessie Reyez. In late April she teamed up with Oprah, Michelle Obama, Elton John, Celine Dion and Michael Bublé to perform to the world and set a couple of Guinness records in the process. Jimmy Fallon and friends It was an online music festival called One World: Together at Home and some of the world’s biggest names virtually came together to raise money in aid of COVID-19 relief. The history making digital festival was co-hosted by the World Health Organization and Global Citizen. Earlier this week Guinness World Records contacted me to say that the global broadcast and digital event achieved two Guinness World Records titles. The online event set a record for most musical acts to perfor...

Brampton’s getting ready to show Toronto how to Reggae down the road By Stephen Weir Maybe it is time the annual carnival changed its name again.  How about the Toronto and Brampton Caribbean Carnival?  Johanna Grant, a long time Carnival reveller, is starting her own band  - The Freedom Mas Band - and has already organized her camp in Brampton. She has taken a space in the Dixie and Steeles area and has a booked a hall for her early April 5th costume launch.   “ As far as I know we are the first Mas Band from Brampton to participate in the Toronto parade,” she told the Caribbean Camera this week. “ You know Scarborough is getting a little crowded (with camps). Everyone in Brampton and Mississauga loves the idea it saves a lot of driving. And for out-of-towners we are are only 10-minutes from the airport, if they want to pick-up a costume after landing.” For its inaugural year, Freedom Mas, will be a non-competitive band.  That means that Grant...

                         Salad Days of Literature Brings Lots Of Cabbage to Ian Williams These are salad days for Caribbean Canadian authors. Earlier this week another Trinidadian-born author won big, really big, and the country has sat up and taken notice. On Tuesday evening  Ian Williams  won the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his very first novel “ Reproduction ”, published by Random House Canada, taking home $100,000. Earlier this month Trinidadian Canadian author  André Alexis  won big as well capturing the $50,000 Writers’ Trust fiction prize for his English language novel “ Days by Moonlight ”. He is only the second author in the country to capture the award twice. Days by Moonlight  is his seventh novel. The book is about Alfred Homer who takes a Southern Ontario road trip to investigate the story of John Skennen, a poet whose ghost haunts a few souls around the provin...

George Paginton. The man who quietly painted Peel, Mississauga, Toronto and Canada. New show. New book.   Rene Nand(l) PAMA, MPP Anand, curator author   Sharona  Adamowicz-Clements   By Stephen Weir and  P hotos  Herman Custodio  The 401 super highway winds through Peel County like a strip of concrete spaghetti.   There are glass and steel condos where cows once grazed.   Last century painting great George Paginton would not recognize his old stomping grounds where he loved to wander and paint. Back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s George Paginton was the patron saint of landscaping painting in a part of Ontario that would one day become the busy metropolises of the Toronto GTA, Brampton and Mississauga. Inspired by the Peel landscape like the Group of Seven’s love of the outdoors, Paginton's direct, truthful and rugged paintings of the land brought out a sense of beauty rarely seen now adays in art galleries and museums. Born in...