Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  The CBC called her the “Word Warrior”. Lillian Allen Has A New Title Now.  In a move that has delighted Toronto’s literary and dub music communities, City of Toronto staff have recommended acclaimed poet, writer/performer, and arts activist Lillian Allen to become Toronto’s seventh Poet Laureate. The recommendation is pending approval by City Council at its next meeting in May – it is a given that Allen will get the nod. The Jamaican-Canadian was nominated by a selection committee in consultation with the literary community. She is a leader in dub poetry, a politically charged, reggae-infused poetry of resistance and visionary futures. The 74-year-old has been named a foremother of Canadian poetry by the League of Canadian Poets and is a two-time JUNO Award winner and trailblazer in spoken word and dub poetry. Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, she left that country in 1969, first moving to New York City before settling in Toronto. She is a poet, author, and recording artist, ha...

  The Film World Agrees The Martinique Animated Movie OPAL Is Golden IF Alain Bidard makes it up to the Caribbean Tales Film Festival on September 23 rd  he probably won’t bring all his film festival trophies with him when his animated movie, Opal, is shown in Toronto.  There is not enough room in his suitcase for all the awards the Martinique producer/director has captured since the movie came out last year. He has  already won 48 awards and 73 nominations worldwide and will be in the running for some titles at the Toronto festival as well. Alain Bidard (right) is the only Caribbean animation film director who has won that many recognitions.  He  is an animation film producer/director from the French island of Martinique. Over the past 20 years, he has produced and directed animated feature and short films, animated series, and live-action films which won more than 60 awards and 250 nominations in festivals worldwide. The movie gets its Canadian debut...

--> 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 ....

. Wrecking and recycling From a brewery to beer cans Destruction to construction By STEPHEN WEIR SPECIAL TO THE STAR HOW IT'S BUILT It is taking a lot of Molson's muscle to recycle Toronto's landmark lakeside suds factory. An environmentally bent demolition company is painstakingly deconstructing the Fleet St. Molson's Brewery, turning it into powdered concrete, ingots of steel and, eventually, aluminum beer cans. Even as the Molson building is being taken down, there are still parts of it that tower above the nearby raised Gardner Expressway. The shrinking factory is a beacon for the disappearing industrial district that once employed thousands along Toronto's eastern waterfront. The beer building and almost all other factories and warehouses in the Bathurst and Lake Shore area are being shuttered, shut down and converted into upscale housing projects. "This puppy was over-built. There are at least 3,000 metric tons of steel in there. It was as though they we...