Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2020   Ready to Jump Digitally This July By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera:  Ooh la la costumes. Thundering pans. Sweet calypso. And while they are at it, throw in a few big name soca performers. Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2020 is getting ready to digitally jump up and thumb noses at the Coronavirus  come July. While the annual summer festival in downtown Toronto has been cancelled this year because of  COVD-19, the festival  with its rich traditions will be coming to a computer screen near you in about five weeks Late yesterday afternoon, Aneesa Oumarally, CEO of the Festival Management Committee (FMC) which organizes the carnival, told The Caribbean Camera that it ‘s ” all systems go  for the Big Event. “The goal of the Digital Carnival is to remember yesteryear, remember what we are missing and showcase the the carnival to the world at large, to those that don’t come downtown and sit on the grass,” said Oumarally. Carnival Yes

Etienne Charles and his trumpet waiting out this virus  By Stephen Weir In the old days (last month)  jazz man   Etienne  Charles was a man in motion. Always on the move. He was here. He was there.  He was up on the stage. He was in the air. But that was then.  In the here and now, the 36-year old trumpeter is just like all of our readers.  He has been grounded, his luggage in storage and he is waiting out the virus in his home in Michigan. Trinidad’s  Charles holds a master's of music degree from Juilliard and teaches at Michigan State University. He travels the world playing concerts, recording music and playing Mas in T&T and Canada! "The reason I'm a trumpet player began when I was on a family trip to Toronto as a three-year-old," the trumpeter, recording star, composer, bandleader and teacher told the Camera.“ I visited an uncle and was able to make a sound on his saxophone. At age 10, the same uncle gave me a trumpet and a different mu

So what is King David up to at home? By Stephen Weir Need quarantine relief? Here's what the Soca King is doing at home Congratulations dear Caribbean Camera reader. You've made it through another week of Ontario’s virtual virus prison. You're seen every movie on your Netflix hit list. You're somewhere between finally doing you taxes or buying yourself a dog so that you have an excuse to be out walking the streets. Don’t get cross. The Caribbean Camera’s Stephen Weir has got your back.  This week he talked to David Michael Rudder, aka King David, about how the Soca star and his family are handling the shutdown. David Rudder has been singing about the Caribbean experience for over four decades now. At the age of 67 he shows no signs of slowing down. In fact while he isn’t performing live right now, he is very active on the Internet producing a must read Facebook account that is newsworthy, thought provocative and entertaining. Earlier this week we c

Strange Masks For The New Times By Stephen Weir Noel's homemade hat mask There was a time not that long ago when wearing a mask into a bank was not the done thing.  This week?  Some local banks require clients to wear masks if they want to enter the building to do their finances. Suddenly the mask – if you can find one – has become an important part of one’s anti-virus wardrobe.  Attempting to buy a mask has become an expensive and often fruitless exercise, so much so that people are making their own, using material they might have on hand! The  Caribbean Camera  has been noticing that many of our readers are using their ingenuity to overcome supply shortages. And while they are using bits of old clothing, odd bits of linen and reclaimed elastic to handcraft personal maks, a few are putting a bit of Caribbean influence into their designs too. Noel's masks at left “ I made one of my masks using one of Saldenah’s caps,” said veteran Mas costume-mak

Champion drops and the world listens.  By Stephen Weir It was the wind that brought Reggae singer Exco Levi a powerful message crying out to be made into a song. Two and half years later that message finally dropped, Champion has arrived! Five-time Juno award winner and long-time Canadian reggae star Exco Levi released his new single Champion to a global audience last Friday, and this song of hope already has begun to find a following. “ You know I let my songs come to me. Sometimes it takes a little time, but, with what is going on in the world right now it has been worth the wait,” Levi told the Caribbean Camera yesterday. “ I sing about Drizzy and Usain Bolt, and others, but they are just a fraction of the vast glorious people who are all around us.  When I sing about being a champion, it is not just about sports or music. You can be a Champion in anything you do.  I say be a champion for Faith.” Levi sees his song as a siren call to the global village for victory, i

CaribbeanTales is all set to put on the Big Show, but Virus Shutdown waits in the wings. The CaribbeanTales Film Festival (CTFF) has an amazing plan for 2020; quality Trinidadian, Caribbean and world movies, a gala launch, and an outreach festival in England. “Now,” says Dianne Webley the newly promoted director of the Festival, "if the virus shutdown soon has an end, we can tell Toronto when this is all going to take place.” Earlier this week, Frances Anne Solomon, the founder of the annual festival announced that Webley has taken over the day-to-day operation of the 15th annual fall classic. She also announced that three new people have joined the CTFF board. “A long-time member of the CaribbeanTales family, Diana Webley has been working at Harbourfront Centre for 15-years,” said Solomon. “For the past two years she has also served as the Associate Festival Director for CTFF.” “What has happened is that Frances Anne (Solomon) has been deeply involved with her own feature

All-Round Champion Soon To Be All Round The Dial All-Round Champion. The title of Perdita Felicien’s new TVO television series nails it oh so well. The 11-episode, 60-minute series stars the Canadian athlete and ten of North America’s most decorated young athletes who compete in the sort of sports young people love; wakeboarding, gymnastics and skateboarding to name just three. This is not your average sporting saw-off.  The ten athletes – five American and five Canadian – don’t compete in their own sports, they will be competing in each other’s specialties!  By the end of the Season One – there will be a single athlete crowned the All-Round Champion. Perdita Felicien is a two time Olympian and a two time World Champion in the 100m hurdles. One of Canada’s most decorated track and field athletes, she has won two World Championship silver medals, was named Canada’s Athlete of the Year, and was given the keys to the city of Pickering, her hometown. Since retiring fro

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 is limited to signing u

Opening Saturday at North Toronto’s Meridian Arts Centre Eddie Grant photo of PM Manley Way back in the 70s and 80s a quintet of Caribbean Canadian photojournalists were literarily the Ears, Eyes and Voice of Toronto’s many hard-hitting community newspapers!  Press photographs taken by Jules Elder, Eddie Grant, Diane Liverpool, Al Peabody and Jim Russell are on display beginning Saturday at the Meridian Arts Centre in North Toronto as part of Black History Month celebrations in the city. This free exhibition, presented by TO Live, brings together important historic works by the five “shooters”. Their combined collection of photographs is a rare pictorial record of newspaper stories that covered the evolving history of the community. Ears, Eyes, Voice bring back both good and bad memories from the streets of Toronto. There are pictures of reggae star Peter Tosh at the O’Keefe Centre; Caribana as a giant Blocko on University Avenue, and a large Africa Liberation Day march

Desmond Cole Howls About His New Blockbuster Book The Howl Radio Show scored a big media scoop when they had author Desmond Cole on air the night before the official launch of his guaranteed blockbuster book The Skin We're In.  University of Toronto's CIUT-FM 89.5 landed a 20-minute late night (10pm) live interview on Tuesday in advance of Cole’s large sold-out launch  booked for Wednesday evening at the downtown Art Gallery of Ontario. Howl is one of the longest running book radio show in the country (20+ years). Show host Jane Bullis, took Cole through his new work, a book which looks at racism in Canada in 2017 and, as he says, punctures the smugness of a post-racial nation. Cole chronicles  the year 2017 – Canada’s 150th birthday  -- and the month of January 2018. It’s all about the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that he writes, saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from th