Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Caribbean photograph exhibition is making a Thursday night stop in Whitby By Stephen Weir The Station Gallery in Whitby is hosting a vibrant art exhibit featuring seven renowned Caribbean Canadian photographers, including Anthony Berot, the official photographer of the Caribbean Carnival. The exhibit, titled "Canadian Caribbean Photographic Arts Collective | Beyond the Carnival 6," has been on display all month and will run until August 25, 2024. This evening, Thursday, July 18th, the gallery will come alive with a special welcoming reception from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, featuring the enchanting steel pan drum music of the InfraRed Band. The exhibit showcases the talents of Benjamin Alunyo, Jenny Baboolal, Anthony Berot, Lisa Faure, Ian P. Grant, David Lewis, and Gilbert Medina. As members of the Canadian Caribbean Photographic Arts Collective (CCPAC), their mission is to capture and present images that celebrate Pan-Caribbean culture. The photographers aim to create a lasting...

  FMC who Run the CCT now have the CCAN! By Stephen Weir Minister Chu and Carnival Kids Late last week Jennifer Michelle Hirlehey, the board chair of the Festival Management Committee (FMC), which oversees the annual Caribbean Carnival in Toronto, issued a statement announcing the formation of the Caribbean Community Advocacy Network (CCAN). Writing in the latest edition of the social media-based Toronto Carnival Insider, Hirlehey commented on the success of last week’s Carnival Launch at the Scarborough Town Centre. All levels of government were present at the launch, and the Board Chair said she is “deeply encouraged by the expressions of support from representatives of the Government at the Federal, Provincial, and Municipal levels,” so much so that the FMC is moving ahead with the creation of this new advocacy arm. What exactly is the new CCAN? Hirlehey explains, “While the FMC and the carnival remain non-political, we are dedicated to promoting socio-political, cultural, and e...

All things Carnival will be on stage at Toronto Caribbean Carnival last hooray weekend.   By Stephen Weir   There is a saying amongst Toronto carnival lovers, “It never rains on the Caribana Weekend”. With a good forecast from the Weather Network and a lot of finger crossing on the part of the Festival Management Committee, it looks as though that 54-year old adage is going to ring true for at least one more summer.   This Friday, Saturday and Sunday the wrap-up to the 2021  Toronto Caribbean Carnival  will be held outdoors at the  Scarborough Town Centre .  Pan. Calypso. Dance. Food.  Costumes. Every form of Carnival Arts will be on display for three-days.   When the Carnival first announced its plans for the month of July, this weekend’s fete was earmarked to be a Caribbean Food Truck round up in the  Scarborough Town Centre’s  parking lot.  That idea was scrapped two weeks ago because another Food Truck festival –  Stre...

For Caribbean Foodies Carnival Food Comes in 25 Flavours (and counting) Freedom Mas photo from Facebook By Stephen Weir  For the stripped down version of the 2021 Toronto Caribbean Carnival the timing is turning out be perfect.  Just as the Province begins relaxing the restrictions on dine-in restaurants, outdoor patios and purchasing take-out meals, The Festival Management Committee, has soft-launched a new Carnival food festival  -- Carnival Flavours -- that runs throughout the month of July. “ Earn points every time you order and you could win weekly Carnival Flavours prize packs!” explains the carnival's event website ( https://www.torontocarnival.ca/carnivalflavours ).  Carnival Flavours  is a brand new project for the 2021 Carnival and is dedicated to bringing the best in Caribbean food in  Toronto ,  Brampton  and  Whitby  to hungry Toronto Caribbean Carnival foodies.   Be it in a popular resto, or dinner on a patio or meals ...

SugaCayne Can And They Will Candice and Dwayne Dixon have launched a new competitive Mas Band that is using 21st century cutting edge technology to put a new Wow factor into the costumes their dancers will be wearing down the road. Their name is SugaCayne, and the mas band already has chosen a costume launch location and date, five section leaders and a theme name – Liquid Courage – that comes with a double meaning. “ Liquid Courage brings to mind something you need to give you the courage to do something you might never ever do (like putting on a mas costume and dancing down Lakeshore Blvd in the annual Toronto parade),” explains SugaCayne co-founder Dwayne Dixon. “Taking it a lot deeper, our costumes will, in part, be constructed using 3-D technology making spectacular costumes that you can’t make with just wire and glue. These 3-D created parts start off in a liquid state, and that takes some courage.” SugaCayne Designs has made a name for itself by designing and building...

By Stephen Weir Canada’s first professional photography association is having its first ever major exhibition this carnival season. It all happens in two weeks at the Scarborough Civic Centre on Borough Drive. Beyond The Carnival photography exhibition features the work eight members of the newly created Canadian Caribbean Photographic Art Collective (CCPAC). Their framed works will hang in the Civic Centre’s rotunda, July 24 th to August 7 th .   The new show is described as “an artistic expression of Caribbean experience through our lenses.”   The show is free and can be viewed 9am – 9pm daily. “The CCPAC, and this exhibition is all about archiving the history of the Caribbean Canadian experience,” explains Anthony Berot, the founder of the Canadian Caribbean Photographic Art Collective.   “ We have an amazing story that is unique to the people of the Caribbean that now call Canada home.   Black. Chinese. Indian we have a comm...

By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera Jamaica is the new kid on the international Carnival block and this year, thanks to big Canadian visitor numbers, the child has suddenly grown up. Although there have been carnivals in Jamaica since 1989 it has only been in the last three or four years that carnival fans from North America and other Caribbean countries have sat up and taken notice of what is going on in the One Love island nation. The annual festival in Jamaica kicked off in January this year and ended last Sunday with a mas parade of 6,000 costumed revellers through the streets of Kingston.   What made Sunday’s parade different from the past parades was the number of Canadians and other international visitors who were on the road in costume, and in the crowds of spectators that lined the streets of Kingston. Celena Seusahai is one of the driving forces behind the Tribal Carnival mas band in Toronto.   She took time off work to join fellow Canadians taking...

--> Carnival season in Toronto begins with Venom More fashion show than a costume launch, the 2018 carnival season kicked off on Saturday night with a big bite of   snake venom. The Venom Carnival mas band staged the first costume launch   of the 2018   season and attracted over 1,000 paying customers, most of whom were there for the entertainment of seeing what will be worn on the parade route this summer! “ Last year we held our first launch at a club that had a capacity of 750, which we maxed out by the time the show started,” said Aneil Persad , Managing Director at  Venom Carnival INC “ This year we moved to a bigger hall (Chandni Grand in Scarborough), and by the time the music started we had over 1,000 people inside.” Venom is a new band – this is year number two – and the colourful section costumes (the theme this year is Inked) and youthful design has attracted first time carnival goers to their launch in huge numbers. “ Ye...