Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  BY STEPHEN WEIR The Toronto Caribbean Carnival Launch: A New Era, a New Home, a New Auidence photo by Gilbert Medina The ribbon has been cut, the songs have been sung, and the costumes have been strutted. Make no mistake, as of 2 p.m. last Saturday, the 2024 Toronto Caribbean Carnival is officially underway! For the first time this century, the launch was not held at Nathan Phillips Square, and it wasn’t free. Patrice Roberts sings at opening at right - G. Medina Still, this change didn’t stop an estimated crowd of 2,000 from traveling out to the Scarborough Town Centre to take in the vibrant costumes, listen to live music, and indulge in Caribbean food. Speaking outdoors on a temporary parking lot stage, Jennifer Hirlehey, the executive director of the Festival Management Committee (FMC) and the festival, stated, “The FMC has made significant improvements over the last year.” In previous years, when the festival launched at City Hall, many important speakers would appear at Nat...

Heritage Toronto Bangs The Drum Slowly For Caribbean Canadians   By  STEPHEN WEIR   The voices and pictures of the heroes of Toronto’s steel band community has come to the Internet.  Earlier this year Heritage Toronto posted an audio and  written  experience that   explores the contributions and importance of the steelpan to Toronto's music and Caribbean community through the first-hand accounts of four leading steelpan artists.   Andre Rouse, Earl LaPierre Jr, Thadel Wilson and Wendy Jones are the stars of this online history that has recently been made by Heritage Toronto. It is posted on their popular website under the title of  Timbre from Trinidad to Toronto. Heritage Toronto is an agency of the city that celebrates the heritage and the diverse stories of its people, places, and events here in Toronto. This high-profile department tells the city’s story through a number of popular programs, including tours, plaqu...

  Exhibition closes with a bang on a steelpan d rum Stephen Weir Monday. Just an hour before the CNE gates shut for the last time this year, Wendy Jones stood on the fair’s International Stage and asked an audience how they are all feeling.  A crowd of 1,000 pan enthusiasts shouted back long and loud. “Hot. Hot. Hot!” Wendy Jones and the Pan Fantasy Steelband and responded in kind.  A rousing stripped down rendition of the Merryman’s  Feeling Hot Hot Hot closed out their one-hour performance in Enwave building at the Ex.  By the time they had packed up their kit (and posed for this picture beside the stage) the CNE had already gone into its shut-down mode for what has been a very successful festival, coming off a 1-year Covid shutdown. The CNE was held from August 19th to September 5 th . According to Darrell Brown, the boss of the festival the “ attendance was over 1 million by the middle of last week, a 10 per cent increase when compared t...

Same day afternoon show added Mighty Sparrow surprise guest for Snowflakes Tribute to Greats   By Stephen Weir If you saw the advertisement for the giant Snowflakes  Tribute to the Greats  concert in last week’s Caribbean Camera, did you catch organizer Wendy Jone’s drift when she mentions special guest star in the ad?    No? Well, the cat is now out of the bag, the special guest is the world’s most famous Calypso singer: The Mighty Sparrow and an afternoon show has been added to accommodate the demand for tickets!   It has been a long long time since the Mighty Sparrow was last in Toronto.  He did make an appearance in 2014 at the Caribbean Tales Film Festival screening of the biopic The Glamour Boyz but he did not sing.  That will all change January 26 thanks to Patricia Ward (Sparrow’s Canadian based daughter) and Pan Fantasy’s Wendy Jones for making it all happen. “We have invited him to come and perform many tim...

--> What A Jerk Al Foster Is These Days By Stephen Weir Photographs and story for Caribbean Camera What a Jerk.   Yes, Al “Alos” Foster (Pan Fantasy) has been a big jerk this month. Really. And if his new food truck takes off, it will be Mr. Jerk, thank you. Last week the Jamaican Canadian chef rolled out a new food truck. The Caribbean Camera missed his very first gig at the intersection of Rexdale Blvd and Islington Avenue, but, the paper did catch up with him on his second night on the streets of Toronto last Wednesday evening. He was selling his jerk chicken at the Winona Drive Senior Public School concert on Winona in midtown Toronto. There was a large line-up of students and parents when the Caribbean Camera first arrived. The large black truck was parked at the side of the road and had a large sign showing a list of low cost comfort foods. “Menu is elastic based on whatever event I am at.” Said Al Foster. “Tonight we did chicken fingers, chips ...

RAESHA SIROIS  -- 2015’s FACE OF THE FESTIVAL The Face of the Festival Does one have to be born in the West Indies to have Carnival Fever? It certainly cannot hurt! Raesha Sirois, born in St. James, Trinidad, immigrated to Canada in 1970 and grew up in Scarborough, Ontario. Although she enjoyed a Canadian environment and learned to embrace winter out on the slopes with her snowboard, Trinidadian culture was a great part of her upbringing. This included eating her mother’s Creole cooking, listening to Soca, pan and chutney music, and regular month-long trips down to Trinidad to visit relatives in the summer. Raesha played clarinet in the Toronto parang group, La Petite Musicale in the late 80s and joined Silhouettes Steel orchestra to play steel pan in 1994.  She is the only known 9-bass player in Canada to own her own set of pans and currently plays with Pan Fantasy Steel band, led by 2015 Harry Jerome award winner, Wendy Jones. A full-time dental hygieni...