Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  At City Hall – Black Knight’s Brand New Day! By Stephen Weir in today's Caribbean Camera newspape r Scarborough’s Black Knight is currently stabled in the lobby of Toronto’s City Hall.   The real-life sized statue of a young black girl riding a jet-black unicorn is the first thing visitors now see when they enter the Queen St. Building. It was commissioned for Scarborough’s first all-night Nuit Blanc festival held in September of this year. The statue is built from 80,000 individual black Lego bricks. Named Cavalier Noir   (the Black Knight), it is meant to answer the question, “ If Scarborough was to commemorate its own heroes, what would the monument look like?” Created by two Scarborough stars - artist Ekow Nimako and video maker Director X – they say the Lego statue “ stands as an emblem of hope for the disenfranchised by drawing on hip-hop’s creative strategies: taking existing, discarded, often overlooked elements and flipping them to inspire and amplify voices

Caribbean Camera First With The News About   Chariandy’s big Toronto Book Award win By Stephen Weir Last week, literally 10-minutes before the Caribbean Camera went to press, Trinidadian Canadian author David Chariandy won the prestigious $10,000 2018 Toronto Book Awards.  His book, Brother, is a novel about growing up in Malvern. We were able to get a picture of him accepting his award in the paper --- the only paper to do so on Wednesday night.  We didn’t have room to print our story about his accomplishment. What follows are the details of his amazing win! David Chariandy’s book is a devastating story about the love between a single Trinidadian mother and her sons, the impact of race, masculinity and the senseless loss of young lives in Malvern, in the violent summer of 1991. The winner of the 2018 Toronto Book Awards was announced last Wednesday night at the Toronto Reference Library. This was the 44th year of the Toronto Book Awards. The annual awards offer $15,000 in

Junior Carnival Parade Gets Adult Carnival Sized Numbers   By Stephen Weir The rain held off, the junior revelers wore beautiful costumes and the Junior Carnival Parade and Family Day notched the largest audience ever. The annual kiddies parade and family fair was held Saturday in Malvern and organizers are reporting a record turnout of spectators. “ We had about1, 800 children playing Mas on Saturday,” event organizer Eric Delfish told the Caribbean Camera. “In terms of spectator numbers, it could be more, but, I am going to stick with pegging it at 20,000 people. It was the largest turnout with many impressed first-timers coming out to cheer on the kiddies.” The parade kicked-off at 11am Saturday morning with an official opening ceremony at the Malvern Community Centre.  Toronto Mayor John Tory had the help of many Federal, Provincial and civic leaders to cut the ribbon and get the kids as young as 2-years old, out on the road. Among the dignitaries helping launch th

By Stephen Weir, photographs by Dan Moreland Wave after wave of junior masqueraders showed off their moves and their wildly colourful mas costumes to an audience of parents, friends and members of the press.   The Toronto Caribbean Carnival’s Junior Parade media launch was held indoors at the Malvern Town Centre mall over the lunch hour on Tuesday. Ahead the July 21 st Junior Carnival, a preview of costumes and performances was put on display for the cameras. The hour and half launch was a mixture of entertainment by young costumed revelers and speeches by adult politicians, sponsors and organizers giving the media information about four coming events for children taking part in the 2018 carnival. “ This year we really want to bring it back to the kids and to the families,” said Kevin Carrington, the MC for the media launch. “We have the Junior Carnival King and Queen Showcase taking place on stage at the Woodbine Centre in Etobicoke on July 15th (2:

Toronto   Caribbean Carnival Costume Fashion Shows The feathers, the fishnet stockings, the tights and the angel wings have been put away and now it’s the children’s turn to show their stuff on stage.  Now that  the eleven Toronto Mas Bands have held their late night costume launches,  it is time weekend costume daytime launches for children wanting to take part in this year’s Junior Carnival and Family Day. The costumes that are being shown in the Mas Camps are what youngsters will be wearing when they take part in the Junior Parade. Often called the Kiddies Costume Parade, the event is put on the by Toronto’s Mas Bands and volunteers from the Toronto Caribbean Carnival and will be held on Saturday July 21 st at Neilson Park in Scarborough.  Over the past weekend two large Mas Camps staged parties and fashion show for youngsters and their parents. Both the Toronto Revellers and Carnival Nationz report strong interest from parents and their children in the cost