Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

. Susan Pedersen  Reflects On Family and 2015 Cundill Prize  By K.J Mullins Newz4U Winning the 2015 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature has not changed author Susan Pedersen but it did help her have more time to reconnect with her youngest son. Last autumn when Pedersen won the prize she was taking some time off from her teaching position at Columbia University to work on her current project. She used some of the prize money to fly her youngest child to the UK for some much needed one on one time. Pedersen said that winning the prize was special but in terms of academic success did not have a large impact at Columbia University. She noted that the book appearing in the Oxford University Press in summer 2015 was more celebrated at the American school. Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell (l), Susan Pedersen and Chancellor Michael Meighen - Cundill Win! Pedersen is a dedicated academic and a devoted working mother. Loyal to a life of exploring and rete...

. By Stephen Weir Edited version posted by Huffington Post Moscow. Jerusalem. Vatican City. São Paulo . Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc is is known and admired for his world vision.   His photographs of crumbling synagogues, badly decayed Torahs scrolls and discarded school books he discovered in a rotting   70-years locked Jewish school in Slovakia are seen as instruments of change in a battle against cultural genocide. Here in Canada little is known about his travelling exhibition of pictures of those holocaust books. That is because he is Canada’s most accomplished nude photographer. That may changes now that his Last Folio exhibition has finally arrived in Canada, and people in Ontario are seeing his passion and his dread of mankind’s darkside. The Last Folio is an exhibition, an art book and a documentary movie, based on the Slovakia pictures he has taken.   The exhibition that continues to tour in Europe, Israel, South America and the United ...

Natalie Perera and Machel Montano in Bazodee huffington post blog - pending The King of Soca and perennial star of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, Machel Montano, has a mission.  Black. White. Brown. Yellow. Montano feverishly believes that Soca Music is the beat of the 21st century This weekend the Trinidadian singer is seeing his new movie Bazodee, opening in theatres across Toronto.  The feature film -- a musical -- is a fusion of Soca music and Bollywood movie styling. Fresh from a sell-out premiere at the just completed Caribbean Tales Film Festival in Toronto, Bazodee is being booked into Canadian theatres by Serafini Films.  They are billing Bazodee as "a 'Come Alive' Caribbean Musical featuring Machel Montano in his debut and the heartbeat of his Soca music, influenced by the traditional sounds of India and electronica." The movie will be shown at three theatres in Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga this weekend. 45-year old Machel Montano, th...

Caribbean Tales In The North. TIFF Owns The South . When it comes to the downtown Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the College Street Caribbean Tales Film Festival , (CTFF) it is the Two Solitudes of the movie world. TIFF has the Big Names, the Big Movies and a Big Army of volunteers to make sure that the ticket holders stay off the red carpets and out of the VIP parties.  At CTFF, the actors, actresses, directors and crew are in-your-face minglers and if there was a red carpet they would be dragging movie fans onside to whine with them! Jacinth Sutphin at the Dip Case in point. Last Thursday the CTFF kicked off with a beer and pizza gala at the Cafe Diplomatico (aka the Dip ) on College Street just steps from the Royal Theatre (festival home).   Actors and actresses who are household names to Trinidadians and Jamaicans but unknown in Canada, were so willing to pose with fans, the Caribbean Media, and one lone CBC reporter, the sel...