Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Playing Flute in the window. Cooking Love In the Kitchen Famed jazz flutist and author Sherry Winston has a recipe for the perfect romantic at-home dinner date.   Subdued lighting (“bright lights are a turn-off). The right music ( at my age loud hip hop is a no-no). And Chicken Wings – of course the recipe comes from her latest aphrodisiac laden recipe book! The New Yorker has played with Stevie Wonder, performed for both the Clintons and George Bush and cooked on TV with Emirl Lagasse!    After Friday night, she can now say that she performed and signed her cookbook “ For Lovers Only: A Cookbook and More  “ in the front window of the Another Book List in Toronto. The Bathurst and Bloor bookstore includes a large performance space for visiting musicians and authors.   On Friday night they featured a woman who is both!   For Winston’s only public appearance in Canada over 50 long-time fans came out for the 2-hour event.   As well, she a...

The Trinidadian Name Game: Nang by Nang By Stephen Weir I suggested to award winning Canadian filmmaker Richard Fung that his new documentary about 94-year old Nang could be called Travels with my Trinidadian Aunt. “No!” he said.  “Everyone seems to think that Nang is my aunt, but, even though we are 30-years apart, she is my cousin!” Fung – an award winning Trinidadian born filmmaker and a professor at the OCAD University in downtown Toronto – is premiering his 40-minute documentary  Nang by Nang , next Wednesday evening (September 12) at the Royal Cinema as part of the Caribbean Tales Film Festival.  Nine days later he will be premiering the movie again in Trinidad as part of their Film Festival.  He spoke to me last week about the movie at his home in Toronto.   Fung’s film is the story of his aunt who now lives in the US and how they meet and travelled together back to Trinidad to explore their shared family tree.  The doc...

Nickolai Salcedo readies to climb aboard the world stage for  his role in the new Trini-Canadian flick By Stephen Weir It is not just actor Nickolai Salcedo who is waiting for a bus to arrive.   It is the whole cast and crew of the new Canadian / Trinidadian movie, Hero , that are anxiously wondering when and where their soon-to-be previewed film is going to take them. Salcedo plays Ulric Cross, the famed Trinidadian World War II airman. The Hero is a full-length docudrama that tells the story of the life and times of Cross. He was squadron leader for the Brits and went on after the War to become a jurist and diplomat. His life spanned key events of the 20th Century when independent African and Caribbean nations came of age.   It is all going to happen quickly.   Next week, at the September 5 th gala kick-off of Toronto’s Caribbean Tales Film Festival, Hero will be shown for the very first time.   Salcedo in Bloor St West coffee shop...

Day after a History of Black Dance in Canada exhibition came down, 92-year old pioneer dancer Ola Skanks passed away. By Stephen Weir Last month 92-year old dancer Ola Skanks was the star at the opening of an Ola Skanks by Stephen Weir exhibition about the history of the Black community and Canadian dance.   The show, Dancing Black in Canada, 1900 to 1970. “ was hung at the Ontario College of Art’s Ignite Gallery in Toronto’s Kensington Market. Ola Skanks, told me at the opening that she hadn’t danced in public for twenty-years, but, there was no way that she was going to miss the opening of the show. Besides, she had contributed a number of photographs and artifacts to exhibition. Born and raised in Canada, her Caribbean roots were important to her, and along with African influences impacted on her dance style. “My father was born in Barbados in 1892 and his name was Ethelbert Shepherd,” wrote Ola Skanks in an email to me late last month. “My mother was born in...