Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Brampton’s getting ready to show Toronto how to Reggae down the road By Stephen Weir Maybe it is time the annual carnival changed its name again.  How about the Toronto and Brampton Caribbean Carnival?  Johanna Grant, a long time Carnival reveller, is starting her own band  - The Freedom Mas Band - and has already organized her camp in Brampton. She has taken a space in the Dixie and Steeles area and has a booked a hall for her early April 5th costume launch.   “ As far as I know we are the first Mas Band from Brampton to participate in the Toronto parade,” she told the Caribbean Camera this week. “ You know Scarborough is getting a little crowded (with camps). Everyone in Brampton and Mississauga loves the idea it saves a lot of driving. And for out-of-towners we are are only 10-minutes from the airport, if they want to pick-up a costume after landing.” For its inaugural year, Freedom Mas, will be a non-competitive band.  That means that Grant...

Kim Nelson – taking names, firing old White men and walking over Indigenous students Review by Stephen Weir   Kim Nelson For white men of a certain age, 2020 is a scary time when teaching an old man new tricks means putting him out to pasture.  In Tarragon Theatre’s new play, This Was the World, Kim Nelson is the young quiet woman who manages to take names, fire a an aging legal superstar and stomp over an indigenous students private affairs. Nelson a relative newcomer to the Toronto theatre scene is the quiet force in this small play about gossip war between Boomer white privilege and her generation’s seething millennial rage. “This play is about how its characters deal with change and loss of status or privilege (or what is sometimes called white fragility),” explains playwright Ellie Moon.  “I believe that it is worth exploring the ordinariness and the consequences of  White fragility.”   This Was the World, Kim Nelson &  Dakota Ra...

THE MOSQUITO DETERMINED OUR HISTORY Review by Herman Silochan - Toronto Caribbean Independent Newspaper The Mosquito - A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, by Timothy Winegard In the past four decades, history has been forced to be dramatically rewritten, over and over, from ancient times to the here and now. The further opening up of archives in the great libraries, monasteries, museums and government records offices of the world is but one avenue for revision. Significantly though, subjecting specimens, species, animal and plant, even relics, to DNA classification and testing has forced re-interpretation on its head. Forensic anthropology and archeology have come into their own. Those of us who recall our high school history, and later at university, do have a good sense of the sequence of events. But what about the scenes behind the scenes, so to speak? All of us know that Alexander the Great invaded western India through the Indus Valley, and it was drummed i...

Opening Saturday at North Toronto’s Meridian Arts Centre Eddie Grant photo of PM Manley Way back in the 70s and 80s a quintet of Caribbean Canadian photojournalists were literarily the Ears, Eyes and Voice of Toronto’s many hard-hitting community newspapers!  Press photographs taken by Jules Elder, Eddie Grant, Diane Liverpool, Al Peabody and Jim Russell are on display beginning Saturday at the Meridian Arts Centre in North Toronto as part of Black History Month celebrations in the city. This free exhibition, presented by TO Live, brings together important historic works by the five “shooters”. Their combined collection of photographs is a rare pictorial record of newspaper stories that covered the evolving history of the community. Ears, Eyes, Voice bring back both good and bad memories from the streets of Toronto. There are pictures of reggae star Peter Tosh at the O’Keefe Centre; Caribana as a giant Blocko on University Avenue, and a large Africa Li...

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...

Sophomore band plans to paint Caribana Green in 2020 Last year photographer and long-time filmmaker Jenny Baboolal was a little green behind the ears when it came to starting a new Mas Band. Now almost a year later, not only is she going green again but also plans to be bigger and better than in she was in 2019. “My belief is that Going Green is a win-win proposition for everyone” Baboolal told the Caribbean Camera. “Everyone is aware of the climate change crisis and we all want to make a difference.” In 2019, Baboolal, and Calypsonian Roger Gibbs led a mini-parade of 20 masqueraders wearing green costumes, around Nathan Phillips Square during the City Hall Launch of the annual carnival. “This year I’d love to have enough people in green to encircle the Square.” The Going Green group has a message to the world. “ We must reduce our carbon footprint!” To that end the masqueraders will be at the launch and the parade having fun and spreading the world about their environme...

Investing in Cultural Infrastructure in Hamilton  The Government of Canada supports the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the creation of a civic museum! HAMILTON, Ontario, February 11, 2020 The Government of Canada is committed to supporting the creation and renovation of cultural spaces to allow better access to the arts and heritage for everyone.  The Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister of Labour, and Member of Parliament (Hamilton West–Ancaster– Dundas), announced $112,875 in funding for the Art Gallery of Hamilton today. She made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage. The Honourable Filomena Tassi   This support, provided through the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, will help fund a comprehensive feasibility study for a significant renovation of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. The study will explore improvements to the art gallery’s storage, displays and interpretation of its perma...

Go Fund Dr. Kim. He Wants You To Join The Damn Pan Family Trinidad and Tobago’s 2020 Carnival is roaring down the track and Dr. Kim Johnson author and film maker has turned to social media to get his book about Pan on board!  Last week on Facebook postings began appearing about his IndieGoGo crowd funding campaign to reprint his seminal, Illustrated Story of Pan. The book will not be available for Carnival, but, the author is hopefully that by the time people start taking to the streets of Port of Spain, he will know whether or not there will be second printing of Pan history will be available to order. Dr. Johnson is a Director at the Carnival Institute of Trinidad and Tobago. He works at the University of Trinidad and Tobago and manages PAN We Are The World. His short films about Pan and the Carnival Arts are shown at festivals around the world including Toronto’s Caribbean Tales Film Festival. The original book was published in Trinidad and Tobago in 2011.  The initi...

Never mind Crawfish and Carnival, love infused Jazz at the George with Louisiana’s red-hot singer, Quiana Lynell  by stephen weir Hectic just doesn’t cut it when describing jazz singer Quiana Lynell’s life these days. Two better words just might be airport and hotel! The red-hot jazz singing sensation from Louisiana is en-route to Toronto for her long delayed Canadian debut concert.  But in between leaving her home two days ago in the Deep South and experiencing her first Deep North winter next week, she has taken her quartet to Europe to perform. The vocalist extraordinaire is booked into the George Weston Recital Hall, next Saturday night (Feburary 15th) as part of the Jazz at the George concert series.  The George bills itself as Canada’s best recital hall and one of the world’s top venues; it is part of the Meridian Arts Centre complex on Yonge Street in North York. On Wednesday, the Caribbean Camera's Stephen Weir caught up with the winner of th...

Desmond Cole Howls About His New Blockbuster Book The Howl Radio Show scored a big media scoop when they had author Desmond Cole on air the night before the official launch of his guaranteed blockbuster book The Skin We're In.  University of Toronto's CIUT-FM 89.5 landed a 20-minute late night (10pm) live interview on Tuesday in advance of Cole’s large sold-out launch  booked for Wednesday evening at the downtown Art Gallery of Ontario. Howl is one of the longest running book radio show in the country (20+ years). Show host Jane Bullis, took Cole through his new work, a book which looks at racism in Canada in 2017 and, as he says, punctures the smugness of a post-racial nation. Cole chronicles  the year 2017 – Canada’s 150th birthday  -- and the month of January 2018. It’s all about the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that he writes, saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manit...

--> Big Things Happening In Toronto This February. A Torchy Jully Black - by Jones & Jones At a Harbourfront media event on Monday, a few audience members remarked that Black History Month (BHM) should be moved from February to March this year. Why?   BHM could use the extra two days   - there is just too much happening to see it all in just 29 days. The presser was billed as the TD Black History Month Series Launch and there was a stream of big names on and off the stage.   Hip-hop veteran Maestro Fresh Wes was the ringleader and introduced appearances from top Canadian talent including Jully Black, Tonya Williams and Exco Levi. The launch was part promotional for the city’s February events and the other half was discussion on living the Black experience in Canada.   TD Bank was front and centre on Monday because of their ten-year involvement in funding BHM events including the presser.   Jully Black & Exco Levy - by Jone...