Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Antonio Michael Downing’s story is a true tale for the Diaspora.   By Stephen Weir   If you have pigged out on  poulourie , studied from   Nelson’s West Indian Reader or had a  rumbo  yell at you walking home from school, then Antonio Michael Downing’s  Saga Boy, My Life Of Blackness And Becoming  will soon deeply speak to you.  This Saga Boy is a local  musician, writer, and activist and his wild ride autobiography is set to loudly drop early next month. Saga Boy is the real deal that takes readers from Trinidad’s Monkey Town to the wilds of Northern Ontario and finally to fame and fortune here in the Six. Don’t recognize the name? Maybe you know him as  Mic Dainjah, Molasses or have caught him on stage playing cutting edge music under the name John Orpheus. “ Throughout the years, I would give myself many names,” writes Downing in the new book. “They called me Tony in Trinidad, Michael in the gleaming boardrooms of corporate Canad...

  PARANG MUSIC HERALDS THE BOXING DAY RETURN OF JAI! By Stephen Weir:  On December 26 Jai Ojah-Maharaj ( pictured above ) will be back. His return comes just in time to bring Parang music back to the airwaves. The godfather of Soca and Parang on Toronto radio will soon be heard on CHIN radio, the station where it all began for him over 30 years ago!  His  Caribbean Connection  Saturday night show will be a huge Boxing Day present for FM listeners from Toronto to Buffalo and beyond. “ I have been talking to Lenny Lombardo (the owner of CHIN radio) on and off for quite sometime now,” said Jai yesterday. “ Things began to heat up about three weeks ago, when we learned the Saturday night  South Asian Show  was giving up its weekly time slot.  They have had that (time slot) since I left CHIN in 2011 (to join the just launched G-98.7), and of course I want it back!” “ Because of the Pandemic the community is missing the joy of Parang,” he continued. “So...

  Another Letter To Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette At the beginning of this year The Caribbean Camera published an editorial that asked you to include ALL Canadians in your decision making process when you decide who is to join the ranks of Order of Canada.  Good news, ten months later -- it appears you listened and have now included a single person of colour amongst the latest additions to this exclusive club. One out of 114. Yes it was a baby step and yes you have a long way to go. But we rejoice that our Queen’s representative has noticed us! It was in our January 8 th  edition that our erstwhile reporter Stephen Weir penned an editorial that pointed out to you, The Governor General, that your December 2019 list of citizens who had earned the  Order of Canada had a lot of people missing – specifically the names of people of colour. He also pointed out that this wasn’t the first time your appointment list did not include a sin...

  Desmond Coles win the Toronto Book Award for walking the walk and writing about it.   By Stephen Weir:  Often called the human launch pin to Toronto’s Black Lives Matter movement, writer and broadcaster Desmond Cole has just  been awarded the 2020 Toronto Book Award for his memoir “The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power”. The annual civic book award ceremony is usually held at the Toronto Reference Library, but this year was held virtually on Monday night. The prize was presented live on line by Paul Ainslie city councillor for Scarborough-Guildwood and a member of the Toronto Public Library Board.  Cole takes home $10,000 and four finalists receive $1,000 each. Also in the running for the Prize was Jamaica Canadian writer Zalika Reid-Benta (Frying Plantain), Katie Daubs (The Missing Millionaire), Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber (Dancing After TEN) and Jean Marc Ah-Sen  (In the Beggarly Style of Imitation) Cole’s book, according...

  ONLY CARIBBEAN CANADIAN TO RECEIVE THE ORDER OF CANADA - FLOW FOUNDER DENHAM JOLLY                       Brandeis  Denham Jolly , a Toronto businessman, author and broadcaster  is one of 114 new appointments to the Order of Canada  announced by her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada. The  new appointees to the Order were announced last Friday. Created in 1967, the Order of Canada is one of our country’s highest honours. The Order spotlights people whose service shapes our society. More than 7,000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the Order of Canada. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others. Mr. Jolly’s official citation recognizes “his contributions to the promotion of equity and opportunity within the Greater Toronto Area’s Black community.” 85-year old  Brandeis Denham Jolly was born in  ...

Stephen Weir first reporter to talk to this popular streaming service   Black TV/Film comes to Canada via Amazon Prime Video Channel By Stephen Weir:  UMC, the first streaming service ever created for Black TV and film from AMC Networks, is coming to this country. The company announced yesterday afternoon that it is extending its reach into Canada with its debut on Amazon Prime Video Channels this week. Prime Video Channels launched for Canada in June of last year and currently offers 18 channels, including AMC Networks Acorn TV, Shudder, and Sundance Now. UMC’s addition is the first that specifically caters to Black and Afro-Canadian audiences. The rapidly growing Black-focused streaming service features an array of programming that includes exclusive UMC original series; independent films; stage plays; popular network TV, nostalgic Black cinema, and much more. “We will offer diverse content that captures the essence of the Black experience, no matter which continent you live...

Industry panel asks are museums in crisis? By Stephen Weir : The winds of change are about to begin blowing through the boardrooms of public art galleries and museums in Ontario. On Thursday a panel of art experts will be meeting online at the  Ontario Museum Association’s  (OMA) annual meeting to talk the talk about the lack of diversity at the top! The  industry wide discussion is self-titled “ Are Museums in Crisis ” inspired by a number of recent articles in both the  Canadian Art Magazine  and the Toronto  Globe and Mail.   These well-respected publications have published articles that report that the vast majority of people running public art galleries and museums are white while employees and cultural consumers alike want change! A panel discussion about having more exhibition and shows by  non-white artists? No, right now the issue is diversity in terms of who is running our public cultural organizations - curators, executives and bo...

Trinidad novelist Ingrid Persaud in the running for a big UK book prize By Stephen Weir:  UK’s Costa Book Awards finalists were just announced including Trinidad’s  Ingrid Persaud . Her novel  Love After Love is in the running for the annual 5,000 £  pr ize for Top First Novel. The Costa Book Awards are a set of annual literary awards in five categories recognising English-language books penned by writers based in Britain and Ireland.  A nominated author need not be a citizen to win the Prize. Persaud a writer in her 50s left Trinidad at the age of 18 to study and work in the UK.  A late bloomer, She  won both the 2017 Commonwealth short story prize and the 2018   BBC National short story award with  The Sweep Sop.  Love After Love, her first full-length novel,  is about an unconventional household in Trinidad. It tells  the story of Trinidadian Betty Ramdin, who has suffered for years at the hands of her ...

Table Talk. Hip Vodka and much much more. Yvette Martin is back in Toronto changing the entertainment world.   By Stephen Weir   Sitting around Yvette Martin’s kitchen table in her home northwest of Toronto shooting the breeze with a local reggae star the talk is  dope .  Even more so than one might expect because thousands of Jamaicans are  watching and hanging on to every word Martin says in her new weekly radio and TV show. Producer. Actress. Playwright. Friend to the music world. Yvette Martin hosts this new radio and television weekly morning show on the Caribbean World Channel (CWCTV) in Jamaica that all takes place around her Canadian kitchen table. Visiting reggae stars. Actresses. New songs dropping every week. Often it is just interesting stories from one of the hardest working music producers this side of the US border.  Her busy busy life, even during the lockdown is all fodder for her new issues based Caribbean World Channel show  Table Ta...