Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Natasha Powell has a new line of Jazz Dancing Natasha Powell isn’t worried.     The Toronto choreographer, dancer, and teacher has a little over four weeks to finish     her new dance  Margarita   which gets its world premiere on September 30 th . “I am not worried” she told the Caribbean Camera. “ I am about half finished. Navigating this has been a bit of challenge but I’d rather be fresh when we go on stage than stale, which can happen with an older (work).” Margarita will be performed three times – September 30 th , October 1 st  and 2 nd  as part Toronto’s premier international dance festival Fall for Dance North (FFDN). The annual festival is back with in-person programming after a 2-year Covid break. The eighth edition of the festival runs from September 17 to October 8 th  on various stages throughout the city. Being a work in progress, Powell is a little bit short on detail of what audiences can expect when the curtain goes up...

LavWay is the only way to enjoy Trinidad's Carnival in the theatre During the carnival season in Toronto a day doesn’t go by without me being asked “what is it about you that you love Carnival so much?”  I haven’t had an answer as to why I consider Carnival the best live show on earth, that is until I saw the movie  Lavway: Our Story. It is a magical movie made by devotees of the Caribbean arts and released in Port-of-Spain back in February, 2021. You won’t see this on Netflix, this feature is aimed primarily at a Caribbean audience and carnival friendly North Americans.  This is an hour-long explosion of colour, music, costumes, dancing and dark mystical stories about all things Carnival.  It helps to know a little about the traditions of the annual T&T carnival before you buy your ticket for the film’s September 8 th  Canadian premier. This is a film has been made not to teach but to entertain.  “This is an experimental film based on traditi...

Stephen Weir Goes To The Movies In September Stephen Weir in a theatre  lobby ub July Ms Jean Augustine, Ms Everything, is about to be crowned Canada’s Movie Queen. Earlier this week the annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) held it's 2022 Media Launch to roll out the movies that will be screened in theatres this September, and the show stopper is none other than   Steadfast – The Messenger And the Message,   a documentary about the life of  Canada’s first Black Canadian woman to serve as a Federal Minister of the Crown, Jean Augustine of course. The hour-long film  tells the amazing life story of this Grenadian Canadian Liberal politican who spent a dozen years in parliament and then become a non-stop community activist here in Toronto. The film was recently completed by Canadian director Fahim Hamid and has an amazing three-person castlist which actually includes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau! The film will be shown the evening of Friday  ...

  Have You Got Your Oscar Yet?   STEPHEN WEIR : Sometime on  Monday Canada’s Mint began issuing the brand new $1 Oscar – the first circulating Canadian coin to bear the likeness of a Black Canadian.  The $1 commemorative coin is all about celebrating the artistic legacy of the late Oscar Peterson .   Called "the man with four hands" by jazz great and admirer Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson rose to the top of the music world through more than six decades of electrifying piano performances. The coin began circulating on Monday, August 15, to coincide with his birthday. Peterson was born in Montreal in 1925 to immigrants from St. Kitts and the British Virgin Islands)  --  his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. Oscar Peterson passed away in Mississauga back in 2007. He was 82-years old.   According to the Royal Canadian Mint the Oscar Peterson commemorative circulation coin was designed by artist Vale...

David Rudder joins very elite group of noteable Caribbean people STEPHEN WEIR Next time that Calypso singer David Rudder appears on stage, the audience should give him his new dues by shouting out as loud as possible Cheers  To The Honourable King David! Earlier this month the Trinidadian Canadian performer received the Order of The Caribbean Community (OCC).  The award bestows  styling  The Honourable  upon Rudder’s name! Rudder, who is often referred as King David,  was in Port of Spain on the 10 th  of August to receive the prestigious award at the Diplomatic Centre in St, Ann’s. According to an information bulletin of Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs the decision to award 69-year old Rudder the OCC was made  back in July at the annual   Caribbean Community and Common Market   (CARICOM) Heads of Government Conference in Suriname. The Honourable David Rudder was unable to atte...

New Book Xpresses Maxwell’s Belief In The Divine Order Of Authority Maxwell Blackwood, the Toronto based publisher of the Jamaican Xpress News will be holding court on Sunday August 14th at the Royal Canadian Legion on Irwin Rd in Etobicoke. The well-known writer will be launching a new book at the 2pm event. The new book is entitled the Divine Order of Authority: Law and Mathematics. “The entire theme of this book is to let readers realize that Law and Mathematics are part of the divine order of authority,” said Blackwell. “This book is intended to stimulate ideas and concepts and lead the readers to think for themselves objectively, on matters of importance, spiritually, academically, and mentally. It will help to foster clarity on subject matters that may not even be knowable.” Part philosophy, part autobiography and very much a social commentary on Black Culture, Blackwell tells this non-fiction title through the voice of a pastoral preacher! Although originally from Jamaica, the a...

Denyse is coming home to the AGO this fall   By Stephen Weir Early in October the Art Gallery of Ontario is presenting the first major retrospective exhibition of the late Trinidadian-Canadian artist  Denyse Thomasos.  She is considered one the finest painters to emerge in the 1990s. The exhibition is entitled  Denyse Thomasos: just beyond  and is co-organized by the AGO and the Remai Modern art gallery in Saskatoon.  “Thomasos had a singular style that employed abstraction as a means to explore contemporary issues of race, the architecture of confinement and our complex relationships to space and place, and the environment” said the AGO in a recent release about the coming show.   Denyse Thomasos: just beyond  is co-organized by the AGO and Saskatoon’s Remai Modern contemporary art gallery. Born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Thomasos was raised in Toronto and spent most of her professional career in Philadelphia and New York City. Thomasos ear...

  CRIME ALONG DE CARNIVAL ROAD UNPUBLISHED STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH by a slightly crushed sweirsweir The good news about the Saturday July 30 th  parade is that no was killed during the day-long festival.  The bad news is there was a serious stabbing near the west-end of the parade route and an unconfirmed report that police also arrested a man carrying a gun. Constable Laura Brabant with the Force’s public relation department confirmed that a man had been stabbed near the intersection of British Columbia Rd and Lakeshore Blvd at the far-end of the Canadian Exhibition Grounds. The stabbing occurred at approximately 5:30 Saturday afternoon while the parade was still in progress. At the time police reported that the victim had a “serious injury” which has since been downgraded. He was rushed to hospital by ambulance officers search the area looking for the stabber. He was not found. “I can further advise that the victim’s injury is non-life-threatening in nature.” Said off...

Conductor Jean tells fellow train riders to never give up The Honourable Jean Augustine (pictured below) probably didn't have to say anything except All-A-Board,  but a 1,000 people waiting to board the TTC Freedom Train wanted to hear what the first  Black Canadian woman to serve as a federal Minister of the Crown and Member of Parliament had to say .  Standing on steps inside Union Station she told the crowd that things are better now than during the days of Canadian slavery, but warned them there is still a long road ahead. The former politican and now community activist was the honouorary conductor of   last Sunday night's  Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train Ride. The ride is back on track and in-person this year after being derailed for two years by Covid. The annual train ride aboard a special TTC train took some 1,000 people on a non-stop ride from Union Station to the Sheppard Station to have a midnight “happening” to mark Emancipation Day. It wa...

  The Cancellation Virus Hits Toronto AGAIN  In Time For Caribana Weekend These days buying a ticket to an event does not guarantee that you will get to go to the event. And, when a concert or show is postponed, you might not get your ticket refunded as quickly as you might expect.   The event scene in Toronto and many other major cities in Canada and the US has been hit by two nasty trends since Covid. Ticket prices have gone up and more and more ticketed events are getting cancelled – usually with little warning.   This summer alone in Toronto concerts by Justin Bieber, the Weeknd and New Kids On the Block have been postponed or outright cancelled. Bieber pulled out of a June concert because of illness, the Weeknd cancelled when the Rogers network collapsed, Mendes pulled the plug on a few days before and New Kids on the Block gave a week's  notice they were not going to perform in Toronto.   This past long weekend two significant events slated for the Ex...

Two Years On - Monday's Emancipation Day This Monday marks the second federally recognised Emancipation Day in Canada, it is also the second time that Toronto will mark the event with a march along Bloor Street in downtown Toronto. Beginning at 1pm at Bathurst and Bloor Street the parade with travel west to Christie Pitts for live music and celebration in honour of Canada’s recognition of Emancipation Day. Emancipation on Bloor ends at 3pm. The event marks the actual day in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 came into effect across the British Empire. August 1st is now a day that honours the long legacy and contribution of Black Canadians and the commitment to unlearning anti-Black racism and pushing for a more just society. media covering 2021 Bloor March Emancipation on Bloor is once again organized by The Blackhurst Cultural Centre. Spokeswoman Itah Sadu says the parade will “a series of “statements” through artistic expression including the liberation from chains, m...

Is it good news for the Toronto Caribbean Carnival or is great news for Drake? The Toronto based singer traditionally holds a multi-day music festival at Ontario Place in and around the Caribana weekend. Some years the timing of the start of his concerts have conflicted with the closing down of the Grand Parade along Lakeshore Blvd making parking a nightmare. Not in 2022! Drake has just announced the dates for his three Ovo concerts, none of which will take place on parade day (July 30th). On Thursday July 28th the OVO festival kicks off with a showcase of "All Canadian North Stars" at  History,  the new concert hall Drake owns on Queen Street East in Toronto’s Beach District. The show starts at 7pm. venue and you must be at least 19 to attend. As of last night Drake had still not released the names of the acts performing. The other two OVO events will be held at Ontario Place (Budweiser Stage) with Chris Brown and Lil Baby headlining on Friday July 29th. On Monday, August 1s...