Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Next Stop The Winner’s Circle For Three Historians? Will the trend continue? Over the years the Toronto Book Award Gods have looking kindly on Toronto Caribbean and Black authors when it comes to picking the best book of the year which includes Toronto content in its pages.  Firebrand BLM writer Desmond Cole, Poet Dionne Brand, Malvern’s David Chariandy, radio founder Denham Jolly, and novelist Rabindranath Maharaj all have won the annual top prize of $10,000. The city’s annual award has recently released the names of the five 2022 finalists, and one of them has an opportunity to win the Prize the second time around.  Three distinguished scholars of Black history tell that powerful story of the 40,000 slaves who escaped to Canada from the US. Hundreds and hundresd passed through Toronto, many of them stayed. The detailed social and political history is brought to life in dozens of remarkable profiles of the women, men and families who made that dangerous journey. ...

  Doing a Number One on Mister Two and his Three Wishes ⓒ Stephen WEIR, weir31@ September 19,2022. Toronto/Windsor, Canada Dear Paul: My news is devastatingly bad, but I do get to gloat.  I know that I can’t out wish Lucifer, that Old-Scratch. It is a well-known fact that when one gets three wishes and  Wish Number One  is to demand three more, punishment comes at you Big Time. A Satan Slap Down. He is bound by God to make people like you and me pay for our avarice and sins.  Kidnapped. Beaten. Raped. Theft. God knows we have tortured more than a few angels in our time. Or maybe he will get all humourous and transfer me into the body of Helen Henny the chicken singer with  the Chuck E. Cheese Band. In between playing that maddening Happy Birthday ditty He will force-feed me day old pineapple pizza until I break down and wish back those extra wishes. It could take decades, but Mephistopheles doesn’t care, he revels in timeless torture. Wonder what he will do...

  Three of the best film festivals’ films in three different venues on three different days but come on, Jamaica is no T&T Why does it just happen in September? Now that all the critics and movie people have seen the best new film festival flicks how do we, the common people get a chance to buy bags of popcorn, sit back in a darkened theatres and watch a trio of amazing movies about the community’s history, its living heroes and of course Carnival. We are talking about a suite of films that have just gotten the red carpet treatment at three different events and venues - the Caribbean Tales Film Festival launch, a Harbourfront star studded 85 th  birthday party / film premier, and a drama about growing up in Malvern which debuted earlier this month at TIFF and shows again at a TIFF repeat  showing next week. These three titles, with one reservation are keepers not just for now but forever.   Toronto Caribbean Carnival: Fun and Free  is an hour-long docum...

  One Last Time – Raising the Black, Red and White in Mississauga Photos by Horace Thorne   If people in the GTA didn’t know whose colours are  black, red, and white,  after August 31 st  they do now. The people of Trinidad and Tobago celebrated that country’s 60 th  anniversary with events, ceremonies, parties, soccer matches, Cricket games and flag-raising ceremonies. Photographer Horace Thorne who took these pictures, is also the president of the  Trinidad and Tobago Association of Ontario. He covered the Mississauga First Flag Raising ceremony to mark T&T’s Diamond Jubilee  for the Caribbean Camera . The event, was planned for the most part by the association’s vice president, Jean Turner Williams and  was held at Mississauga’s  City Hall. “The City Hall did a wonderful job,” reported Thorne. “There  was a slight shower, so we all moved inside, for the speeches, and food.” Once inside, the Mayor Designate, Councill...

  Exhibition closes with a bang on a steelpan d rum Stephen Weir Monday. Just an hour before the CNE gates shut for the last time this year, Wendy Jones stood on the fair’s International Stage and asked an audience how they are all feeling.  A crowd of 1,000 pan enthusiasts shouted back long and loud. “Hot. Hot. Hot!” Wendy Jones and the Pan Fantasy Steelband and responded in kind.  A rousing stripped down rendition of the Merryman’s  Feeling Hot Hot Hot closed out their one-hour performance in Enwave building at the Ex.  By the time they had packed up their kit (and posed for this picture beside the stage) the CNE had already gone into its shut-down mode for what has been a very successful festival, coming off a 1-year Covid shutdown. The CNE was held from August 19th to September 5 th . According to Darrell Brown, the boss of the festival the “ attendance was over 1 million by the middle of last week, a 10 per cent increase when compared t...

Good News Travel Shortly   Stephen Weir In the last week this Caribbean Camera reporter has heard from the Bahamas, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and The Grenadines regarding travel changes that will impact Canadian visitors. As Covid-19 protection requirements are being reduced the news for travellers is all good.   The Islands of the Bahamas  has eased entry protocols, is welcoming more nonstop flights, and reopening favourite hotels. At the end of August, the Bahamas no longer requires cruise passengers entering the country to be vaccinated. However, the unvaccinated must present a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than 72 hours prior to travel to The Bahamas. In November Frontier Airlines will start nonstop flight from Atlanta to Nassau. Meanwhile Bahamasair will start new nonstop flights between Raleigh-Durham and Freeport, beginning in mid-November. Club Med Columbus Isle which was closed during the pandemic will be reopening its all-inclusive resort on San ...

  Rhoma Meet Dora - your time is long overdue BY STEPHEN WEIR The annual  Dora Mavor Moore Award  is the oldest and largest g rouping of prizes honouring the very best in theatre, dance, and opera in Toronto. This year, the 42 nd  for the Awards, there are 46 different award categories up for grabs! The late Dora Mavor Moore was born in Scotland in 1888 and at the age of 8 came to Toronto.  She devoted her long life to creating theatre and theatre companies in her new home.  A recipient of many awards and honours, Dora Mavor Moore was truly one of the key founders of professional theatre in Canada and a fitting namesake for Toronto’s professional theatre awards. It is a very big deal. Winning a prestigious Dora is a huge career accomplishment for those working in the theatre industry.   When the awards are handed out on  Saturday September 19 th  at the downtown  Winter Garden Theatre Centre, the eyes of the community will be ...

  The Film World Agrees The Martinique Animated Movie OPAL Is Golden IF Alain Bidard makes it up to the Caribbean Tales Film Festival on September 23 rd  he probably won’t bring all his film festival trophies with him when his animated movie, Opal, is shown in Toronto.  There is not enough room in his suitcase for all the awards the Martinique producer/director has captured since the movie came out last year. He has  already won 48 awards and 73 nominations worldwide and will be in the running for some titles at the Toronto festival as well. Alain Bidard (right) is the only Caribbean animation film director who has won that many recognitions.  He  is an animation film producer/director from the French island of Martinique. Over the past 20 years, he has produced and directed animated feature and short films, animated series, and live-action films which won more than 60 awards and 250 nominations in festivals worldwide. The movie gets its Canadian debut...

  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...