Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Former US President Bill Clinton announces a new project to help the Caribbean and is currently in the Islands.   youtube link at bottom of post On Tuesday former President Bill Clinton held an important Caribbean Hurricane relief meeting with more than 400 government and business leaders from the Caribbean and the US. The relief summit was held to make commitments to help communities impacted by last year’s devastating hurricane season. Tuesday’s meeting was the second for his Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative   (CGI) Action Network on Post-Disaster Recover. The Clinton Foundation issued a press release explaining that the CGI is creating “new, specific, and measurable projects to address critical issues such as disaster preparedness, agricultural production, mental health, energy efficiency, and workforce development. New commitments will aim to assist with immediate needs as well as the long-term recovery and opportunity in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Dom

--> Senator pledges to make August 1st National Emancipation Day across Canada   It all happened underground late last Tuesday night while most of Toronto slept. Looking out over a sea of Caribbean Canadian faces at the start of the annual Freedom Ride; Senator Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard yelled out “You should see the beautiful view from here!” The Halifax senator, one of only a few Afro-Canadians in the Upper Chamber, was a keynote speaker at the 6th annual Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train ride. She told the huge audience that she is going to work to make August 1 st a federally proclaimed national day to honour Emancipation Day.  Senator Bernard shared the microphone with the Toronto Caribbean Carnival's Rita Cox, the honourary conductor of the 2018 Freedom Train. They stood on the steps of the Rotunda inside the TTC Union Station. The pair were surrounded by people wanting to join them on a special subway train ride to mark the August 1,1834

Off Their Rockers – 40 Years Later – Reggae Movie Expands Film Festival Programming By Stephen Weir To mark the 40th anniversary release of the seminal Jamaica reggae film Rocker, the Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) held a special showing last week at the downtown Royal Cinema. The screening of the remastered feature film is precursor for the CTFF 15-day movie fete which begins on September 5th. In 1978 when the Reggae musical movement was just getting noticed, the musicians of Trench Town were still scrambling for money, bookings and recording contracts.   Survival meant playing as many gigs as possible, promoting records from the backs of their motorcycles and living off the generosity of their wives, lovers and families. Rockers, a bargain basement movie that was made for just $4,000 US ($500,000 JA), took the Caribbean and ultimately North America and the UK by storm when released in 1978.   A reworking of the legend of Robin Hood, Rocker has good Rastas robb

Dancing Black Exhibition - Weekend Viewing By Stephen Weir 92-year old Ola Skanks hasn’t danced in public for twenty-years, but, there was no way that she was going to miss the opening of a Kensington Market gallery’s exhibition about the history of the Black community and Canadian dance.           York University’s Dr. Seika Boye curated  Dancing Black in Canada, 1900 to 1970 . “This exhibition illuminates the largely undocumented dance history of Canada’s Black population before 1970” Dr. Boye told a packed Ignite Gallery earlier last month. The exhibition is made up of photographs, media clippings and artefacts that detail how Black Canadians first got involved in dance – both professional and socially – beginning some 120-years ago. Featured are individual well-known dance artists such as Leonard Gibson, Ola Skanks, Ethel Bruneau, Joey Hollingsworth and Kathryn Brown. “The exhibit exposes the representation of Blackness on Canadian stages, as well as audience and