Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

No Cuss Cuss: All One-Love for Louise Bennett-Coverley  Photos and Story by Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camer a Tania Hernandes channels Miss Lou A Thursday evening Harbourfront event to promote a coming book and movie about the life of the Jamaican Canadian Miss Lou began with actress singer Tania Hernandez channeling the poet with the recital of her Noh Lickle Twang .   Wearing a costume befitting Miss Lou and using the pantomime acting style she was known for, Hernandez and several other guests spoke in the   patois that only a born and raised in Jamaica can fully understand. Noh Lickle Twang is one of Miss Lou’s ( Louise Bennett Coverley ) most beloved poems.   It tells a mother’s story of the return of her son to Jamaica after working in the US for six months. She is upset, in a humorous way that the prodigal son has returned without leaving his “patwah” behind. “Yuh mean yuh go dah Merica An spen six whole mont deh, An come back not a piece better Dan how yu

Scarborough Book Cracks The Book Short List  By Stephen Weir Trinidadian Canadian writer David Chariandy’s award winning novel, Brothers, is up for another prize.   The winner of the 2017 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize has just been nominated for this year’s Toronto Book Awards. David Chariandy’s book is a devastating story about the love between a mother and her sons, the impact of race, masculinity and the senseless loss of young lives in Scarborough, in the violent summer of 1991. Brothers is one of five books on the City of Toronto and  Toronto Public Library ‘s 2018 Toronto Book Awards shortlist. Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the awards honour books of literary merit that are evocative of Toronto. The 2018 shortlist is: ·       Dionne Brand “ The Unpublished City “, ·       David Chariandy “ Brother “, ·       Carrianne Leung “ That Time I Loved You “, ·       Lee Maracle “ My Conversations with Canadians “, ·

Playing Flute in the window. Cooking Love In the Kitchen Famed jazz flutist and author Sherry Winston has a recipe for the perfect romantic at-home dinner date.   Subdued lighting (“bright lights are a turn-off). The right music ( at my age loud hip hop is a no-no). And Chicken Wings – of course the recipe comes from her latest aphrodisiac laden recipe book! The New Yorker has played with Stevie Wonder, performed for both the Clintons and George Bush and cooked on TV with Emirl Lagasse!    After Friday night, she can now say that she performed and signed her cookbook “ For Lovers Only: A Cookbook and More  “ in the front window of the Another Book List in Toronto. The Bathurst and Bloor bookstore includes a large performance space for visiting musicians and authors.   On Friday night they featured a woman who is both!   For Winston’s only public appearance in Canada over 50 long-time fans came out for the 2-hour event.   As well, she and her host Dr. Maurice Bygrave di

The Trinidadian Name Game: Nang by Nang By Stephen Weir I suggested to award winning Canadian filmmaker Richard Fung that his new documentary about 94-year old Nang could be called Travels with my Trinidadian Aunt. “No!” he said.  “Everyone seems to think that Nang is my aunt, but, even though we are 30-years apart, she is my cousin!” Fung – an award winning Trinidadian born filmmaker and a professor at the OCAD University in downtown Toronto – is premiering his 40-minute documentary  Nang by Nang , next Wednesday evening (September 12) at the Royal Cinema as part of the Caribbean Tales Film Festival.  Nine days later he will be premiering the movie again in Trinidad as part of their Film Festival.  He spoke to me last week about the movie at his home in Toronto.   Fung’s film is the story of his aunt who now lives in the US and how they meet and travelled together back to Trinidad to explore their shared family tree.  The documentary is told for the most part by Nang – Fung