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Two stories about two Toronto Mas Bands Launching On Same Night Reveller's Treasure Island costumes - from Reveller's FB Reveller's Treasure Map Says Launch is in North Toronto this Saturday Early last month the Toronto Revellers announced that their 2019 costume launch will be held this Saturday night in Toronto.  The theme for the costumed fete is Treasure Island. The Saturday night date puts the Revellers into head-to-head competition with the launch previously advertised for Fantazia.  Fantazia and their flaming phoenix logo announced a later start-time for their fashion show (12.30am) for the carnival die-hards it might be possible to catch both events. Jamaal - picture by Stephen Weir "Please join us Saturday April 6, as Toronto Revellers unveil our beautiful costumes for 2019 Peeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival," wrote  the band founder Jamaal Magloire. The Revellers will be holding their launch at the York Mills Gallery on Leslie

Esi signs a deal and plans for two May appearances in Brampton Barbados slave saga soon moving from books to our TV By Stephen Weir Washington Black is not going away soon. In fact the story of the young Barbados slave who ends up travelling the world, will be coming to television, now that the rights to Esi Edugyan’s award winning novel have just been purchased by Hollywood! Edugyan’s Washington Black was truly the book of the year in Canada last year and is now proving to a world-beater in sales. It won the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for both the prestigious UK Man Booker Prize and Canada’s 2018 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction honours. Washington Black is the story of George Washington Black; an eleven-year-old field slave living on a Barbados sugar plantation. From the brutal cane plantations to the icy waters of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-filled streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black is the tale – ins

Marie-Joseph Angélique will Burn Down The House By Stephen Weir It is not as though the story of how Angélique, a young Montreal domestic slave, set fire to Montreal and was hanged for her trouble is a state secret. However, the fact that there was slavery in Canada, and at least one black woman fought back in 1724, is not a well-known fact. “ The trouble with history is knowing whose version of the facts are real.   While the establishment might see Angélique, as a villain, the Black community will have a different take, " said Luke Reece a Producer at Obsidian Theatre. " Next week we are opening AngÄlique a play that tells her story and gives a vibrant account of Canadian Black history. " Angélique, a classic Canadian play written by the late Lorena Gale, is based on the transcripts of the trial of an enslaved Black woman who was tortured and hanged for the Montreal fire 245 years ago. The current drama (mounted initially by the Quebec based Black Th

Tribal Carnival Has Season's First Costume Launch Friday Night   Dexter and Celena at last year's Tribal costume launch This Afternoon's Caribbean Camera This Morning By Stephen Weir The Big Show starts tomorrow!   The first Toronto Caribbean Carnival's Band Launch begins Friday night when Tribal Carnival, Canada's most successful travelling Mas Bands, takes to the stage at the Grande Luxe Ballroom on Bayview Avenue in North York. Doors open at 9.30 and the show is scheduled to start at 11.30 pm. Mas Bands competiting in this year’s Grand Parade hold late night fetes to introduce the costumes their Mas players will be wearing down the road. This year Tribal’s costume designs are based on the theme of Magic. “Hey Stephen, we will have 80 models on stage at our band launch, with 11 sections,” said Celena Seusahai, the Queen of last year’s parade. “I’ll be wearing the showstopper again and closing the show.”