Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Toronto can toot their horns with Etienne Charles this August 3rd By Stephen Weir World travelling Trinidadian jazzman Etienne Charles is going to put the dingolay into this year’s Toronto Caribbean Carnival. Earlier this week the trumpeter called the paper from Spain to say that he was going to lead a guest Mas Band in the Carnival’s grand parade and hopes that revellers will jump up and join his band. “ No big surprise, I am calling the band Etienne Charles Brass Band!” he told Stephen Weir. “The band is about reviving the tradition of live brass bands on the road for Carnival. A tradition we have revived in Trinidad with our past three bands, We The People, Street Party and D’Longtime Band” Etienne Charles has an uncle and aunt living in the GTA and last fall played to a nearly sold-out concert at the North Toronto Sony Centre.   He has a strong fan base in the province and is looking forward to those fans jumping up with him at the parade. He will be coming

Director Idris Elba Lots of Fighting In The Yardie  While Audience Argue Over Jamaican to English Subtitles By Stephen Weir   Yardie, a British/Jamaican action movie directed by superstar actor Idris Elba received its Canadian debut last week at the Royal Cinema in downtown Toronto.   And while the 108-minute feature film was awash with blood and murder, everybody in the sold-out theatre left on their own two feet arguing about the Jamaican to English subtitles. British actor Idris Elba directed the full-length thriller (His first time behind the camera) and brought to Canadian by the Caribbean Tales Film Festival. Made a year ago but shown only briefly in the UK and the US, the Film Festival used this rare showing to introduce to the media the line-up of films for this September’s 2019 Festival. The movie, based on Victor Headly’s best selling Jamaican/British 1992 novel, is an uncompromising look at how a wave of black on black murder in Jamai

Sam Cronk at the always knocking door display New exhibition in Brampton shows what it was like for some  By Stephen Weir “The simple truth is this,” said Sam Cronk as he walked Caribbean Toronto News through a somber new exhibition at PAMA. “ No one wants to be a refugee. It is not something you strive to be.   But yet for so many it just suddenly happens. And, I guess it could happen to any of us.” Mr. Cronk is the Senior Curator of History at the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) in downtown Brampton.   Earlier this month, he worked with a Halifax museum to open Refuge Canada, a travelling exhibition in PAMA’s main space gallery.   This multimedia exhibition (supported by the TD Bank)   is showing at museums and galleries across Canada – PAMA is the only stop in Ontario. “It is hard to believe that the world refugee crisis has impacted Peel,” he continued. “it is estimated that 75,000 refugees have settled in Peel County alone. We aren’t talking

But the Province was AWOL at major Caribbean Canadian event By Stephen Weir - Caribbean Camera Media interview festival COO Chris Alexander Jagmeet Singh loves us. He said so as he danced on stage last Tuesday. Mayor John Tory said he loves us, but declined to soca– “because if you really want to know I can’t dance”. Liberal MP Adam Vaughan really really loves us -- and so the love-in went on for over an hour at Nathan Phillips Square. It was the launch of the 52nd annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival, and guess what? The city loves us too! Festival head Denise Herrera-Jackson had a stage full of men helping her launch the new season. Perfect weather, a smallish but energetic crowd and a massive media presence watched and listened to the speeches, the dancing, Pan Fantasy steelband, singing, costumes and more costumes. It was the most successful launch in years. If there were any down notes in the launch it was the lack of any announcement about a new na

Canada’s best Caribbean Canadian Photographers To Be Featured in City Hall Exhibition By Stephen Weir A new Toronto City Hall photography show isn’t part of this year’s Toronto Caribbean Carnival, but, the photographers who belong to the Canadian Caribbean Photography Arts Collective (CCPAC) couldn’t have a picked a better time or place to show revellers their award winning carnival inspired work. The free week-long exhibition,  Beyond the Carnival – A Photography Exhibition Edition 2  – will be hanging when the Toronto Caribbean Carnival has its very public noon-hour July 9 th  launch on Nathan Phillips Square, right outside of their exhibition!   The show will hang in the foyer of the Queen Street City Hall from July 7 to July 14. The artists will be available throughout the one-week run of the exhibition to talk about their work.    Last summer the group had a show at the Scarborough Town Hall as part of the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival – this year the expo is complete