Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

What will happen to Caribbean Carnival '20? By Stephen Weir The Caribbean Camera has learned that the Festival Management Committee (FMC) which runs the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival will meet later this week to decide what is going to happen to this year’s annual July festival and their signature August 1 Grand Parade. With the announcement on Tuesday that the City of Toronto is cancelling all major events until June 30 (and leaving the door open to closing all further summer events) because of the virus pandemic, carnival stakeholders must decide if they are going to proceed with the parade, moving it to a later date in the year or simply postponing it until next year. For the FMC, the timing for its 2020 Toronto Caribbean Carnival, is now a big crapshoot. If the festival is to proceed with its mid-July kick-off, the mas’ bands have to begin opening their mas camps, holding band launches, building costumes and renting trucks for the parade. If the City ends up ex

How Are The Royals Doing During This Virus Shutdown? By Stephen Weir No, we don’t mean Prince Charles (but we do wish him a speedy recovery) we are talk about the Kings and Queens of the Caribbean.  For the past few days we have been texting and checking the Facebook and Instagram accounts of people who have name recommendation with Caribbean Camera readers! After communicating with more than 20 people who are currently in solitary confinement, we can tell you, that most of our Royals are just like us.  Busy on social media. Eating too much.  Exercising too little. Jai Ojah (l) – King of Caribbean Radio - just at home de cluttering painting and walking playing my records at night. Basically my keeping in touch with friends and family. Enjoying my record collection on my turntable. Destra, Queen of Bacchanal (r)  – On Facebook, the famous Trinidadian Soca singer posted a 1970s era British comedy TV skit of a spinster who accidently sprays Crazy Glue on her crotch, soon her spi

Carnival Mas or Corona Mess?  Not a Lot of Answers in this Time of Crisis By Stephen Weir Breaking News: I received a note from the SunLime Mas Band l this evening announcing that they have postponed their previously announced March 29th virtual launch "to a later date. We will keep you updated as time goes on". We have also received a notice from the Toronto Revellers that their Saturday April 11th costume launch is being postponed until May. " Due to the current global crisis, we are postponing our band launch to a date in May (TBD)." The picture above is from the SunLime's model shoot which was held two weeks ago. Although the SunLime band has embargoed pictures and videos from that costume photo shoot, I did get permission to use this photograph (again) with the model blurred to obscure the costume. What the Mas Camps, Pan Bands and the Festival Management Committee need right now is the city’s biggest Crystal Ball. Something that will ans

  Twenty Books to read the coronavirus quarantine Now here is some bad news.  Yesterday the Downtown Toronto’s The Different Booklist and Cultural Centre announced that it is closed because of the CoronaVirus Pandemic. Just prior the store shutting its doors, the Caribbean Camera spoke to Itah Sadu, co-owner of the Bathurst Street operation. She and her partner Miguel San Vincente are concerned about the “safety of our staff and customers”, thus yesterday’s closure. Now for the good news: Although customers can’t, at least for now, visit the city’s only bookstore for Caribbean, African and Diversity titles, The Different Booklist is operating online.  To encourage online shopping, the company is offering free shipping on all orders. https://www.adifferentbooklist.com/ With this raging coronavirus outbreak you and your children may suddenly find yourself staying home with a lot of time on your hands. Nothing makes staying at home more enjoyable than reading a book or two a

 Simone Dalton captures a top writing award Writer and Pan Player Simone Dalton is keeping a Trinidadian Canadian tradition alive.  The young writer has just won the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Author Award making her the 5th Trinidadian Canadian to win a major Canadian writing prize in the past decade. Simone Dalton is a long-time tenor pan player with Toronto Panatics and an author that one magazine declared is one of “20 Black Writers to Read All Year Round!”. Dalton earned an MFA from the University of Guelph. Her work has been published in The Unpublished City: Volume I, and in the anthology, Black Writers Matter. In 2019, her inaugural short play, VOWS, debuted at Soulpepper as part of RARE Theatre’s production, Welcome to My Underworld. She is now working on her first memoir and is currently living in Boston. Dalton won the Award yesterday, thanks to another writer, Ottawa historian Mark Bourrie.  Early this month he won the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize for his book Bus

It wasn’t the first Friday that Brampton business people spent the evening together networking.  Peel’s First Fridays Tradition Is Here! By Stephen Weir 1st Fridays Peel (Ryan Knight, President of the  Afro Caribbean Business Network (ACBN),  Andria Barrett, President of the  Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) and Warren Salmon Technically Brampton has already had three First Fridays, but the Caribbean Community is still in first contact mode for the once monthly business-networking event.   Last Friday evening over 50 people from Peel came out to see what the professionals' Greet and Meet is all about.Organizers are expecting an even larger crowd in April. First Fridays is a networking and social night that is, as the name says, held the first Friday evening of each month, has been a must-attended ritual in Toronto for the past 26-years. An after-work chapter has just been established in Brampton which is being run by  Ryan Knight, the Afro Caribbean Business

Will Toronto’s establishment be Jolly with that news that In The Black will be a new movie shot in living colour. Filmmaker and head of the CaribbeanTales Film Festival, Francis Anne Solomon announced this week that she has begun work on a feature film based on the book In the Black written by Caribbean Canadian superstar Denham Jolly. News of the proposed film will probably bring both cheers and jeers, depending on what side of the radio dial audiences find themselves. He is best known is best known as the founder of Canada’s first Black radio station, Flow 93.5 and the publisher of the now defunct Contrast newspaper. “In the Black won the Toronto Book Award in 2017. In it he tells the story of his journey from Jamaica to Canada in the 1950s, through his struggles to overcome racism and become an extremely successful businessman, activist, philanthropist, and publisher. When the Camera’s Stephen Weir interviewed Jolly about his book when it was launched, he asked J