Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2020   Ready to Jump Digitally This July By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera:  Ooh la la costumes. Thundering pans. Sweet calypso. And while they are at it, throw in a few big name soca performers. Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2020 is getting ready to digitally jump up and thumb noses at the Coronavirus  come July. While the annual summer festival in downtown Toronto has been cancelled this year because of  COVD-19, the festival  with its rich traditions will be coming to a computer screen near you in about five weeks Late yesterday afternoon, Aneesa Oumarally, CEO of the Festival Management Committee (FMC) which organizes the carnival, told The Caribbean Camera that it ‘s ” all systems go  for the Big Event. “The goal of the Digital Carnival is to remember yesteryear, remember what we are missing and showcase the the carnival to the world at large, to those that don’t come downtown and sit on the grass,” said Oumarally. Carnival Yes

Brand new association to amplify the success stories of Canadian media members of African descent. Moses Mawa By Stephen Weir  Whispers about a new Black media association was being formed was first being heard back in March after a Friday night Toronto get-together with members of the press and community business leaders.  Now, despite the Coronus virus shutdown, it is official, the  Black Media Association  (BMA) has been born. On Tuesday the newly formed group sent out an explanatory press release to media outlets across the country. The  BMA  says that it seeks to engage Black membership from the entire field of Canadian media.  It is committed to assist with the gathering, archiving and disseminating information about the success stories of Canadian people of African descent.   The founder and chairman of this new association is  Moses Mawa  (pictured above) .  He and his wife  Patricia  own and operate the Toronto based 24-hour  Afroglobal Television  chann

Home Schooling’s Flickring Life Line – UK’s National Archives Steps Up Its Caribbean Collection of Photos Need a photograph of downtown Port of Spain, from let’s say, 1899? Or, ever seen a picture of Haiti’s first Mardi Gras? Flickr, the world’s largest repository of photographs – 6 billion and counting – is a useful tool for a family’s home schooling duties. For the past decade, Flickr has been working with more than 135 archives, museums and historical associations to make historic photographs and graphic treasures available to the public for personal and school use. Now, in this period of forced home studies for school aged children, the Flickr archive programme (called the Commons) is proving to be an easy to use, resource with pictures you can’t easily or freely get anywhere else! Guadeloupe woman 1899 Canadian museums, the George Eastman Museum, the US Library of Congress, The State Library of New South Wales and the Smithsonian are just a few of the institutio

Kaie Kellough Wins  $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize By Stephen Weir - Guyanese Canadian poet Kaie Kellough has won the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize for his  book, Magnetic Equator. This prize – the largest in the English-speaking world – is awarded each year to two poets ( one Canadian and the other, international). Kellough was born in British Columbia and now lives in Montreal.  His maternal family is originally from Guyana and much of his poetry revolves around his Caribbean heritage and life experiences. “This particular book is partly set in Guyana (in Georgetown and in the rainforest),” Kellough told the Caribbean Camera shortly after winning the Prize. “It is also set in Calgary, where I spent many of my formative years.” ”The book moves back and forth between north and south, Calgary and Georgetown, as it tries to answer some very fundamental questions that many of us ask: who am I and how did I get here? ” I’m very much interested in family history, and in the

By the Grace of Jerk, the party will go on.  Just don’t get Jerk Sauce on your computer screen During this Pandemic an oft-asked question of the Caribbean Camera is, what summer events have been cancelled? Quick answer: EVERYTHING … unless you are talking about the annual Grace JerkFest, which is taking the party online this August! Late last week the Toronto government announced it has cancelled all City-permitted major festivals and events which attract an attendance of at least 25,000 through August 31st. That means that everything including the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, the Pride Parade, Taste of the Danforth, and horrors, the venerable CNE have been shelved as a result of City Hall’s action. The Grace International Jerk Food & Music Festival is, by virtue of its popularity and size, on the City’s hit list. However JerkFest may not be taking place as normal, but it isn’t throwing in the bib on 2020 either. The producers of the Grace International Jerk Food

ONE CARIBBEAN TELEVISION IS FREE UNTIL THE END OF JUNE! One Caribbean Television , a 24/7-television network that provides news, lifestyle and entertainment programming about the Caribbean and its people, is pleased to announce a free preview on Bell Fibe TV, Channel 2481, until June 30, 2020. While millions of Canadians adhere to the stay-at-home order, One Caribbean Television will bring them the sights and sounds of the Caribbean until they are able to resume travel to the re gion. Roughly four million Canadians traveled to the Caribbean last year. Throughout the free preview period, the network will air a special report, COVID-19: Impact on the Caribbean – an in-depth look at how COVID-19 has impacted nearly every aspect of life in the Caribbean. The network is based in Erie, Pennsylvania and has a close relationship with the Caribbean community in Toronto. For the past five years One Caribbean Television has provided live coverage the Toronto Caribbean Festival. As

Stories from Little Jamaica earn Toronto writer a place  on Kobo’s Emerging Writer Prize Short List Another week, another Caribbean Canadian author has been nominated for a top national literary prize. Zalika Reid-Benta,  a Toronto-based Jamaican Canadian novelist has made the longlist for the Sixth Annual Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. She is in the running for the $10,000 prize for literary fiction for her book  Frying Plantain  was published last year and nominated for the 2019 Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious award.    Since then it has won the 2019 Byblacks People’s Choice Awards for Best Author and has been nominated for the Ontario Library Association’s 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and The Canadian Writers’ Union Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Rakuten Kobo, the Toronto based global eBook and audiobook online seller will be announcing the winners of the Emerging Writer Prize in June. It recognizes exceptional books written by first-time