Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

It happened today Canisia Lubrin one of three Canadian poets in the running for one of the world’s largest poetry purses, the Griffin Prize By Stephen Weir:   With each passing major literary prize, St Lucian Canadian poet  Canisia Lubrin  shows that her place is on the world’s literary stage.  Fresh on the heels of winning the $200,000 American Windham-Campbell Prize, the Whitby author has learned today that she is now in the running for Canada’s largest poetry prize. This morning,  Scott Griffin, the founder of  The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry , announced the International and Canadian shortlists for this year’s prize. Three Canadians including Lubrin are in the running for the annual $65,000 Canadian poetry prize. The Griffin was founded in 2000 to encourage and celebrate excellence in poetry. The prize is for first edition books of poetry written in, or translated into, English and submitted from anywhere in the world. Every year the Griffin family gives out two prizes ;

$410,000 later Brand and Lubrin are still gobsmacked (and then some) AfroToronto.com  What do you say when you find out you have just on $205,000? For two Caribbean Canadian authors, Canisia Lubrin and Dionne Brand, when they learned via Zoom that each of them had just won one of eight Windham-Campbell Prizes, it was short and sweet.  “Wow” said Brand, and “this is thoroughly shocking,” echoed Lubrin. By Stephen Weir: On Monday, Yale University on March 22 announced the eight recipients of the 2021 Windham-Campbell Prizes. The writers, whose work explores matters both personal and political, were honoured for their literary achievement or promise. Each will receive $165,000 US ($205,000 Cdn) to support their work. Canadian Trinidad & Tobago Dionne Brand won for her fiction writing. Canadian St Lucia’s Canisia Lubrin was honoured for her poetry. Dionne Brand left “Through original and intensely moving work that challenges what we think we know about genre and style, these extraordi

  Detective Constable Neil Dixon  Four officers gave Zoom testimony about systemic racism within the York Regional Police Force   By Stephen Weir : It was Canada Day; 2018,  Detective Constable Neil Dixon  was at work at the York Regional Police Headquarters in Aurora.  He was in civilian clothes (and wearing a police issued weapon)  when he and a fellow armed Black officer took an almost fatal lunch break. The pair visited the Popeye cop favourite restaurant two blocks from Police Headquarters.  When he left, he believes that he was  almost shot by members of his York Force who didn’t believe the Jamaican Canadian man was a fellow officer even after showing badges, and the police issued car they were about to get in. “ I thought to myself, I’m going to die today,” Dixon recalled, after testifying this morning (Wednesday) at a York Regional Police Board ( YRPSB ) meeting.   He is  a 19-year veteran  is currently on leave as a result of suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The

St. Kitts and Nevis receive shipment of the Vaccine   By Stephen Weir:  Get ready to roll up your sleeves Kittitians and Nevisians. If all goes as planned, there will be a whole lot of jabbing go on next week!  The St Kitts and Nevis’ Covid Vaccine programme is about to start in full force. During a Tuesday afternoon zoom press conference, Lindsey Grant (pictured above), the Federation’s Minister of Tourism, Transport and Ports told travel journalists from around the world that his country’s first shipment of vaccine has just arrived and inoculations will begin soon. “Our Oxford  AstraZeneca  vaccines are here,” said a smiling Minister Grant. “ We will roll it out starting next week.” Not all of the 52,000 residents of the two-island nation will receive the vaccine immediately. According to  Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws, the first shipment received by her office contains just 21,600 doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine. Talking last week to the Basseterre Observer newspaper, Dr. Laws

BaitCloud photo  Free Family Fishing all weekend  (Monday too)

 CRTC Says No to Ajax and Pickering New FM Radio Stations sweirsweir Art Bites: It happened this morning.  The Canadian Radio and Television Commission issued a ruling Wednesday that officially puts the kibosh on a bid to operate an ethnic radio station in Ajax and Pickering.  As well, the CRTC said that it will not accept any applications for new ethnic radio stations in Ajax and Pickering for the next two years. Durham Diversity Radio (DDR) approached the CRTC in January 2020 just prior to the Covid shutdown with an application to operate an 880-watt ethnic station at 91.7 FM servicing the communities of Ajax and Pickering. The FM station was to broadcast programmes in a variety of different languages for people living in the community. The Federal government agency turned the application down because the GTA already has 35 radio stations, of which 10 are considered to be ethnic stations. The CRTC  believes that the Ajax and Pickering market can’t sustain another commercial radio st

CCAP photographers Beyond the Carnival Exhibition has Gone Beyond the Station Gallery Art Bites by Stephen Weir:  The Whitby Station Gallery has closed its gallery doors because of the Pandemic lock-down. However, that doesn’t mean that the non-profit public art gallery has forgotten about the Black History Month , in fact last week the Station Gallery opened, albeit virtually, Beyond the Carnival 4 a new photographic exhibition. “ This photographic exhibition brings together a group of photographers whose mission is to capture and present images that focus on the Pan-Caribbean culture and to create a legacy that highlights the excellent work of Canadian Caribbean photographers,” said gallery curator Olex Wlasenko. In lieu of the shut-down, Wlasenko has filmed a half-hour walk through the exhibition. This video is available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/117228666896210/ . Beyond the Carnival 4 features the works of seven seasoned professionals who are members of the