Regent Park Focus

Luminato illuminated Toronto with arts and creativity. For years Luminato displays the celebration of theatre,dance,music,film and so much more. The best part about Luminato is that most of the events and concerts are free. This is because Luminato is designed for the people to celebrate and explore the arts. On Friday June 11, 2010, the art festival that is LUMINTO, hit the city of Toronto. The opening night was a free DIVA themed concert at Dundas Square. The crowd was packed to see 3 amazing Canadian Divas. E Talk's Traci Melchor, was the host of the night. I cheered on Traci and she thanked me backstage for supporting her. Traci Melchor is seriously amazing. She is humble and down to earth. We got the opportunity to go backstage. She chatted with the Diva writing girl's group and took a lot of pictures with us. Traci was giving the young Diva writing group advice to reach for your goals and to never give up on following your dreams. She c...

A couple of months ago, Regent Park Focus welcomed two students from City View Alternative elementary school in April. Geordie and Finlay chose to do their final video ISU project at Regent Park Focus. The young boys had 1 week to put together an amazing video presentation on a social justice issue. Time was limited so could they pull it off? On the first day staff member and video expert Emmanuel involved the boys in the entire project by teaching them about the background of Regent Park Focus and video camera techniques. This incorporated learning how to use the video camera, equipment, the various angles, positions, methods and a tour around the media studios. The boys took turns practicing what they learned and helped each other out. I also filled in as their subject when they were using the camera for a practice taping. The next day implicated jotting down ideas tossed in the air and it also involved brainstorming. Many topics were discussed such as; homelessness, racism and bull...

On Saturday June 19th I had the privilege of escorting seven passionate young journalists to a panel they moderated as part of the Luminato festival, called Pop Divas . The panel was part of the festival’s Illuminations program, and the culmination of a few months of work. A group of young women including new and seasoned members of the Catch da Flava magazine collective participated in a series of workshops held at Focus where they met and discussed the art of music journalism and pop diva specific reportage with professional music journalists, practiced researching, writing and editing articles, and developed in person interview skills. These skills were applied in the development of their articles which are being published in a special edition of Catch da Flava magazine, and in the prep work and facilitation they did for the Illuminations panel. Some of Saturday’s panellists the girls had met before in their workshop sessions. Jody Rosen, music writer and critic for slate.com and ...

What is the definition of a Diva? A lot of people have their own opinion on the characteristics of a DIVA and who they think is a DIVA in the music industry. Luminato collaborated with Regent Park Focus and created a writing workshop for the youth. In the beginning it was both boys and girls who attended the writing group. However, the girls seemed more interested in the whole DIVA topic than the boys. Therefore, it was a writing workshop for young girls. The ladies met up every Tuesday as the Luminato crew explored the music world as they incorporated writing schemes. Special guests were also part of the workshops. Jody Rosen is the music critic for Rolling Stone Magazine and the online magazine Slate. His articles on popular music have also appeared in The New York Times. Another special facilitator was Canadian writer Carl Wilson, who is the culture editor at the Globe and Mail, and the author of 'Let’s Talk About Love: A Journe...

Speakers: Shamleiy, Saad and Abdi After hours of contemplating various radio show topics we had all come to the conclusion of talking about GM(genetically modified) foods. All of us being from 3rd world countries we this topic affects us tremendously. We started of speaking about the pro's and con's of GM foods and it turned out being a heated debated. Much information was discovered over the radio such as making GM foods is playing God. In our opinion this show was our best radio show do to the fact that we this show after doing many shows and gaining ample experience. We felt very sensitive about this topic due to our backgrounds and affects that GM foods has on our countries.

Speakers: Onik, Saad, Mohammed > The following radio show was based on : what obesity is, the problems related to obesity, health risks of obesity, preventing obecity, and being cautious about obesity. we spoke briefly on each of the above topics related to obesity. we also spoke about how obesity effects various people such as students, and adults. We also spoke about how to reduce the risks of obesity. We felt the radio show was sort of rusty in the beginning because of nervousness, but later we got into the feeling and starting speaking naturally. overall the radio show went better than the ones we did previously because we learn from our mistake and adapt to different situations.

Today on the radio show Tres, Anisa, Saeema and Michelle discussed a wide range of issues and subjects such as, abortion in Canada, women losing the right of equal pay, the niqab (similar to the hijab but only the eyes are visible) , the cut on funding for the Gay Pride Parade and rising TTC prices. One issue that really stumbled us was the abortion topic. Some people may say that it’s wrong because the fetus is person and others may argue, when is the fetus considered a person? We also talked about the Niqab possibly being banned in Quebec. One reason for this is that they want to know who people are. Not much to say about that, other than it just being plain ignorant and its discrimination. Political issues are also brought up such as, why would the government cut the funding for the Gay Pride Parade? It attracts so many tourists! Anyways that concludes the brief discussion of our discussion for today’s radio show. Make sure to tune in next time on 88.1 fm CKLN Catch Da Flava Radio...

On tonight's April 13th radio show we talk about last weeks international event, the Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a an hour dedicated towards Energy conservation by shutting off all electricity outputs such as lights, television, computers...etc for an hour. Earth Hour's objective is to remind us of the "small" things we can do in order to help save our Earth. Climate change and Global Warming are both relevant to Earth Hour's objective because it allows us to step back and think of the future consequences our daily habits of energy consumption can cause us. However is the initiative effective? Is it actually working? And as youth what can we do? Find out the answers of all of these questions through the voices of your Youth, the Youth of Regent Park! By: Onik, Thisaaan, Tamin and Sabbir Listen Now!

Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre did it again! We held another fabulous show at the Daniels Presentation Centre last Friday March 26. This time the show was dedicated to Latin music. The event got started around 6:30 pm with jerk chicken, chicken wings, fried chicken, and rice both brown and white. In other words the audience was well fed. Thanks to the Corner for catering the event. Following the food the event started off with the Regent Park Focus house band, da Youngstas. The audience was then entertained Rino Manfredi who led an interactive workshop on Brazilian drumming. Before we knew it Rino was conducting an orchestra of Brazilian drummers made up of the audience. Let’s just say it was GREAT. Rino was followed by Latin and Flamenco music provided by Alvaro Oyarce. Afterwards we were treated with the hilarious musical stylings of Mark Harris and the house band the Youngstas. The audience was well engaged in the performances and the event ended at 9 pm. Overall Last F...

In this radio show me (Ishtiaque), Bipu and Amer focused on teens and how they are treated around the community. We also talked about parents and how they perceive teens. Of course we also had a daily news where we talked about whats going on around in the world and our city. Listen Now!

On our radio show on March 31, 2010 we had Toronto Community Housing Revitalization Consultant Lancefield Morgan and Revitalization Project Manager Liz Root, as guests to talk about the Regent Park Redevelopment. The show was hosted by Rahul, Abdi and Ryan and we discussed a range of issues related to the redevelopment. One of the issues we touched upon was how the redevelopment will impact on the community. We also discussed Regent Park's association with crime.

Our radio show on Tuesday March 23, 2010 will feature a pre-produced show on two secret societies the Illuminati and The Free Masons. lluminati (plural of Latin illuminatus, "enlightened") is a name that refers to several groups, both historical and modern, and both real and fictitious. Historically, it refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776. In modern times it is also used to refer to a purported conspiratorial organization which acts as a shadowy "power behind the throne", allegedly controlling world affairs through present day governments and corporations. In this context, Illuminati is often used in reference to a New World Order (NWO). Many conspiracy theorists believe the Illuminati are the masterminds behind events that will lead to the establishment of such a New World Order. Another group associated with the Iluminati is the Free Masons, another purported secret society. Generally, theories...

On Tuesday March 16, 2010 we did our (Abdi, Atharul, Shamdi and Sud) radio show was on the subject of technology. During the show Sud hosted a discussion about role technology plays in our lives and the race of those in the industry to outdo each other to build faster, smaller and better technologies. Are blackberries, social media and computers helping to build stronger human relationships or are they alienating ourselves from each other. Technologies are part of almost everything that we do. Can we stop or reduce the ever increasing levels of technologies that we use in our lives? For example there are Amish communities that have rejected the use of technologies in their lives. What is the future? No one ever imagined 20 years ago that there would be a camera in a telephone. Should we be concerned about the new developments in the field that are integrating technologies in the human body (GPS computer chips in children that enable parents to know where they are at all times)? What ...

The final day of March Break featured a full day field trip to the Ontario Science Centre. The 16 youths who took part were divided into groups of three of four (this writer for example, supervised the four boys who took part in the trip). The trip to the Centre by streetcar, subway, and TTC bus was uneventful. Thanks to the excellent planning on the part of the Science Centre, we didn’t have to wait in line—it’s nice to be treated like a VIP! Once we were inside, the day was left deliberately unstructured—the kids were free to roam the Centre with supervisors in tow. Despite the crowds, the kids maintained a positive attitude and engaged in a variety of interactive activities. We took lunch a little early which worked out extremely well since the cafeteria was filled to capacity by noon. The highlight for the boys was a presentation at the Ontario Science Centre’s planetarium which was fun, educational, and offered a well-time break from walking. By the end of the day, everyone was t...

Andrea, Focus’ resident Comic Book program instructor conducted a half day workshop on Thursday morning for the 14 youths who were taking part in the program that day. Instruction focused on the basics of illustration and by lunch, all participants had created their own mini comic book. The participants remained engaged throughout the workshop and showed a really positive attitude. The second half of Thursday’s program consisted of a sidewalk chalk drawing exercise led by a group of graduate students from the University of Toronto who wanted to engage with the kids to discuss the issue of empowerment. Prior to the artistic portion of the activity, they asked: “What do you think makes someone powerful?” The responses showed great insight, depth of character, and a sense of community. Once the superficial responses like money were out of the way, the kids began sharing that things like volunteering, family, and sharing lead to a sense of personal power. It was very inspiring to hea...

We had thirteen youths taking part in Wednesday’s activities. The morning was devoted to physical activity and teamwork—we booked gym time at the Regent Park South Community Centre. The entire group took part in a game of dodge ball that was a total hoot. The staff and supervisors were very grateful that everyone respected the fact that this was first and foremost, a fun activity. Natural competitiveness was kept in check and everyone stuck to the rule of no aiming above the mid chest area. It was quite comical to observe the more senior staff and volunteers running around trying to keep up with 11, 12, and thirteen year-olds. Following the dodge ball activity, participants broke into smaller groups to play basketball, badminton, or table tennis. Once again, a good time was had by all. In the afternoon, a local dance troupe came to the Centre to offer a workshop and instruction. The instructors led a series of exercises that focused on balance, flexibility, and rhythm. The kids...

On day Two of March Break, 10 youths (seven girls and three boys) took part in a full-day photography workshop led by professional photographer Nick Kovack. Nick has been involved with the Photography program at Focus and had the advantage of already knowing many of the youths taking part in the workshop. After providing some basic technical instruction and tips on photographic composition, the youths were divided into supervised groups and given the following assignment: Go forth into the community and approach people on the street asking for permission to take their photo. Citizen/subjects were also asked the question: “What do you think about the redevelopment that is underway in Regent Park?” The exercise was an excellent opportunity for participants to work on their self confidence (approaching strangers) and to overcome shyness. The weather could not have been any more accommodating considering it is Mid-March—it was warm and sunny and there was no shortage of potential subject...

The March Break Program was a week long opportunity for children to participate in variety of different art making workshops, games and trips. The program was held from March 15th to March 19th. Day one of March Break was a big success! Many thanks to the participants, volunteers, and facilitators. We had thirteen youths taking part on the first day, the highlight of which was a jewellery workshop where everyone had a chance to create their own necklace or bracelet. The workshop was led by Colleen Clarke, a local professional designer and retailer of fine jewellery who lives in the community. She provided participants with an opportunity to learn about birth stones and astrological stones and the kids were also given instruction on how to make paper beads. Despite the fact that making beads requires patience and dexterity, the kids stuck with it and produced some very attractive bracelets and necklaces. The 11 to 14 aged youth who took part in the activity were enthusiastic and ...

After the happy holidays, the Diva Girls Group resumed their meetings in the schools Lord Dufferin, and Duke of York, as well as at Focus. Starting off the year was activities such as playdoh scultptures inspired by the amazing, strong poetry of Maya Angelou, and studies in the imagery of dynamic painter Jean Michel Basquiat. On the media issues side, the Divas participated in a session on the Facebook/Twitter interface, where we talked about the new dangers and troubles of these internet based social networking sites. Another serious issue covered was violence at school--especially aggression targeted at young women. In a film documentary by the NFB, the shootings of Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and it's after affects were discussed and examined. Awareness about oppression is a pressing topic, and was handled delicately. One of the Divas mentioned she had not known that small incidents can snowball into huge problems requiring community attention and healing. But at Divas ...

Tune into our upcoming radio show on Supervised Injection Sites on Tuesday March 9 2010. Supervised Injection Sites are harm reduction programs set up by the city to help drug users use drugs in a safer way. David and I will talk about how the program works and what they do to help people. Our guest for the show is a former staff member of a Supervised Injection Site centre by the name of Dylan. Nicholas Rowe Listen Now!

On Tuesday March 2, 2010, our radio group decided to discuss the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the impact that it has on Canada economically and socially. We spoke about some of the apparent advantages and disadvantages of hosting the Olympics. Our discussion led to some thought provoking questions and topics regarding the games. We spoke about the projected long term outcome of the Canadian athletes involved in the Olympics and whether the Olympics actually promoted more sport within Canada. Before ending the show we dedicated a considerable amount of time to questions and comments from the live audience. Overall, our show examined some of the often ignored concerns regarding the 2010 Winter Olympics. Blog written by: Abdulkarim Radio Group Members: Amer Chowdhury, Ishtiaque Ishraque Listen Now!

Today, RPTV continued our script development for the our new film featuring stories about various people living in an apartment building. One of the stories we were developing involves arrange marriages. We are having increased success in developing each of the characters. The discussions we are having are really great. Despite having numerous amount of difficulties in trying to come up a solid conclusion we managed to come up with a great and humorous script which really focuses on arranged marriages and family problems. RPTV is a really good program if you want to learn how to write good scripts, make new friends and learn real life valuable skills. We had great laughs along the way but in the end it turned out to be a blast. Thanks for reading our blog from your local friends Abdi and Ruhul

Like all of our previous Last Fridays' events, Friday February 26th held in honor of Black History Month, was spectacular. The event was held at the Daniel's Presentation Centre. We had some new and some familiar faces in the crowd which made a great audience. This month we filled our tummies with Jerk chicken and rice and more performers than usual. The evening started with the Regent Park House Band da Youngstas. They were followed by Da Newz poetry of Kim Miller and traditional African drumming by three members of Matadi, a Toronto based drumming collective. Toronto artist's Ekko Effect livened up the crowd with some energy filled rapping. He was followed by rap artist Kris P. The first half of the evening was brought to a close by the soulful R&B singing of Toronto artist Steve J'lin, In the second half of the evening, Raswell and Ekow of the band Subnodes, reignited the crowd with their unique brand of progressive hiphop. The multi-talented duo's perform...

This is Saeema, Abdul and Abdi from RPTV. Today we completed one script out of five for our 5-part video. With the help of our mighty leader Adonis, along with his dramatic and effective role-playing, we were able to combine our efforts, allowing us to come one step closer to finalizing our script. We personally think that that everyone’s participation as a whole gave us very positive results. The first thing we did was getting into the minds of our characters. We did this so that we could all come up with dialogue that was in-character and appropriate. Secondly, we came up with lines, along with actions for our script. This was a simple task now that we had all gotten into character! Lastly, we got someone to type everything up so that our precious ideas were not lost. Keep checking our blog to see our progress.

Regent Park Focus Photography Studio's very own William Kuan was one of ten finalist in the “Our City, Our Stories” photography contest. The contest was aimed at building youth skills in the digital arts, visual storytelling, self expression, engagement and leadership in their communities. Program sessions took place in five different communities across Toronto including Jane & Finch, Scarborough, Rexdale, Etobicoke and our very own Regent Park. The 10-week fall program at Regent Park took place after-school every Wednesday at the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre. William used his friend Tresvonne Rose-Wilson as his photography subject. This is what William said about his photo project: “When I was creating this photo story, I was just trying to have fun. That’s it. Every time I took a picture of my good friend Tresvonne Rose-Wilson, I never had any thoughts. I was just being myself and he was being himself. I took photos of Tresvonne doing the things that he likes to ...

Our next radio show scheduled for February 23, 2010 will be based on the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver. We will start with a commentary on the opening ceremony of the Olympic games when athletes, Steve Nash, Wayne Gretzky lit up the cauldron to start the games. Our main topic for the radio show will be on Canada's aspiration to get a gold medal in both the men's and women's hockey. Abdi, a new member of our radio collective, will talk about the women side of Olympic hockey. While Ruhul (me) will talk about the men side of Olympic hockey and the rivalry Canada and Russia. We both think that it will be a great show. Members of the radio show: Ruhul Miah and Abdi Adow Listen Now!

Hello, my name is Waqar. I'm a participant in the RPTV video program at Regent Park Focus. We are still editing our video on meaningful youth employment, a project that we began as part of the fall session. See our previous blogs on RPTV if you want more information. As part of the winter session, in early January we began working on a "youth resilency" project with the city. This project involved interviewing sixteen youth from four different areas of the city about the factors that lead to resilient youth. Seema and Emmanuel did most of the editing for the video. The video was shown at a conference on resilency held on January 25 at Metro Hall. During this week's session of RPTV, we continued brainstorming story ideas for our next video. Our next video will be a series of five different stories of people living in an apartment complex in Regent Park. So far we have about 4 stories. So this week we all participated in a role playing game to help us come up with dial...

The February 16, 2010 Catch da Flava radio show was hosted by Shamina, Rima and Lupa. Our featured guest was Farrah from Aqsazine. She talked about the Aqsazine and issues around Muslim identity particularly for young girls. We also talked about Muslims in the media and and how youth can use zines as a voice/form of social action.

Amer, bipu and I(Ishtique) was on the radio show on feb 9th, 2010. We started the show with two youth guests from Toronto Community Housing, Tarak and Yousuf. They talked about the youth tenant elections scheduled for April 8, 2010. Our main topic was on the concept of prank calls. We discussed issues like why youth decides to make prank calls and weather they know their limit or not. We also talked about the impact it has on strangers and friends. We talked about our personal experiences dealing with prank calls and making them. The last 6 minutes of the show was devoted towards the Olympics and how pumped up people are. and our two guests Tarak and Yusuf talked about the youth elections in regent park. Listen Now!

On Tuesday, February 2, Glen Murray, the Liberal Candidate in the February 4 provincial by-election in the riding of Toronto Centre-Rosedale (which includes Regent Park) paid a visit to Regent Park Focus and was interviewed live by Catch da Flava Radio correspondents Bipu, Amer, and Ishtiaque. Mr. Murray is no stranger to the political scene, having served as mayor of Winnipeg for many years. A number of issues of particular importance to residents of the Park were discussed including the ongoing revitalization of Regent Park. He expressed a strong commitment to improving the affordable housing situation in the area. He also stressed the importance of arts and culture as a means of building strong communities and pointed to specific measures that are taking into account the ethnic diversity in Regent Park. Murray also discussed his belief that public input will play a large part in the political decision making process if he is elected. The interview aired later that evening on ...

This month’s Last Friday event, which took place January 29, featured a special guest appearance by Cathy Crowe, the NDP candidate in the February 4 provincial by-election in the riding of Toronto Centre-Rosedale. She was interviewed live in front of our Last Friday guests by William of Catch da Flava Radio who stepped up on very short notice (and did an awesome job.) The interview will be aired on this upcoming radio show. Ms. Crowe is a “street nurse” who has been offering front-line services and advocacy on behalf of Toronto’s homeless for many years. She has lived and worked in Regent Park for the last 25 years so she is no stranger to the challenges the neighbourhood faces. She is seeking office because after a long career dealing with the symptoms of poverty and homelessness, she wants to work towards finding solutions. Her decision to run at the provincial level was based on the fact that Queen's Park controls the money for social services and she is particularily dismay...