Regent Park Focus

Regent Park Focus wishes everyone Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! Regent Park has accomplished a lot in 2010 and throughout the years. With our move to a new location in the New Year, we are continuing on the same journey to help youth make a movement using the arts to help youth stay focused, inspiring other youth and communities and develop an identity for themselves in creative ways.

Regent Park Focus After-school Photography Program In October 2010 Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre began offering after-school photography programs for children and youth in the area. The 12 week program was a partnership between Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre and the Gerrard Kiwanis Club and was offered Mondays through Thursdays and involved four different groups of youth. All the program sessions were facilitated by Nick Kozak, a professional photographer conducting a year long residency program at Regent Park Focus.  As Regent Park is in the midst of re-development the focus of the work revolved around  photographing the changing neighborhood. The following is a description of the programs that were offered. Mondays Sessions at Regent Park Focus   Each Monday a group of 6 to 10 children met at Regent Park Focus to learn some basic tips on camera use as well as receive instructions on focus and composition. Students were also shown examples of...

Photography at Focus is really amazing. Although some people would exaggerate the prestige of programs, take it from me, a student of Nick Kozak, who attended his photography workshop at Regent Park Focus 2 years in a row. Nick has taught me a lot and it sparked my career to become a photographer. The first year I joined because my best friend's aunt asked me if I'd like to and I did. The workshop lasted months, and my photos were entered into a contest and although my group was the smallest out of the 17 in total, (One member from each group could make it into the finals, but only 10 could make it) and although my 2 other members were very capable. I got lucky and won myself a camera as a top ten finalist. I still have this camera today, and I've learned a lot, and I even have a job with a private company right now. All in all, some people may like the program, some people might not, but you'll never know until you try. -William Kuan

Be Scene + Voices + the Gender Violence Media Project = Awesome! Right now Be Scene magazine is smack in the middle of a joint program with Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office's girls group 'Voices' and the Gender Violence Media Project. We are making media all together!! (It's great). For five Thursdays the Be Scene crew will be on site at the TNO Youth Space behind the East York Town Centre, talking about gender violence and anti-oppression. Though its a serious subject, we've created a space where we are able to talk from our hearts and laugh when the time is right. After all some stereotypes about women and gender are so ridiculous they are funny! We have an incredible group of girls (on the busiest week so far we've had 27 participants!), and awesome facilitators as well. On our team are Azza Abarro, the youth worker from the Flemingdon Health Centre who has given so much to Be Scene over the past several years, Ashley Alexis McFarlane and Helen Y...

The November 02, 2010 Catch Da Flava radio show hosted by Kelvin and produced by Saima. We talk about HIV with our youth gusts Isaac and Layia. We discuss all the basic information about HIV. We began our show with the definition of HIV .HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV stands for the 'Human Immunodeficiency Virus' and AIDS stands for the 'Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome'. AIDS is a serious condition in which the body's defenses against some illnesses are broken down. This means that people with AIDS can get many different kinds of diseases which a healthy person's body would normally fight off quite easily. Isaac explained how people can get HIV. HIV is a virus that infects people by getting inside their blood cells. To avoid getting HIV, you must prevent the blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or breast milk of someone who is infected from entering your body through your mouth, vagina, anus, tip of your penis, or breaks in your skin. Kelvin said it is imp...

On October 29th, we held our Last Friday event at 246 Sackville Street, the new seniors and family residential building in partnerships with the Daniels corporation. We had a variety of performances from: Da Youngstas Ania Soul Marnie Levitt COBA RPSM (Regent Park School of Music) It was a great turn out with some really awesome free spicy food to go along with it. Da Youngstas started and closed the show after weeks of intensive practice. Be sure to check out our website for more information about the location and time for the next Last Fridays event!

This week at Catch Da Flava we talked about very serious topic. This wonderful show hosted by Kelvin and Isaac and created by Saima. We began our show with the definition and different type of bullying. Bullying is a pattern of aggressive behavior meant to hurt or cause discomfort to another person. Bullies always have more power than victims. Their power comes from physical size, strength, status, and support within the peer group. Kelvin said “Have you ever bullied or been bullied? If you have bullied or been bullied then you should know how bullying feels like. Bullying is very negative and creates major problems for our society. Nothing good comes out of bullying. It could very well change or ruin a person’s life. In fact, it does ruin many people’s lives.” Two people called in and discuss with Isaac and Kelvin their person stories on the air. One was 13 years girl. At the end Isaac said “If you see someone else being bullied you should always try to stop it. If you do nothing,...

Tonight it was politics, politics and politics! In an effort to get young people more engaged in election issues and the mayor candidates we invited all the mayor candidates to appear on CATCH DA FLAVA radio. CATCH DA FLAVA sat down with three of Toronto’s major players in the current mayoral race. Guests Joe Pantalone, George Smitherman and Sarah Thomson discussed youth issues, how politics empowers us, and how we can all get involved in making our city an inclusive and safe place for everyone. Our first guest Joe Pantalone had a lot to say about the newcomer and immigrant experience for youth. Pantalone came to Canada as a teenager with little English and even less money in his pocket. Pantalone spoke passionately about what he believes to be Toronto’s greatest asset… it’s diversity. Pantalone’s vision of Toronto’s youth is that of a cosmopolitan and tolerant future with focus on community and neighbourhood centered programs. Pantalone also has a killer tailor. Snappiest dresse...

This week at Catch Da Flava we talked about some Big Stuff. We began with a discussion about the recent shootings in Regent Park and how powerless that can make us feel. Featured Hosts Isaac, Leyia and Stephanie really got honest about how hard Big Stuff and Big Feelings can be, especially when we don’t have the tools to deal with them. That’s when we got into the power of Art. Catch Da Flava Hosts Calvin and Onik asked our Featured Hosts powerful questions about how Art can free you from really bad Big Stuff and Big Feelings. Isaac talked about how funny stories and jokes can be a way to solve problems. Stephanie opened up about her passion for singing and dancing, and how it has made difficult times in her life easier to handle. In an amazing act of spirit and courage, Leyia read an amazing poem she wrote. Catch Da Flava will be posting it next week. The most amazing part of our Featured Host panel was the realization that every major civil rights moment travelled in songs, poems, st...

This week The Catch Da Flava Radio show was on Racism hosted by Kelvin produced by Saima. We our show began with the history and definition of racism. Racism has existed throughout human history. It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, and place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes. Racism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities, that a certain race is inherently superior or inferior to others, and/or that individuals should be treated differently according to their racial designation. Sometimes racism means beliefs, practices, and institutions that discriminate against people based on their perceived or ascribed race. There is a growing, but controversial, opinion that racism is a system of oppression -- a nexus of racist ...

The September 28, 2010 Catch Da flava show radio hosted by Araxi and Kelvin with group of youth Leyia, Stephanie and Isaac. We talk about basic mental illness terms such as an Addiction . We discuss on the air what addiction is? At the simplest level, an addiction occurs when you cannot permanently stop yourself from doing something. The term addiction is generally applied to habits that are not necessary for life (e.g., eating and breathing are not addictions), and that are also unhealthy to engage in. Usually the things we become addicted to are either very exciting or stimulating, or act directly on the brain and body to produce a desirable alteration in how we think or feel. Common addictions are to cigarettes and other tobacco products, drugs (street/recreational drugs as well as ones prescribed by your doctor), alcohol, gambling, pornography and (some say) to the Internet itself. One of our youth gust Layia used to have an addiction of eating chocolate, and Stephanie said she ha...

My time has come to an end at Regent Park Focus. It was a great experience. I am super glad I chose to do my school placement at Focus. I am thankful that Adonis Huggins offered me a job as the summer program coordinator. I learned a lot from my position. I learned about the different art programs offered, team work, leadership, goal setting, project task management, research, opportunities, challenges and so much more. It was great connecting with the Regent Park community and people. I loved all the participants in the diverse summer 2010 programs which included; arts and crafts, photography and arts, video, radio, George Brown audio play, comic book club, RPTV, Divas and Pop Divas. Many skills were developed and I had an opportunity to accomplish many goals. I loved hosting the Catch Da Flava radio, writing for the Catch Da Flava magazine and being involved in the scripts, comics and arts that were put together. I especially enjoyed going on special retreats to the Luminato festiv...

On august 17th, 3 guest students attending the Co-op program with George Brown, Sophi, Niki and Peter along with one high school student Fatima and the host One2Tres, all put together a radio show on Teen Mental health issues. Each of the youth were assigned to a different topics having to do with teen mental health such as: What can lead to mental health issues, Ways so deal with mental health issues, Symptoms of mental health issues, etc. The youth actually had a meeting with a worker from CAMH that specialized in mental illness and had to do a lot research to put this show together because they were not even aware ( and most youth probably aren't ) about teen mental health issues or how common it is. - Tresvonne Listen Now!

So far, all's well with the Dixon Hall girls that meet up at Focus for the Thursday session of Arts and Crafts/Photography!  The Arts and Craft Photography workshops is a mixed media program that is offered as part of the 2010 Summer Media Arts Program.  Currently, some activities that we're working on is a collaborative mural/poster about the changes in the Regent Park community, both positive and negative. We were encouraged to go outside in this sweltering heat and look around and assess our living environments and the people there! We were also expressing our thoughts about the language of signs, after seeing how construction/demolition seems to have marked their presence all over the place with their "danger" and "do not enter" signs. The CNH youth have just joined the summer programs at Focus and will be attending a separate session of the Arts and Crafts Photography workshops! First session featured icebreakers, sharing, sketching portraits and...

Michelle Kay Gives Be Scenesters the Low-down on Blogging Michelle Kay, the Online News Editor for Yahoo and the new Webstories Editor for Shameless Magazine paid Be Scene’s editorial committee a visit this past Thursday. With piles of magazines in hand, and a nifty sheet of resources to check out, she led a fabulous workshop about blogging and online presence for independent magazines. Many tips were given, and good chatting went on about current stories in process for the next issue (themed: rebellion and resistance) and how they may translate into content for the blog. One of the most useful things we took away with us was the importance of keeping up with social networking platforms. In other words, that tools like Facebook groups, blogs and Twitter can and should be used with diligent regularity in order to solidify a readership base. That befriending other youth organizations and publications can create a useful online community. And that Twitter specifically shouldn’t jus...

Be Scene at the Toronto Zine Library! For magazinesters like ourselves a trip to the Toronto Zine Library was just what the doctor ordered last Sunday. It gave us a chance to do some research into the process of making a magazine that isn’t necessarily meant for large distribution, or to serve the needs of its audience, but rather as a personal project for the artist/writer themselves. Zine experts Sara and Amy gave us an overview of the history of zines, how they started as little booklets sent in the mail to and from fans of science fiction about their topic of interest, and have grown into a vibrant and subject diverse DIY (do-it-yourself) industry. Today there are zine fairs in many major cities. In Toronto, Canzine is a festival/meeting place for independent artists/writers/publishers that happens every October. Hmmm, come to think of it, this may be a great venue to distribute some of Be Scene’s mags. Learning about the history of zine making was interesting, but the mo...

Crazy Kelvin and Onik host tonight's radio show recapping the G-20. They have a guest who is a video journalist who has brought some audio pieces that show a bit more behind the scenes of the city violence that occurred and people's reactions during the time they occurred. http://www.catchdaflava.com/radio/media/2010-07-27.mp3

Summer is here! What does that mean? The 2010 Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Summer Program has launched. This year participants of the Regent Park Focus Summer program have many different programs for children and youth to join. The main theme of our work in the summer is on Life Skills Development and Youth Mental Health, which also includes other social issues effecting youth such as; peer pressure, substance abuse, racism, discrimination, the environment and so much more. Each day we offer a series of two hour workshops. The goal of each of the workshops is to create an arts project that is based on resiliency skills such as; leadership, team work, goal setting, project-task management and conflict resolution and explores issues related to youth mental health. First off, every Monday afternoons we have a group of Brown high school placement students who are doing a placement at George Brown College. These students are working on an audio play and producing their very own ra...

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...