Regent Park Focus

Last Fridays’ is an evening of socializing and song held on the last Friday of each month typically between the months of November to June. Presented by the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre the event is an opportunity for the Regent Park Focus house band, the Youngstas, to horn their skills jamming with professional artists and performing in front of a live audience. November’s Last Friday s’ event was held at the Daniel’s Presentation Centre on November 27th. Backed up by the Regent Park Focus House Band, the event began with the lyrical rhymes of Toronto Hip Hop artist Mind Bender. Afterwards, the Youngstas performed a set of their own. Following the Youngstas, singer songwriter ? performed. She delighted the children in the audience with a number of songs that the audience were encouraged to sing along to. The featured artist of the night was singer songwriter Marnie Levitt. Marnie, no stranger to Last Friday,entertained the audience of 30 people with soulful folk music.

Welcome to week 7 of our RPTV video production on Meaning Youth Employment. We have been meeting every Tuesday at 4:00pm at Regent Park Focus. After putting our heads together and deciding that the theme of our short film is young people and the work force, we began the real work of producing a film. This work consisted of character development and script-building, discussing the setting and of course…a camera workshop! The group will be filming, editing, acting in and producing this film. For some members, this is their first time being involved with a program such as this one and others are returning members. So far, the chemistry between the youth has been great in terms of creating based on everyone’s ideas. It is important to include everyone’s input when planning a script as well as during the rest of the film-making process. All members have equal say and that is one of the many great things about this program. We’ll keep you posted. Until next time, RPTV

Our radio on November 24, 2009 was on stereotypes. Ishtiaque, Bipu and Amer talked about South Asian and Asian stereotypes and the impact that these stereotypes have on people. We also talked about the pros and cons of Facebook. Our radio show was a breeze and we had no problems. We enjoyed every minute. Listen Here!

On Tuesday November the 17th Catch da Flava radio invited guests Emma Mcilveen, the founder of the Charlie’s Freewheels organization along with Shah Mohamed, a mechanic volunteer with the program. We discovered that the Freewheels program ran through the summer and centered around empowering a group of 11 youth predominantly from the Regent Park community, with bicycle mechanical skills. The youth met twice a week, and learned how to fix, repair and maintain bicycles. After interviewing our guests on the Freewheels program, we moved on to tie in our interview with the social and environmental impact of bicycles in this day and age. We briefly discussed biking to school and work and compared it to other forms of transport such as public transit, mentioning the TTC fare hike that occurred over the past week. The show was insightful and we as hosts, learned more about bicycles and the positive impact that they can have in today’s society and environment. By Abdulkarim, Azam and Tazim List

Our the radio show on November 10, 2009 was basically about H1N1. We (Atharul, Ruhul, Rima and Saad)were interviewed by the host of the show Shamina. Some of the questions we were asked were how we as youth living in Regent Park feel about this flu? Another question that arose was whether the doctors or medical care establishment taking the H1N1 as serious as it is? Yes there is the flu shot, but not everyone is taking it and there isn't even that many vaccines available. It is still pretty easy to get the flu because there isn't much protection at school. All we have is the hand sanitizer and that is not enough to stop this H1N1 from spreading. In our opinion, the government should take our health more seriously. Listen Here!

On our November 3, 2009 radio show, the Beautiful City campaign was talked about. The Beautiful City campaign is against all the corporate billboard advertisements that are all around the city. The campaign wants the city to tax the corporations because the advertisements are not beneficial to the public. The funds that will be raised through the taxes will be used to fund artist and art projects around the city. This was the first time hosting a radio show for most of the members in our group. There were some technical difficulties as we could not hear our guest over the phone. This meant that we had to host the radio show by ourselves. I think we did a great job. Sabbir, Jahid, Onik

Our experience with Catch da Flava Radio was one to remember. We hosted the October 27 radio show. Talking about teen depression has made us more aware of how much it affects you and the people around you. We also realized that there are many organizations and services to help us. Preparing for the show had it's highs and lows. One of our most promising moments were coming together with a lot of research. Unfortunately we had a nervous breakdown just before our show. But all in all the experience was enjoyable and we would love to do many more shows. The October 27 Catch da Flava Radio show on Teenage Depression was hosted by Tagnim, Rubi, Tanjina and Tamin. Listen Here!

Our October 13, 2009 radio show was on food security. The radio show provided an insight into the upcoming Catch da Flava magazine issue. The magazine features foods from different cultures and articles on healthy eating. We used pieces from our magazine to talk about over the radio. One of the pieces was on Junk food and whether or not it should be banned in schools. After a debate on this, we talked about Nobel Peace Prize winner, U.S President Barrack Obama and whether or not he deserved it. By Azam, Tazim and Abdul Karim.