Last Friday is Back! (April 2011)
Siblings Loyal and Layia perform and support each other
Regent Park Staff and volunteers at Last Friday!
Last Fridays is back! Thanks to Daniels Corporation, we are able to bring back Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre’s Last Fridays event for the next 3 months. Our April Last Friday was a success! We had an array of diverse young talent who performed at 246 Sackville. As always we provided free food and drinks. It was delicious. The Regent Park Focus House Band opened up the show and ended the show with a bang. They sang a compilation of cover songs and songs they wrote themselves! Our next performance was the Quran Recitation performed in his language by Loyal, who is a youth living in the Regent Park community and who is also a participant in our video and radio program.
Loyal is passionate about his religion, music and art. He hopes to inspire more youth to speak up and stand up for what they believe in. Loyal definitely is a big inspiration to his little sister Layia who not only help introduce her brother but told the audience how he is a great role model for his family. Layia has been writing short stories and poetry since she was 8 years old. She likes expressing herself through her stories and she likes that fact that she brings truth in her poems. Layia was also involved in helping with the MAMMAL project, which was finally revealed at our Last Friday event. The Mammal was designed as a multi-purpose vehicle that can travel to outdoor community events and be used by Focus members to do on site Dj-ing and conduct Regent Park TV filming activities as well as broadcast live Catch da Flava radio shows. The Mammal contains detachable speakers that can be configured to serve as seating. What is even more amazing is that at night the Mammal can be illuminated and used as a performance space or transformed as an outdoor video screen.
One of our other incredible performers was Ruth Mathiang. Ruth has quickly become one of the rising stars of African music in Toronto. In Kenya, she performed with local musicians ranging from traditional music to hip hop. Her CDs were well received and led to performances in many local and international events in Canada and the States. Her style of music is Hip Hop, Reggae, Afrobeat, to Gospel. Ruth performed with her friend Amelia LeClair who is an wonderful artist based in Ottawa. Together they brought to the audience an Afro Brazilian Folky sound.
Another groundbreaking performance of the night was a talented soulful artist who hails from Kingston, Jamaica. Ruth Royes is a singer songwriter. She realized her interest in music from an early age when learned to play the violin at age 9. After being supported to sing by her sister, she decided that this was the path she wanted her life to take. More importantly, she felt it was what God wanted her to do. She has been influenced by many different genres, her culture and her beliefs, and as a result her music is a fusion of jazz, reggae and gospel. Ruth Royes performed with her college friend Andy who played guitar.
We even had 3 young girls from the Regent Park community perform a dance number. The girls have a passion to dance and they love to bring fun in their dance.
It was a pleasure to host Last Friday. I can’t wait to see what talent the May Last Friday will bring. If you or anybody you know would like to perform at this month's 'Last Friday' event which will be on May 27th, 2011 please let us know by sending us a message on our Facebook page or please call our office at (416) 863-1074 and let us know you are interested in performing at this month's Last Friday event. Remember: Food and drinks are provided :) You can pick a slot between 6:30 to 9:00p.m. We are looking for all types of talent i.e singers, bands, dancers, spoken word etc
Thanks!
~♥*Michele Peter*♥~
Youth Outreach Coordinator
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