Regent Park Focus

What a smashing time for the community of Regent Park on July 27th! The Last Friday event once again had delivered a very massive catastrophe for the residents – popping with its musical skills, poetic talents, and chaotic storytelling. Hosted by Jerry Z , performances by the Southside Swaggs, our very own Regent Park Focus House Band, 16 year old Neil Wadhvana, Madame J from K-dub, and our newest discovery from our media arts youth groups Iman, and our most favourite 8 year old Rawaa singing to Adeles’Someone like you. As always this musical event is for free along with food and refreshments for the community of Regent Park. The Last Friday is not possible without the help of Regent Park Focus Media Art Centre and the Daniels Corporation. Come join us for the next Last Friday August, 31 st    this month! The event will end with Jerry Z dancing to Michael Jacksons’”Billy Jean”and everyone should join him in this dance!  Jerry Zabarte

Today is the first time we took the Mobile Media Lab also known as "The Mammal" to Regent Park's new weekly summer event called "Show Love". We played music from the bike after unfolding it like a Transformer and entertained the visitors at the event.

This week the Boys 2 Men crew had a very relaxing day. We had chosen to watch a film called “Blind Side”. We thought it would be a great idea for a masculinity theme and the struggles of youth in poverty. It was a favourite amongst the boys group in which they were able to relate to the story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family. - Jerry Z

The Boys II Men program has been running since April every Thursday during after school hours. The purpose of establishing the Boys II Men program is to get male youth to engage in activities in order to improve their facilitation skills, their communication skills and their cooperation skills and as well as to get them active at the same time. Activities include sports, arts and crafts and field trips and of course media-related activities. Boys enrolled in this program are entitled in choosing the activities and to free refreshments. Through out the course of the program, the boys were heavily active when it came to physical activities. These boys really enjoy playing basketball and running games, which includes tag and manhunt. Other games they played include dodge ball and swimming. As well, the Boys II Men program provides a learning experience as the boys learn about issues hat are going on in today’s society.  The boys learned about the negative aspects of drug-use and is...

On this day we had a guest by the name of Grace Leui, a nurse from Toronto Public Health , come in to help share some research and information on air quality with the Regent Park Focus team that will be working with the Toronto Live Green project. We will be creating posters, radio and video PSAs about air quality for Live Green. We learned many things about smog, pollution and unhealthy airborn particles that could reduce air quality. She always shared with us some information on what people can do to help protect themselves from reduced air quality. An air quality health index was also created to allow for people at home to monitor the air quality outdoors before they leave for the day to see if its safe to do certain activities outside. We also tackled a couple topics such as reducing vehicle emissions. The following tips included: riding a bike, walking or local transit for short distances, carpooling and even something called trip chain. Trip chain is combining errands into on...

The Sunday in the Park Festival 2012 – the longest running annual event in Regent Park – celebrated its 21st Anniversary on July 8! The Regent Park Focus House Band was busy delighting the audience with music and entertainment while The Catch da Flava radio crew conducted an onsite radio show from The Mobile Media Lab Bike (The Mammal). We interviewed Glen Murrey, Firefighters and many organizations and residents in the Regent Park area. ~ Tyrone