Regent Park Focus

This week at the Divas Media Group Program, the goals of the session was the following; (1) to make the Divas feel positive about their bodies; (2) to celebrate the difference/unique qualities of their bodies/things society normally doesn’t celebrate; (3) to touch on self care/loving and caring for the body just as it is. After watching a spoken word performance ‘The Body is Not an Apology’ by Sonya Renee the Divas did an exercise focused on self evaluation of the body. In this activity, the Divas thought about their bodies in different ways and they were able to use this reflection to write down unique qualities about themselves. At the end of this session, the Divas described how they felt about themselves now. The Divas had much to say about self-love and how important it was. The Divas now realize that the society is not the standard for the right body type. Indeed! The body is not an apology. It is yours to own, to care for and to love. - Titilola Onogu 

On Friday November 18th 2016, the Divas Girl Group went on an excursion to attend the MusiCounts TD Community Music Program celebration. Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre was privileged to have received a grant from the program, that will go towards a upcoming music program for the youth in Regent Park. The Divas Girl group was lucky to attend the kick-off celebration which included amazing performances. There were three performers from Art Starts, Vanessa Lu, and one surprise performance from Canadian juno award winner- Kardinal Offishall. It was an overall exciting upbeat performance from all three performers. The Divas Girl Group then went on to the Art Gallery of Ontario to view great Canadian artist’s work. It was a great excursion that all of the girls enjoyed.    By: Julianne Uptegrove

This week at the Regent Park Focus Divas Media Group Program, the Divas continued where they left off the previous week on Feminism in the modern world. The goals of this session was the following; (1) to be more aware of feminism as a movement and what people are doing about it; (2) make them aware that their voice matters and they can do something too; (3) make them understand the history of the movement. In this session, the Divas focused on the awareness of knowing that they have a voice. In one of the exercises we were asked to draw a mental picture of what each person wanted the future to look like and afterwards what we can do to make that change in the future happen. After this exercise, the Divas spent their time writing and creating poetry with the help of a writing prompt that says “I want a future where...” Divas who felt comfortable to share their poetry did so and it was very inspiring. - Titilola Onogu 

Hello, my name is Jacob and I’ve been facilitating the game design program lead by Fernando. The second session Fernando taught students Deondre, Ron, and Jose the visual language program known as Scratch to prepare them for creation of simple animations for their game. I and one of the students Lam taught me the process of creating my own character in a virtual reality game called Dungeons and Dragons. Together we worked on a spread sheet where we had to think of a character name, character class, supplies the character would carry, statistics, and personality traits. The process was long and confusing however; it was fun to learn and to hear how my character would act in the real virtual game once the character creation was completed. It’s good to see these students gaining new skills and knowledge of design so they could incorporate it into their mindsets to benefit themselves. By: Jacob Hong

This week at the Regent Park Focus Divas Media Group Program, the Divas were introduced to Feminism in the modern world. The goals of this session were the following; (1) to be more aware of feminism as a movement and what people are doing about it; (2) to be aware that their voice as young women matters and they can do something too; (3) to understand the history of the movement.  The session began with the Divas sharing their views on feminism. Some of the Divas were already familiar with the concept of feminism while others were not. To introduce the Divas to a brief history of feminism, the Divas played the timeline game where they had to guess what year certain milestones took place in the history of feminism. After this exercise, it was so exciting to see the Divas sharing on and on about their ideas on feminism using the circle rock. They reflected on the just concluded United States presidential elections and also cited personal experiences as examples to describe their views.

On Tuesday, November 1 2016 at The Paint Box Bistro many different artists came together and did individual live performance's to have a fundraiser in support for Radio Regent. Radio Regent is a diverse independent radio station which has been operating since January 1 2012. With Music from Isax and Friendliness, African Blues Adam Solomon, and spoken word artist Twoey Gray, Londzo Drury, the audience was very entertained and in positive vibes all night. We would like to thank everyone who participated and contributed to making this event successful. For our future events you can stay updated by following us on twitter @regentparkfocus or visit our website at www.regentparkfocus.com . By: Tito-tae Sharpe

Hello, this is Deondre, Jacob, and Tito and we’re placement students at Regent Park Focus Media Arts Centre. On Tuesday October 11th our team of 3 did a live radio show on the troubles of the TTC in the city of Toronto. Problems we discussed during our radio show were the Metropass to Presto card changes for next year and the Yonge University Spadina Subway Extension to Vaughan and Richmond Hill. Concerns and issues were raised from ourselves about the 2 problems facing people around Toronto and York Region with an extended subway line. The TTC is already pretty crowded during the morning and late afternoon commute for passengers heading in and out of the city. The Yonge University Spadina extension to Vaughan is already delayed 18 months, $400 million dollars in contractor claims, and costs 3.2 billion dollars for the whole project. On the positive side the subway extension will prevent gridlock and creating a more attractive and creative way of getting to places around the city. It

Hello, my name is Jacob Hong and I’m a placement student from George Brown College currently facilitating the game design program directed by Fernando. The first session myself and two other drop-in students Beverly and Lam were thought by Fernando was the program called Scratch. Scratch is a visual programming language program used by students and teachers to create simple animations. Scratch helps youth think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Fernando taught us all 8 sprites on the Scratch program such as: motion, looks, sound, pen, control, sensing, operators, and variables. The fundamentals Fernando taught Beverly and Lam are preparing them for the future classes as it will assist them in the development of their programs. By: Jacob Hong Date: Monday, October 17, 2016

WEEKLY BLOGS FOR THE DIVAS MEDIA GROUP PROGRAM Oct 14th, 2016 Session 1: Introduction to spoken words The Regent Park Focus weekly Divas Media Group Program resumed on Friday 14th October, 2016. The Divas were back to having an exciting experience as usual. In this season of the Divas Media Program, the Regent Park Focus has a different plan for the Divas. We have lots of games, fun and exciting activities for the Divas to make their learning experience worth their while. The season started with a ‘spoken word’ series which would go on for a couple of weeks. The spoken word serious would be facilitated by two female professional spoken word artists. In the first class of the spoken word series, the Divas were excited about the art as some of most of them had never written a poem or performed the art before. The Divas were introduced to the art of spoken word, played games, got to know each other, watched videos on spoken word performances and eventually got a chance to create

Hello, I am Julianne, a co-op student currently placed at Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre. On Wednesday November 2nd, I had the opportunity to do a live radio show during Media Literacy Week. Media Literacy Week was a great interactive way to encourage youth to learn about and explore different aspects of media. During my show, I touched on the topic of celebrity culture and the different opinions of those in the industry, as well as those who use media everyday. According to Wikipedia, celebrity culture is “a high-volume perpetuation of celebrities’ personal lives on a global scale”. I talked about how the whole star system started in 1903, and how it as evolved through the years through the growth of media. We also talked about how much young people want to be famous- 51% of 18-25 year olds to be exact. It was amazing and fun to record, and I implore you to check it out. Listen here: http://www.regentparkfocus.com/radio/media/2016-11-02.mp3 By : Julianne Uptegrove