Divas - CANVAS - Intro

By -

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 and perform their own spoken word. They all described their experience at the end of the day as exciting.

Oct 21st, 2016
Session 2: Pink hats... Examining Gender norms and Girlhood

This week at the Regent Park Focus Divas Media Group Program, the Divas were involved in examining gender norms and girlhood. Through forum theatre and spoken word videos, the Divas analyze media representations of gender and femininity. This activity helped them gain a deeper understanding of the gender binary and learn about a range of gender identities, including gender-fluid and trans-identities.

At the end of the session, the Divas composed their first poem that challenges labels and addresses the themes of girlhood and femininity. It was an exciting session for the Divas.

Oct 28th, 2016

Sessions 3: “Maybe she’s born with it”: Deconstructing Media Representations of Body & Gender - Focused On BODY IMAGE This week at the Regent Park Focus Divas Media Group Program, the Divas were introduced to the concept of the media representation of the body and gender as a social construct.
The Divas used images from magazines and social media to challenge societal expectations; emphasizing the ways in which race, religion and ability are commonly represented.

This activity helped the Divas to deconstruct the social concept of “beauty” and representation of the “body”. The Divas also watched spoken words videos about body image. These videos gave the Divas new ideas about their bodies and these ideas were then used to create poems about what their body would say if it could speak.
 

By: Ruth Onogu

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Camping with the Divas Girls Group

By -
Image
This past week the girls group headed to Guelph for a three day retreat to celebrate the end of this year’s program. It rained almost the entire time, but we still managed to have a great time! For many of the girls it was the first time they had been out of the city. They were excited to go canoeing, take part in a scavenger hunt and spend time in the conservation area exploring and drawing in their sketch books. Because of the rain we also came up with lots of creative ways to have fun inside. We painted tote bags, learned to cook lots of delicious food, and put on a “Kids Canadian Idol” show. The girls all said they wished the trip could have been longer and were already planning next year’s trip on the way home.
Read more

Catch da Flava - Discussing Mental Helath and Peacebuilders

By -
Image
On today's Catch da Flava radio show for Tuesday, January 14, 2020, we focused on two separate but intertwined issues. They were youth mental health and the youth justice system. Our hosts were Shajuanah and Jamelia with co-hosts Kaila, Thalia, and Fazra. Our guests for the mental health segment was Michelle Cauch, a Student Success Advisor at Centennial College and Michelle Galeotalanza, a mental health professional and professor at Centennial College. They discussed what is mental health, why is youth mental health important, why is youth mental health different from the other age groups, what are the major youth mental health issues, where should the youth get help, how can they seek trusting professionals to speak to on issues of mental health? These were just a few of the many interesting topics and questions we discussed. Our guest for the next segment was Rachelle Bloomfield, a staff, leader, and counselor at Peacebuilders. Peacebuilders is a nonprofit organization...
Read more

Radio Regent News and Views - August 6th, 2021

By -
In this episode of Radio Regent News and Views, we hear two reports by student groups currently working at Focus Media. Each summer, youth community members are welcomed into the Centre, given access to multi-media technology and encouraged to create content with a local community news emphasis. on today’s show, one group interviews Liberal Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre, Marci Ien, about homelessness in the community; and another group presents a report on the state of maintenance and general safety in St. Jamestown residential buildings. In addition, we’ll hear a migrant worker tell his story of being wrongfully repatriated to his country of origin, unfortunately an all-too common occurrence in Canada.
Read more