University of Toronto Reading Week

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This reading week, a team of 8 University of Toronto students came to Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre to engage with the community of Regent Park.

On day one, we toured the studio here at Regent Park Focus. We were floored by how much equipment was available to us and how knowledgeable the staff are. After our tour of the centre, we went through a walk around the community. It was during this walk we developed our idea for our pre-recorded radio show. When we arrived back at RPF, we spent our remaining time brainstorming further.


The start of day two gave us the title of our pre-recorded radio show: A Walk Through Regent Park. We picked several locations in Regent Park that we’d seen the day before and that we felt were representative of the ongoing changes in this community. Armed with a commitment to showcasing people’s voices, we split into teams, grabbed our recorders, and interviewed community members.


Day three was focused on script-writing, audio editing, and generally bringing the show to life. Working collaboratively to research background information on all the locations we conducted interviews and bridging them together into a coherent script was no small feat! Neither was editing so many interviews! Despite that, we made time to walk around Regent Park and administer surveys about resident’s use of RPTV – we hope the results will be helpful in getting people to tune in.


Our fourth and final day involved quick prep for our live show Students Speak: University Admissions and Life on Campus. The show went on at 2pm and for a full hour we conducted a panel giving tips, tricks, and the insider perspective on what life is like at the University of Toronto. After the live show and a quick lunch, we holed up in the editing room and wrapped production on A Walk Through Regent Park.


We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre this week. We were welcomed more warmly, and learned far more, than we ever could have expected. Regent Park, you haven’t seen the last of us!

Listen to their radio show here:


Download MP3

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