Regent Park Focus

What is That?: Episode #1 Levi, Valentina, Matthew, Divine Last week we filmed our pilot episode of What is That? The three of us tried and rated each one of the mysterious food items brought in. The items consisted of a bag of chips called “Tyrant habanero super spicy mix“, a drink called “Ramune”, an unfamiliar fruit called a dragon fruit also known as pitaya, and a healthy nutritional bar called “Maze Bar”. We all tasted them, then gave our honest opinions about them. The chips were given an overall rating of 3/10, Ramune was given a overall rating of 4.5/10, Pitaya was given a 7/10 and Maze bar was given a 5/10. The pilot episode turned out to be very comedic and educational, which made it engaging with anticipation for the next. We did a great job at keeping the discussion going even if it was just random conversation and staying enthusiastic throughout. A few things we could do differently for the following shows is to keep the cameras rolling for the whole episode and m

Catch Da Flava Blog - July 31, 2018 This week on Catch Da Flava hosts Nate and Diamond talked about the art of bouncing back with health talk panelists. We discussed the ways each of us copes when life's situations become over barring and knocks you down; whether that be exercising, listening to music, taking a hot shower or sleeping; all these activities help us stray from a bad state of mind to help us stay positive. Life can be a complex journey with many ups and downs. It’s filled with both challenges and accomplishments. However, when we go through challenging phases, we often dwell more on the bad experiences and end up self-loathing and judgemental. Pitfalls are a part of life, whether we like it or not and the health talk panellist believe that having support systems to help cope with life's hurdles help with one’s resilience. Furthermore, we bounced around a few ideas about how changing the way you think could make you more resilient as well as the significan

In the third episode of new music showcase radio show Refresh, host Nate Gurarie played songs all across the genre board. Some highlighted pieces were Godsend by Bry, a single from the Irish singer-songwriter’s crowdfunded EP. Another track that was played was Collarbones by Braids, a song from the Calgary art-rock band released on a two-track single. Nate finished the show with the song Dreamo by Edmonton singer Sean Nicholas Savage. A dreamy, quirky ending for the show. Listen to Podcast: 2018-07-30

Catch da Flava Radio- Politalks Kaleb and Kaylin For Catch da Flava Radio show we discussed our interview with Rachel Lauren Clark a video segment we did on Politalks and later delved into the upcoming municipal elections. Based on the interview we pulled up important clips and gave our own point of view on the issues she spoke on, such as not enough transgender people are being represented in politics. We later shifted into the October 22, municipal Elections. We talked about John Tory who is running to be re-elected as mayor. We discussed Tory’s campaign and the things he has accomplished right now as mayor. The October elections will also consist of voting in Toronto City Councillors that represents the ward of your district. They have now opened two new wards one of them is ward 23, which is for the area of Regent Park, Cabbagetown and St. Jamestown. For more information on all the candidates running for the October elections, please visit: http://app.toronto.ca/vote/candidat

Health Talks on Catch da Flava Levi, Valentina, Divine, Matthew July 30th Last week our group hosted a radio show for Health Talks on Catch da Flava Radio. We discussed our experiences with video games and the reasons behind the newly classified mental condition issued by the World Health Organization. Based on the panel, our guests concluded in disagreement to the idea of the mental disorder classification. Overall we thought that the amount of gaming time could and should be restricted and controlled by the game developers to prevent negative connotations towards gaming. We did a great job of keeping the conversation going with very little pauses in dialogue. The discussion topics and examples were engaging and kept the show interesting throughout. One thing we could have done differently is bring in some factual information to back up our opinions within the debate. For example, we could have listed percentages of players on the games we discussed and even people that have b

Every morning this summer, I have had the pleasure of teaching and giving young people the opportunity to create their own interactive stories. Interactive stories can be thought of in three ways: the viewer can choose the path of the story, the viewer can manipulate the story, and the viewer is immersed in the story.  For the first focus, I assigned projects where the youth were able to use Eko Studio to build a story from scratch in pairs. The next project was to create an interactive web-series pilot. The stories turned out great, and I am thrilled with what everyone was able to accomplish in two weeks. Today I taught an introduction to computer science, as our theme is stories that can be manipulated by an audience. We are going to be building our own mini-apps using the MIT App Inventor. We're off to a great start this month!  More to come! -Shian

Date: July 30th, 2018 Hosts: Jeneace & Reyna Guests: Hodan, a counsellor from Jessie’s Centre, Sam, a young mother and OW recipient, and Yogi, an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty Topic: Navigating, Understanding and Destigmatizing Ontario Works This week, Jeneace and Reyna hosted a PowerfulxNature episode on Ontario Works. In Ontario, 14.3% of people live in poverty with newcomers, people of color, single mothers, the elderly and people with disabilities experiencing the highest rates of poverty. Social assistance, or Ontario Works, provides crucial financial support for people in Ontario living in poverty but often fails to meet costs of living for example, in urban centres like Toronto. Our hosts first interviewed Hodan, a counsellor from Jessie’s Centre, who talked about how crucial OW support is for young parents, the vast majority who depend on it while they’re still in high school or post-secondary school. Our second interview was with Sam,

In this episode of Radio Franco, Live From the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre, we talked about places like restaurants, shops, Culture Centre and helping program that is all based or introduce the French culture to the citizen of Toronto. Also, we tried to guess french Idiomatic Expressions like Raconter des salades, which means lying, and  C’est la fin des haricots which means everything is lost . Dans cet épisode de Radio Franco, Live Du centre d’art médiatique jeunesse Regent Park Focus, nous avons parlé de restaurants, de magasins, de centres culturels et de programmes d’aide basés sur la culture française. Aussi, nous avons essayé de deviner les expressions idiomatiques françaises comme: Raconter des salades, ce qui signifie mentir, C'est la fin des haricots, ce qui signifie que tout est perdu. Listen to Podcast: Download MP3 This radio series is supported, in part, by the Ministry of Francophone Affairs to support cultural and community activities f

Episode Summary: It’s the first episode of Ask the American hosted by Regent Park Focus’ sit-in Americans: Brandon and Caleb! This episode opens with an introduction to Brandon and his guest. We will learn about what brought them both to Toronto and to Regent Park Focus. Both will share their experiences of traveling and what they have learn about the True North so far. Topics will range from everything from food, love, money, the diverse nature of Toronto. Not too bad for the first show, eh? Notes: This is the first time that Brandon and Caleb appeared in the studio. The soundtrack was created by Brandon Berry. Host(s): Brandon Berry & Caleb Listen to Podcast: Download MP3

Radio Blog - July 24th, 2018 This week on Catch Da Flava hosts Nate and Diamond talked to the Health Talk panelists about better ways to manage anger in our lives; whether it be the different ways that we express our anger or knowing the warning signs to pick up on it ; we talk about the ins and outs of this complex emotion. The experience of anger can range from mild annoyance to rage and will vary for each person and in each situation. We discussed different sources of stress, whether it be from home, school or work etc and how it can make people quicker to anger. But no matter what it is that makes us angry, we emphasized that the most important thing is how we handle it. It is right to remember that anger is a feeling and It’s what we do with it that counts. Furthermore we shared different ways we personally cope with anger as well as ways in which we should change our way of thinking to help control how we feel in times that anger would negatively shape our thoughts. M

In the second episode of new music showcase radio show Refresh, host Nate Gurarie played quite a number of songs. Some highlighted pieces were Talia by King Princess, a Brooklyn-based young artist who writes self-described “queer love songs”. Nate had gotten a chance to see King Princess perform that week and enjoyed talking about the intimate performance. Another song played was Disaffection by Ought, a song off the third album by the post-punk band from Montreal that displayed a lot of retro themes.

This week marks the halfway mark for most of the interns at Regent Park Focus. The interns were really busy this week from editing footage that has been collected from the past week or so. Last week the interns created an interactive story pilot and have edited the pilot throughout this week. Each pilot is now up on the Regent Park Focus YouTube channel. We also had a chance to display our pilot to the class. The RPTV news team were editing they’re interviews with Sureya Ibrahim and Afrah Ismail from the Toronto Centre for Community Learning and Development. Four videos have been filmed for the Politalks show and is now onto editing them. One of the interviews with Rachel Lauren Clark is finished editing. Also the Past, Present and Future team has finished editing their first interview as well. The RPTV team filmed their first show called “What is that?”. They tasted foods that can be seen as obscure or different towards certain people. They tasted foods like dragon fruit, a local p

Regent Park Focus Blog Post July 16 - 20 This week was a busy week. The students have finished filing their interactive story pilots now it’s onto the editing. They also acted in their own videos which allowed them to try out new stuff and get a little creative and step out of their comfort zone to really make the videos impact more. This week was also full of filming. From filming Politalks interviews to interviewing for the RPTV news segments. Now that all the footage is in, it’s time for editing for the next week or so. We have captured lots of this great community and really see how everyone bonds together. Our RPTV news team also got to experience the Taste of Regent event where there is live music and food from many different community members. It happens every Wednesday across the street from Daniels Spectrum. For radio, there were a couple segments about issues and topics that pertain to everyone. We not only had some political talks but also addressed issues with par

Radio Show 1: Sur Radio Franco tu trouvera de la musique seulement en Français. Pour notre première émission on a commencé par introducir le co-animateur (Mathieu), co-animatrice (Valentina) de cette émission et d'où ils vien. Dans notre épisode on a couvert la définition et l’origine de le mots “Francophonie” avec l’histoire de notre culture francophone. Par la fin de l'émission on a couvert un événement courante qui s’appelle la fête national de belge. In Radio Franco you will find songs in french. We started off by presenting the co- hosts of the show (Mathieu and Valentina) and where they come from. For this first show we define “La Francophonie”, the origins of it and it’s importance.We also gave some inside of where to find french speakers in toronto by giving a current event happening in the city. Listen to Podcast: This radio series is supported, in part, by the Ministry of Francophone Affairs to support cultural and community activities for

Date: July 16th, 2018 Hosts : Reyna & Sinead Guests : Karen from Jessie’s Centre and Natalie Richardson from Save Your Skin Foundation Topic : Summer Fun on a Budget! Ever worry you won’t be able to do anything fun with your kids in the summer because you don’t have enough money for regular trips or outings? This week, Reyna and Sinead break down the ways you can plan a summer full of fun on a budget. With tips and tricks about budgeting, finding deals and taking advantage of free events across Toronto, you’ll want to listen to this episode.  We began our interviews with Karen from Jessie’s Centre. Karen gave us some great tips on how to plan and find cheap, family-friendly places to visit around Toronto. We talked with Karen about how Toronto parks like High Park and Trinity Bellwoods, Centre Island, and summer festival or celebrations like Pride are free and are outings where you can further cut costs by packing lunch, snacks and beverages. Karen also

In the first episode of new music showcase radio show Refresh, host Nate Gurarie played a diverse collection of songs. Some highlighted pieces were the single I Feel Free by DILLY DALLY, a Toronto soft-grunge band who Nate was really excited to play, as he has been listening to them for a number of years. Another song that was played is Essuwonike by Jeremy Dutcher, a Two-Spirit operatic singer and composer was played. Over the years Jeremy Dutcher has been preserving his ancestry by transcribing traditional Maliseet songs from archived recordings and making his adaptations available to all. Listen to Podcast: 2018-07-16

This week marked the first full week for new Regent Park Focus Summer Staff. New Media Coordinator Shian has been leading the interns in a morning course about Interactive Storytelling. After an exercise in re-adapting TV scripts, the staff were split into two groups and wrote a script and filled out call sheets for a pilot episode of an interactive web series. Last week Music Production Coordinator Levi has been helping youth create their own beats. There’s plenty of room for more students, so come by any weekday from 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM and learn about music production, editing, and mixing! In the afternoons staff have been researching and writing their own articles for the monthly Catch Da Flava Magazine. The pieces are looking to all be very interesting, so keep an eye out for the online and in-print release! The staff continued their work on producing shows for the TV and radio station, getting familiar with the inner workings of film and radio production. Groups started f

For the first week of the summer multimedia internship at Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre, we had the great time of not only meeting the people we would be working with throughout the summer; but got to create our own interactive storytelling project with a partner using the platform, Eko. With this project the youth were able to plan and create a summer story in which imagination would thrive as, Eko allowed us to use video footage we planed and shot as well as those found online. Additionally by using this platform we had the power of creating pathways that would enable the the viewer to choose between alternating paths within the videos and story structure as well as being able to view multiple videos at once. This all being possible with the use of this free online platform showed to us by our New Media Coordinator, Shian Grace. Later on towards the afternoons the summer intern group would work collaboratively; whether in groups or pairs; to plan a series of pr

For this episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, we share an interview we did with a few youth participants about their feelings on sports, and the level of participation they have in it whether as an athlete or spectator. The interview was quite interesting with a handful of participants. We find that they gravitate to different sports, and Ultimate Frisbee seems to be the underdog sport in this interview session. The questions we asked our youth participants were: What’s your favorite sport and why? Do you participate in sports? Which ones? Why do you like/dislike sports? Would you recommend sports to others and how would you do that? What sport do you wish you can get into? We wanted to share this conversation not just because sports is a fun way to get our bodies fit and active, but because it relates to our show on “Flubber” and how sports equipment enhances sports performance. There’s definitely a lot that sports has to offer in our lives, whether we are active partic

For our July 5th episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, we introduced our show with a discussion on the movie “Flubber” and how sports equipment enhances sport performance. Flubber is a movie about mad scientist Professor Philip Brainard and his insatiable need to create more and more scientific innovations. He’s engaged to Sara Reynolds, a part of the college faculty and they are trying to get married for the third time since the last two times he forgot because he was busy creating more inventions. He misses his third and final chance when he gets caught up creating “flubber” a polymer substance with free will and the capacity to multiple the energy that is given to it. So if you bounce it on the floor, it goes up and down repeatedly and rapidly given only one little toss. In between, he has to win back the heart of Sara, fight off his mortal enemy, and defend his creations against an evil parent and his bratty son. Some of the questions we asked the youth panel when it comes to t

For this edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, we had our panel discussion that explored the topic of exercise. Not only is the weather better in Toronto that it would encourage people to celebrate the use of their bodies but exercise more than ever is an important and vital component to healthy living for youth. According to the latest study by Preventive Medicine, it analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination that tracked over 12,500 people aged 6 to 84 years to log how many of their waking hours they spent active and how many they spent sitting. It shows the older people are, the more inactive they becoming but shockingly the research shows that 19 year olds spend as much time being inactive and sedentary as 60 year olds. Considering that, it’s clear we need to get a move on when it comes to exercise! Some of the questions we asked our youth panelists were: What do you think accounts for youth being as inactive as seniors? What is pulling them away fro

For our July 3rd edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we started our show with a series of pre-recorded interviews from youth participants to get their take on exercise. The interviews were conducted to try to understand how youth participants are dealing with their body’s changes and how they perceive the adequacy of their bodies. Especially in our modern times where most youth want to just hang out indoors and scroll through endless memes on social media, exercise seems to be something fundamental we must reclaim. We asked them five questions which were: How much exercise do you think you do a day? A week? Do you consider yourself physically fit/healthy? Why or why not? What ways do you want to improve your physical health? How do you think you can achieve this goal? Do you enjoy exercise? Why or why not? What kinds of exercise do you participate in? What are some you want to take up? We ended off this show with a song that celebrates the triumph of the human spiri