Regent Park Focus

Monday, February 10, 2020 Today was the fourth week of the Diva's and U of T student's programs. This week they had special guest speakers and did a very outstanding reflective activity. Students started with dividing themselves into groups to talk about 4 different topics: Understanding the religious fabrics of Regent Park Individual expressions/experiences of Faith and Religious Ethnic Discrimination Religion and the built environment Inter and Intra Fath divides and solidarity Afterward, they received and welcomed guest speakers from the "iAm Youth Program" by the JAYU Festival Inc. This program is offered to youth across "underserved communities" across the GTA for a 9-week training for focused on arts and social justice. This is a great program for youth to be involved with education on social problems and how it is involved and can be express through the arts. Two of the guest speakers who came were previous students of this program and the...

Today (Monday, February 3 rd , 2010) was the third week of the Diva's and U of T students program. The group enjoyed good healthy snacks and got working right away. As it has been said before, the group will focus on the topic of Faith, Religion and Spirituality . Their media projects will reflect on those topics and how they play a role in the community and individuals. To get some ideas for the project, there were two studies that were shown today: The Ground Zero Mosque situation   Religion and Cities and how it impacts members of the community A fter that, everyone divided themselves into smaller groups and examined, discussed and presented either one of the case studies. Conversations also focused on personal views of religion, faith and what spirituality means to them. At the end everyone presented their ideas a nd some chose t o open up about their own views of these topics, more specifically their experiences with religion and how other people's view of ...

On Monday, January 20th 2020, a group of students from the University of Toronto gathered to begin the first session of their Youth, Arts and Engagement in Cities program. This program engages students from U of T and the Diva's group to collaborate with each other to work on media projects, in order to raise awareness and tackle social issues around the world or in the Regent Park community. This year they will do a Youth Media Case Study, which will focus on using media projects to express themselves through topics that they felt are important for the community to know. The session began with introductions. Everyone was very excited and participated. The students divided themselves into groups and members of the Divas Group picked a group to work on their projects with. There were five groups, Video/Film, Radio/Podcast, Music, Magazine and interactive art. Each one will be responsible for producing a project based on their category, which we will see by the end of the program in...

On Thursday, November 28 th , 2019, several  young women in our Divas Media program performed their spoken word poems at the annual holiday celebration for the Canadian Women’s Foundation. The event was held at 100 Adelaide St. W, and about 35 to 40 people were in attendance.  It was an honor to be invited to the celebration where FOCUS’ work was recognized. The event started off with:  speeches from  Paula Smith (the Board of Director) and Kristin Blakely  (Chair of the Board).  FOCUS young women were introduced by Kristin Blakely. The young women went up and introduced themselves, spoke about where they were from (FOCUS), and why they choose the poem to present. Although the young women were nervous during their performance, they pulled it off and did an amazing job! The celebration ended with a speech from Paulette Senior (The President and CEO). The young women and I had a great time and we enjoyed the celebration. Thank you to the Canadian ...

By: Laura Polisuk   November 22nd, 2019 On November 22nd, the Diva’s Girls Program met to discuss social justice issues regarding a movie called, “Miss Representation.” The purpose of the program was to debate whether the representation of women in the media has gotten better or worse since the movie premiered in 2011. The Diva’s were divided into two teams based on their beliefs. The girls who thought the representation of women in the media improved said it was because they think women are dominating the music charts, more recognition in film, more examples of women in sports, men identifying themselves as feminists and more people embracing the word ‘feminist’. The girls who believed the representation of women in the media is getting worse, said it was because there are many missing girls, the damaging impacts of the Kim Kardashian effect, sex sells in the music industry, there is pressure to wear makeup and use dating apps, and finally the comment sections on social m...

On Friday, November 8th, the Diva Girls Program met at Focus Media Arts Centre to discuss “Women in Media”. We watched a documentary from 2011 called “Miss Representation”. The film outlines the struggles that women face every day, specifically how mainstream media contributes to the underrepresentation of women in powerful positions by limiting those portrayals. The girls were encouraged to ask questions throughout the film and compare the struggles the women faced in the film, to a struggle they face as young women in their day to day lives. Many of the Diva’s brought up the fact that the documentary was filmed in 2011 and that a lot of those struggles depicted in the film are no longer problems to women in 2019. They engaged in an important discussion about women being portrayed in the media and how they have seen it improve since the documentaries premiere date. Next week we will discuss the film in more detail and answer the questions that arose while watching it....

We met for the second Diva’s program of the session on Friday October 25 th . The girls arrived with smiles on their faces and began to socialize and eat snacks before beginning the week’s discussion. The facilitator wrote a question on the board that said, “Who inspires you on Youtube?” The girls named a few like Denzel Dion, Nella Rose and Adam Saleh. They said that they are inspiring because they are out there, true to them, authentic, relatable and don’t hold back on their thoughts and beliefs. The discussion shifted to stereotypes and which Youtubers are challenging them on their channels. Then we discussed the dangers of Youtube, including false information/fake news, forcing young girls to grow up fast, hateful comments and secret product placements. The final activity of the day was to create a Youtube video called, “Storytime: They Thought I Was Aggressive?” The video was about stereotypes people placed on them and they had to answer specific questions in the video such a...

Diva Girl's Blog #1 Today was the first day of the Diva's program for this year. The girls came in with vibrant energy and were excited to be back and to see each other. The group socialized and ate some snacks before gathering in a circle to start today's program. It began with an ice breaker game called "Two Truths and a Lie", where the girls opened up about what they did over the summer and what they are looking forward to for this session of the Diva's group. After going around the circle, the CANVAS instructor, Twoey, pulled out two large pieces of paper: one had social justice issues the girls want to tackle and the other one was arts based practices to tackle those issues. For example, the paper said topics such as Islamophobia, racism, love and relationships, body image and many others, and the girls circled which topics they wanted to discuss further. Then, they had to circle which arts based practices they wanted to do which included pain...

This session the Divas continued working on their music with the help of Glama. The girls divided themselves unto groups, 2 decided to do music production while the other girls decided they would like to create videos. After some contemplating the girls decided they would like to change the song they were going to sing. They had 3 songs in mind and ended up choosing "Girl On Fire" by Alicia Keys, due to the very empowering lyrics. The girls got through most of the song but will continue the rest next week. The other group of girls decided they would create their own song which they will record on the 29th. The Divas who were working on the video were having a harder time on discovering what they wanted to film, after some talking they decided they would be making instructional videos, some examples being: hijab tutorials, clothing hacks, dances, etc.  The session on the 29th was done with the assistance of John, he talked to the girls about creating audi...

This session was used to brainstorm future project ideas. The girls talked about projects they would like to work on, this being podcasts and videos while also taking the radio into consideration. The girls then worked on creating a playlist they would like to play in the background during the showcase, some even asked if they would be allowed to film their own music video/record something. Some ideas they had for podcasts revolved around mental health, gender-based discrimination, Islamophobia, the media and its impacts, and identity. The following week (April 22nd) the girls worked on creating their own music with the help of John, the music producer at Focus. Working with logic they not only made their own beat, but some of them also sang some covers of songs they picked. These will be on display during the showcase. Amna Quaid Azam 

Throughout the last four winter months, Regent Park Focus’ Diva Girls Group has been collaborating with University of Toronto professor Aditi Mehta, and her urban policy seminar students. An objective of the class (which looks at youth, art, and engagement in cities) was to explore urban experiences from various identities, and thereby critique urban policy and plans accordingly. As such, the partnership was intuitive, given Regent Park’s initial goal to combat negative stereotypes about the community and to provide media literacy and production programming for youth in the area.   Together, U of T students, along with the Diva girls, have been learning about media projects initiated by young people across the world, and analyzing how various creative forms of expression were able to spur change and social movement in their respective communities. Moreover, the Diva Girls were able to teach and share their own unique experiences to the U of T students, a...

This session the girls met Caroline Acton who taught them a little about painting and abstract art. When the girls walked in they were asked to get into pairs and introduce the other person to Caroline, they were to say their names and 2 things they liked about the person.  They were then given canvases, brushes, and paint, and told about the different styles they could paint in, this helped to get ideas rolling. The pieces the girls have created will be on exhibit during the showcase, May 17th, 2019. The girls really enjoyed painting and are hoping they can do it again in the following weeks! Amna Quaid Azam

This session the Little Divas had a showcase and the older Divas were invited to watch! While the Little Divas were getting ready the older Divas and I talked about the UofT Showcase and how they felt it turned out at the end. We then talked about the sessions leading up to it and how everyone's experience went throughout it.   Soon after, we were all invited into the room the showcase was happening at and the Little Divas talked about the work they created and we were able to listen to a song the girls had created and then watched a dance they came up with together which had the message of empowerment implemented into it. Some of the pieces the girls worked on was a wall titled "Black Girl Magic", which included letters the girls had created to people they think embody Black Girl Magic. There was also a section titled The Future which included Time Capsules the girls created. More work created was on advertising, self-portraits, Taking back Stereotypes...

Regent Park Focus is partnering with the Youth, Arts, and Engagement Program at the University of Toronto to produce a media product that is based on the community. This is the eighth and ninth session. The next session will be at the Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre on April 8th for the Showcase exhibition. These two sessions were used to add last minute touch ups onto the final pieces both groups had created. This meant making sure they had everything ready and editing what they needed to change. On April 1st, the group presented their ideas to each other and brought examples of what they were going to do, the girls were then thanked and given a gift from Aditi, the proffer of the course. The participants then all went to the event room of the Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre and decided how they would like to layout and present their pieces. For more information on the tasks each group did per week you can click here ! Amna Quaid Azam

These sessions the girls used to complete their photography projects. The first session was used to learn about editing images with the guest artist Sydonnae. She then showed the girls their pieces compared to the ones they picked during the first session. The girls then said bye to Sydonnae and the session ended.  Some of the Final pictures are shown below, they will be included as part of the showcase.   Upon return to Focus the following Friday (March 29th) the girls went out around the community to take pictures. Before leaving they were asked to pick themes they wanted their photography to be about. They then got into groups and we headed out. The themes picked were: happiness, vacation, and fashion/modern. These pictures taken are shown below, they will be included as part of the showcase. Amna Quaid Azam