Regent Park Focus

A very fun-filled evening for the Regent Park community because of “ The JAM ” event. Although the line up was very short this month, the Regent Park residents were very excited to see what was in stored for them this end of the month. We moved the event to familiar territory which is at the Daniels Presentation Centre. At this time of the year, this is a much preferred venue for the sunny outdoor feel, and the open space. We had so much fond memories there before we started moving ‘ The JAM ’ events at the Daniel Spectrum! The Focus House Band led the introduction of the performance as usual, and played a little longer than usual because there was a performance cancellation as short notice. Their energy  was always there at a constant level whatever transitions that were given to them. Pete Townsend followed up with a powerful spoken word poetry performance… I was a little confused why he was doing poetry instead of a musical performance. But then again, I was ...

The attendance was massive and the crowd's vibe was pumping. We had the community's involvement as always and eager to check in on who's going to be the new surprise guest performers in the line up. You never know which discovery of new  talent you are going to see each and every month, and find yourself asking:  "why haven't I heard of these great talents?" We kicked off the event with the "Flash Mob" dance crew from the YLTP and Access Alliance . The spectators gave them a warmhearted applause for the captivating, poppin performance. The Focus House Band followed through once again with some of their originals and some, covers... Always the community's regular favorite. This party also delivered some spoken word artistry from Marcus Lomboy , sending inspiration for young poets out there in the community to continue their passion for wordplay wizardry. He seeks to educate and inspire youth while spreading a message of creativity ...

What a great following up to January’s ‘Last Fridays’ The Jam event!   It has been a very wintry cold month, almost as cold as this past January but without the persistent snow storms.   We managed to keep it fiery with this community gathering through celebrating the Black Heritage Month through the talents of our youth and guests. The jam kicked off as usual by the introduction of ‘ The Focus House Band’. They continued to mesmerize the community with their lively energy and enthusiasm. The Focus House Band which started approximately five years ago as a youth program teaching those interested how to play drums inspired a new vision that transformed the “Drum Lessons” into a “Music Production Workshop”. Eventually, they found 8 members to work with collaboratively in creating, producing, and composing musical tracks and lyrics. At present, 3 have remained. Solid and loyal to their group and continued to entertain everyone in the Regent Park community with their origi...

This week the Diva Girls participated in activities they helped in putting together. A few of the games the girls brainstormed included Wink Murder, Heads-Up-7-Up and a game where all the girls had to remain silent. If you spoke and or laughed, you were out. The girls thoroughly enjoyed this session, for weeks they have been asking for another "play day" so I was happy to oblige because they've been working really well together during the previous workshops in these past few weeks. On another note, it was the last Friday of the month so The Jam took place. We escorted the girls who were interested in attending the event to the Daniel Spectrum Centre where it was held. The girls had fun watching the skit and performances and after the performances, we ensured the girls arrived home safely. All in all, this was a fun and eventful week. R.T. Mujuzi

This month as an alternative to our Last Friday community event, we celebrated a Nuit Blanche special. This was held on Saturday on September 29th, at the Daniel’s Spectrum (Regent park Arts and Cultural Centre) 585 Dundas Street.Once again the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre delivered an amazing show for the Regent Park community. The mission to bring the community a hyped up free Nuit Blanche musical show was a great success as the turn out was surprisingly massive and quite unexpected than usual. It made Regent Park’s mark in the map! These musical artists delivered solid performances from the opening act of our very own Focus House Band, followed by Jennifer LFO’s poprocker’s tunes, Aslam Shaheem’s Punjabi dance pop music, and the wickedest dancehall / lovers rock / ska flavour of the Memberz, the drumming geniuses,musical instructors’ Shara Claire and David Aubrey Berger, producer Murr featuring Bengali electronica singer Rosina of LAL, and lastly the adventurous band c...

A very busy month for ‘The Mammal’ (the mobile medialab)… The Mammal as mentioned from some of our blogs, is a 2 rider-bicycle that looks like a boxy looking snail that carries media equipments such as speakers, radio transmitter, soundboards, microphones etc. We take this bike lab into community events and do live broadcasts and radio performances. We can show films on the bikelab as well because we can set it up as a mini stage. The Mammal is soo amazing! We took this bike lab into so many different community events the last 2 months of the summer and did our radio show and live interviews. The Sunday in the Park is one of them, Show Love, and EID, and the Last Friday events are just among the few that got The Mammal some exposure. We had a bunch of hilarity as usual for our radio shows this month. Rob Ford was busy too, with all the scrutiny surrounding him these past few months with regards to his ignorant comments to getting caught reading and driving! As if he had already l...

For the final day of Summer we celebrated with a jam packed night full of music, story telling and free food at our August Last Friday event. The event took place at the Daniels Presentation Centre at 500 Dundas Street East. The event kicked off at 6:30pm with the Catch da Flava Radio crew with "The Mammal" (The Mobile Media Lab Bike), whom interviewed members of the Regent Park community about their Summer experiences, back to school and even talked about the issues with Facebook sharing information of minors under the age of 13. We will be airing the pre-produced Catch da Flava radio show that was recorded at Last Fridays on September 12th, 2012. So be sure to check that out. Some of the musical guests that delighted the crowd, were the Roots Drummers, Jessica Stuart and Trace Minerals. Thanks to Paul Corby, Kerry and Jerry for finding these great talents. ~ Tyrone

What a smashing time for the community of Regent Park on July 27th! The Last Friday event once again had delivered a very massive catastrophe for the residents – popping with its musical skills, poetic talents, and chaotic storytelling. Hosted by Jerry Z , performances by the Southside Swaggs, our very own Regent Park Focus House Band, 16 year old Neil Wadhvana, Madame J from K-dub, and our newest discovery from our media arts youth groups Iman, and our most favourite 8 year old Rawaa singing to Adeles’Someone like you. As always this musical event is for free along with food and refreshments for the community of Regent Park. The Last Friday is not possible without the help of Regent Park Focus Media Art Centre and the Daniels Corporation. Come join us for the next Last Friday August, 31 st    this month! The event will end with Jerry Z dancing to Michael Jacksons’”Billy Jean”and everyone should join him in this dance!  Jerry Zabarte

The May Last Friday was held at 246 Sackville Street and it was another fun evening with new talent. We had the Focus House Band kick off the night with what they do best as everyone ate Caribbean food. We also had Trevonne also known as 1 2 Tres read a poem he wrote. Trevonne is truly a Jack of all trades. He can produce beats, play the drums, the guitar and now write poetry? Wow! We had Isaac who is part of Catch da Flava Radio read a poem he wrote. Isaac was really nervous but as he said in his poem he, “came to finish what he started” and he did! I was so proud of him. Amazing talent from our youth in the Regent Park community! We had Sean Reyes perform who also came into the Radio Regent studios a few months ago on one of our Catch da Flava Youth Radio shows. You can check out his interview by visiting our archives on our website www.regentparkfocus.com. Sean has been through a lot after getting into a serious accident and having numerous brain surgeries. Music brings happines...

Our April Last Friday was really fun. We had an incredible line up of performers. We had the Focus House Band who played some great lively songs. Speaking of Regent Park Focus House Band, we also had Subway Roy perform. He started the Focus House Band. Subway Roy was a placement student at Regent Park Focus and he taught the drumming group. Subway Roy fundraised and raised a lot of money to buy equipment for the band. When the band started Tejah was the original singer. Tejah is the little sister of Trevonne who is still in the Focus House Band. Subway Roy took the band to perform at many events and venues including The Hard Rock Café. Subway Roy rocked the crowd with his guitar skills. However, he did not play the drums. We also had Kush I Krown perform. Kush is an amazing young woman who sings reggae music. She stated that she is doing this for the kids. She has an amazing spirit. My favourite part was when Kush I Krown gave me a shout out. I love her lyrics. If you want to listen...

Last Friday for February was awesome! Not only was it fun because Rainbow Cinemas and Rainbow Bear showed up for a surprise visit  but we also had incredible performers! We started off the night with some Sri Lankan food which included kothu roti, samosas, and noodles with veggies, shrimp and chicken. We had had some chocolate chip cookies courtesy of radio show host Paul Corby. The first performers were Projonmo. Projonmo, featuring Shawrov, Ka-Z,Tamim, Rahin and Ajhar is the newest craze to hit your speakers. Infusing both English and Bengali hip-hop/r&b/rock together to bring a new sensation to your ears. However, opportunity presented itself in the form of Re2uned. As time went on, he was introduced to Ka-Z, who was a fellow aspiring Bengali artist.With time, came new faces. Tamim, a classmate of Shawrov's was particularly impressive on the guitars. Ironically it worked out that Tamim somehow ended up being Ka-Z;s neighbor, completing the trio. In 2011, there was the ...

Last Friday for February was awesome! Not only was it fun because Rainbow Cinemas and Rainbow Bear showed up but we also had incredible performers! We started off the night with some Sri Lankan food which included kothu roti, samosas, and noodles with veggies, shrimp and chicken. We had had some chocolate chip cookies courtesy of radio show host Paul Corby. The first performers were Projonmo. Projonmo, featuring Shawrov, Ka-Z,Tamim, Rahin and Ajhar is the newest craze to hit your speakers. Infusing both English and Bengali hip-hop/r&b/rock together to bring a new sensation to your ears. However, opportunity presented itself in the form of Retuned. As time went on, he was introduced to Ka-Z, who was a fellow aspiring Bengali artist.With time, came new faces. Tamim, a classmate of Shawrov's was particularly impressive on the guitars. Ironically it worked out that Tamim somehow ended up being Ka-Z;s neighbor, completing the trio. In 2011, there was the add...

Hello, my name is Melanie and I am currently a student from George Brown College, doing my field placement here at Regent Park Focus Media Arts. The last Friday event that was held on January 27 th 2012 was my very first last Friday event that I went to. The event was good I enjoyed every minute of it. The food was great, they had Chinese food with noodles and vegetables, stir fry chicken and chicken cutlets. The performances biography is listed below: Sonny Pathirana - I have been in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. A multi-talented entertainer, sings, plays piano, guitar, drums and Indian flute. I have performed in a number of countries including, Singapore, Dubai, Maldive Isalnds, Sri Lanka and Canada showcasing both my one man show and my band, "Think Red". My other interests include music, poetry and writing. I am also a budding street magic performer and an illusionist. Owner of Black-Art Entertainment, Sonny's one stop shopping center for all you...

Over 20 Years of Regent Park Focus. Isn’t it hard to believe?! Our anniversary celebrations may be over. However, making meaningful media productions with youth in Regent Park is continuing. If anyone does not already know who we are, Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre - commonly known as Focus - is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1990 as part of a provincial government initiative to promote healthy communities. Now entering its 21st year, Focus has just moved into a new facility as part of the Regent Park revitalization project, and despite provincial and city funding cutbacks, it continues to provide young people with the space, equipment and training needed to use radio, photography, print, video, and music to bring their voices into the community. To honor its involvement in Regent Park, Focus invited the publi...