Regent Park Focus

My name is Xavier Luxenburg and I’ve been working with Regent Park Focus on the Catch Da Flava Magazine. I’m a Bachelor of Education student at York University Regent Park site. My job at Focus is to facilitate students in the program by helping them write articles and improve writing skills. Our current goal is to publish an issue on the topic of multiculturalism once we get enough articles from youths in the area. When I started in late September of 2011, I did not know what to expect. As part of my programs requirement, I needed to volunteer 40 hours in a community-run organization. I chose Focus because I liked the idea of making youths more knowledgeable on media arts.  Regardless, I needed the hours to graduate but I found myself in a welcoming environment. The staff is pretty chill and the youth I’ve worked with are really great.             However, the last few months have been a bit of a challenge. Overall, att...

We are currently working on our summer issue and its very exciting. Everything is going great and were all really excited for this upcoming issue. Our writing restrictions are extremely free and open to the youth. Meaning even if you have a poem, short story, article, or any type of work it is highly appreciated. We would love to have any new volunteers so if you are interested please don't hesitate to come by for a meeting. Or if you have not yet seen the environmental issue, we have plenty here. Our meeting during the summer are great because you don't have school stress which allows you to focus on writing. It's awesome and feel free to drop in if any of you guys are interested.

This week at the Catch Da Flava magazine, we welcomed a new writer to our group! Articles, photos and picture/cover ideas are now being brainstormed with more ferocity since everyone's more on a summer vibe! Tracy has done some reporting and photos on the Good Bike Event, which will be included in the new issue. Our writers are also working on their experiences with this summer's Luminato festival! Hopefully by the end of August, yes, that's right AUGUST--hot on the heels of our recent Environmental Issue--the new summer issue will be out!

The environmental issue is finally here! After, months of hard work, creativity and anticipation, the magazine had finally arrived. Personally, this issue has been very important to me. As, it was my first time to be able to work on the magazine. Basically, what we have been doing is every Tuesday we meet up to discuss our ideas and display it in our magazine. Whether that took the form of writing piece, artwork or even photographs it all came together to bring out this amazing printed environmental issue. Along with that we also had the privilege to work with the Luminato festival. We were provided workshops and best of all got tickets to see the different shows. The experience was just amazing. I mean can you imagine being provided free tickets to a show full of entertainment, creativity and talent. Currently the writers for the magazine are expressing their thoughts, feelings and experiences of the festival in a magazine for Luminato. So not only are we working on...

Yes! After months of hard work, I'm proud to announce that the Catch Da Flava Environmental Issue is here! Come pick it up at Focus! -Terence

Oh gosh, we are so close! Thanks to the writers, photographers and artists for contributing to this long awaited issue of Catch Da Flava magazine! And a big thanks goes out to Sarah, we miss you! As I am just finishing up some final changes, we've also started writing for the next issue which will be released hopefully around mid-summer! We're already collaborating with Luminato to help us in our writing and research, as well as we're contributing to Luminato's own magazine as well! You'll be able to read all about it this summer! -Terence

Our new media lab has been running for a few months now, and just recently, we were outfitted with new MACS. We're trying to get the ol' Adobe programs running on them, but for now they have Word. The Catch Da Flava Environmental issue is still in the process of being printed, but we are already working on new ideas for the next issue, which will hopefully come out in the summer, after the Luminato festival. It will be a special Luminato-based issue, with a strong emphasis on the arts and its connection with multiculturalism.

We just had our first staff meeting of the New Year, and I must say, the new location is awesome! Spacious and bright! The internet and media lab still needs to be hooked up, and the main room will be getting a design treatment soon! I'm excited for you all to see this place, and I think it will inspire our writing and creativity to new heights! See you all Tuesday at 4:15 for our first Catch Da Flava magazine meeting of the new year. -Terence

After living in Regent Park for almost eight years, I have experienced a lot of negative things but honestly, at the end of the day I wouldn't leave this place for anything. This is because I spent more than half my life here, I know almost everyone when I walk outside. This is my home, outside my house. Considering that, it is a terrible feeling to be seen as a criminal in your own home. A few weeks ago, a lot concerned Regent Park citizens and the police that generally patrol the area met in the Regent Park Community Centre. The meeting was held to raise the issue of the police treating the residents of RP as criminals. Everyone was able to portray their perspective and concerns on the issue. Everyone was supportive of each other and were involved in finding a solution. More meetings will be held so that an understanding can be reached, and this problem be removed. In the end, we hope that we can have the police patrol in our community without them holding a prejudice tow...

Hey everyone this is Safiqur, I just finished an article on Mount Dennis Community Mobile Kitchen bike. I really have to say that I enjoyed interviewing Nicko Elliott a former UFT engineer who along with his teacher Adrian Blackwell and rest of his fellow engineer students built the mobile kitchen bike for Mount Dennis community in Toronto. Please read my article which will be published soon in Catch Da Flava magazine.

Check out the latest Catch da Flava Magazine. The Dec / Jan issue of Catch da Flava features all kinds of youth written articles. Read what youth have to say about affordable housing, maintenance issues, the legalization of marijuana, peer pressure, celebrity culture and more. Catch da Flava magazine is available at your nearest Toronto downtown neighborhood center or library and you can always drop by at Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Center to pick up your copy. Don't forget to contact us if you want to join our editorial or reporting team.

We have all sorts of meetings here at Focus. Staff meetings, advisory board meetings, RPTV Crew meetings, Catch da Flava Radio meetings, etc. We also have monthly meetings for our Catch da Flava writers, but our last meeting's turnout wasn't too great. This is why we've come up with the Facebook Writers Group . That's right, you can participate in the evolution of Catch da Flava right from your home computer! We always need youth and community input for what direction our newspaper/magazine should head, and now all you have to do is join the Facebook Group and type your ideas. We will most likely still be having in-person meetings, but they may not be as frequent, so stay tuned for more info on that. Who knows, maybe it will catch on and all of our meetings will be online. Our programs could be online - and I can already write this Blog from any computer... Then I could just do everything while laying in bed! Okay, maybe I'm dreaming a bit too big here, but ...