Regent Park Focus

As most of you know, Focus produces a radio show every Tuesday at 7:30pm on CKLN88.1FM. Focus also streams this radio show (and all radio shows before it) here . Right now, Focus wants to hear from YOU! We want to know what you want to hear on the radio show. What topics or issues do you think are important? What is affecting your life right now? What would you be interested in hearing more about? We are also looking for guest speakers--if you are interested in being on the radio, let us know. This is a great opportunity, so get involved. Leave a comment here!. Hope to hear from you soon!

Hey folks, I know it's been a while, but we've been doing all sorts of stuff around here and forgot about our poor little blog. But, I've got a bit of time to spare right now to fill you in on what's happened over the past month. To celebrate Asian Heritage Month, we held our monthly Last Fridays event, in partnership with the Regent Park Diversity Committee, and boy did we celebrate! Well over 150 members of the Regent Park community came to our outdoor evening of music, spoken word, martial-arts demonstrations, taiko drumming, lion dancing...I'm sure I've forgotten something, there was so much happening! Catch us next month, June 27, in the field behind the 600 Dundas E building, with our feature performers Start Select. Our latest issue of Catch da Flava Magazine should be hitting the stands early next week. This issue is produced in partnership with the Luminato Streetscapes, and contains 14 whopping pages jam packed full of Luminato info. Also look for ou...

Hey folks! Last week we had the pleasure of working with four students from Cityview Alternative School to create their very own music video. I could just tell you all about it, but I'll let the kids do the talking... I really enjoyed coming to Regent Park Focus. I only wish the week was longer! I got to learn how to use a video camera, so now when I want to make my own video, it will look way more professional. I also liked working in the music studio, making beats on the computer. Recording the lyrics was a bit difficult in the beginning, but once I got into it, it was a lot of fun. I really had a lot of fun and learned a lot! I hope to come back soon! -Juel I had tons of fun this week and would definitely do it again. We did everything from shooting footage to recording music. I liked everything, but my favourite part was being in the music studio. On Monday, we went downtown to get shots of different parts of Toronto. Tuesday, we started writing lyrics for our song, then Wednes...

Last Fridays is an evening of story telling, poetry, spoken word and live music performances; held on the last Friday of each month at Regent Park Focus. The event is an opportunity for community members to get together and socialize while enjoying the performances of varied artists. Can't make it down? Tune in live to the LIVE EYE and watch and listen to the event live! If you would like to perform at Last Fridays please contact us !

Tonight’s show we spoke about the issue regarding the internet and privacy issues regarding people’s profiles, specifically Facebook. Should employers be allowed to search potential employee’s information? We also spoke about what we do here at Regent Park Focus-Youth Media Arts Centre. All the various programs we offer for youth (magazine, radio, video production, studio production, photography) we also spoke about the latest issue of our newsprint available now to the public and always free of charge. The second topic Check out the archived show for more .

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.

Tonight's radio show, we are speaking about access to public community centers within the Greater Toronto Area and how the city may start charging a fee for the use to these public facilities. Exploring how this could negatively affect youth and low-income families and where does this city funding come from? Should something like this actually be implemented??

Tonight we talked about school safety in Toronto. Michael went out and talked to some high school students, asking how they feel about safety in their schools. Then Bubba and Prince debated whether the solution will come by simply increasing security in schools, or increasing the security of this country to stop guns from getting into youths' hands in the first place. A good discussion overall which you can listen to here . If you're feeling unsafe in your school, call the new Student Safety Line at 416-395-SAFE(7233) Also check out these useful links: The final report on School Safety School Community Safety Advisory Panel Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

At the Nelson Mandala Park Public School, 4 classrooms participated in a door decorating, during Drug Awareness Week. Their mission was to decorate their classroom doors' with information based on their research about drugs. The students were also given the opportunity to learn about harmful drugs from an ex-drug addict and even an RCMP officer. The winning classroom received Eaton Centre gift certificates and all classes involved will have a pizza party, courtesy of the Daniels Corporation! There are no losers here. Each and every door was vibrant with art and information about good drugs and bad drugs. Well done guys!

5 different community groups and organizations that work with youth around safety, around the Greater Toronto Area have been rewarded the 2007 Mayor's Community Safety Award. Regent Park TV (RPTV) was proudly one of the the 5 winners! RPTV youth reporter and editor Saeema accepted the award on behalf of all the RPTV participants and staff. The award was presented by Mayor David Miller, City TV journalist Dwight Drummond, a representative from Bell Canada, City Councilor Pam McConnell and Deputy Award Chief Keith Forde. The ceremony was closed with a screening of two RPTV episodes which were produced this past summer; "Wrong Decision" and "Skate Parks: We Need More!".

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 ...

It's me again with more news on what's happening at Focus for Drug Awareness Week! So, last spring I graduated from the Child & Youth Work program at George Brown College, and one of my favourite classes was on harm reduction. What is harm reduction you ask? Well, listen to our November 20 Catch da Flava Radio Show to find out!

Well, this week is Drug Awareness Week and we're up to all sorts of stuff... November 8, we were at Nelson Mandela Park Public School watching some RPTV films about drugs with the students. They really enjoyed it, especially when they saw their friends on the big screen. Watching the videos really helped them to get thinking about different drug related issues. Later, with their teachers, they identified some of the things they knew about drugs and questions about what they wanted to know. Yesterday we hosted a panel of speakers in two assemblies with the grade 5-6 and 7-8 students. We had some really great speakers. First we had Heather from the RCMP who arrived in full Mountie uniform. She talked mainly on the laws in Canada around drugs, since a lot of people (children and adults alike) don't quite have all the facts. Then Io, from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's program SAPACCY, spoke. He talked mainly on available treatments for people with addictions. Fin...

Yesterday I was given the privilege to screen a couple of my videos at the 5th annual Regent Park Film Festival. While surveying the room in which my fellow filmmakers and I would soon premiere our videos, I felt very happy that I was contributing to my community and having so much fun doing it. I watched several great RPTV films and I really liked them! My favourite was about skateboarding and how Toronto should have more skate parks. I agree with the video, over the summer I bought a skateboard, thinking it would be fun to ride; then I realized that I didn't know where I should skate without risking getting hit by a car. At the end of our screening there was a Q & A where the crowd asked some questions about the films and I had lots of fun. Someone asked me, "What is RPTV?" I confidently replied, "RPTV is a community program where youth can make films about anything they are passionate about. They have creative freedom and can say anything they like, and if the...

hey yall, just an update that todays show was around the regent park film festival and our focus youth videos will be showing this wednesday, nov 7th from 6:30-8pm, check out the schedule for more details and everything is free including child care. So dont miss out, come down to nelson mandela park school-440 shuter street to support REGENT PARK FOCUS and all the hard work our youth have put into their films. stay classy t-dot, Ice

On Tuesday, Liz and I went up to WoodGreen Community Services to interview people about Be Your Own Boss Week. They were hosting a seminar to teach you how to run your own business and how to make money. There were a bunch of guest speakers that had a lot to say about how to start your own small business and they gave us some really helpful tips. I had a lot of fun doing it because I’ve never used a tape recorded before and it was my first time hosting an interview. We even got to edit the audio from the interview ourselves (with help from Tyrone). The best part was that we got to air it on the radio , so it was cool to have all my family and friends listening. Before coming here I didn’t know any anything about film or radio and I wasn’t really interested in it, but now that I’ve been here for a while I’m totally into it and it could be definitely be something I pursue as a career. -Christina W

Last Wednesday I went to the March Against Poverty at Queen's Park with Liz and Billy. We brought a video camera and microphone along so we could get some interviews and make a short video piece out of it. When we got there it was very chaotic, all kinds of people had flooded Queen's Park to speak out against poverty. Some people wanted to raise the minimum rise to $15.00 per hour. Others were fighting for more money for people on disabilities. There were people rallying for higher welfare money, saying it’s just too difficult to survive on what they currently get. Others wanted more support in paying back their student loans. I really enjoyed being there, and also agreed with what many of the people had to say. It was definitely an experience to remember. The other journalists there were very pushy though. I mean they literally pushed you out of the way to get footage. We did manage to interview about 6 people though and got it all on tape along with action footage of the day’...

Today, on Catch da flava Radio (CKLN 88.1FM, Tuesdays, 7:30PM), we did our show on the attacks on 9/11/2001. We played a poem by Suheir Hammad. Bubba Africa, ICE, and Sam discussed the various viewpoints of the incident and its aftermath. To listen to the show: http://www.catchdaflava.com/content/radio.php

Hi my name is Luipa and this summer I had an opportunity to work at the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre, as a youth production assistant. Regent Park Focus is located in Regent Park. This program encourages youth to come out and get involved in their community. Working at Regent Park Focus this summer has been calm and relaxing. Yes, there were days where we were racing against the clock to finish our assignments but other times it was smooth sailing. Working at Focus has been a great way to learn new things and use our imagination to develop our own media. We’ve done many different kinds of media arts including: video making, music studio recording, digital photography, as well as writing article for Catch Da Flava magazine. For song recording we’ve worked with a well known Canadian hip-hop artist named Dan-e-o. He’s been a great support to us who has helped us through each step into recording our songs. Dan-e-o wasn’t only a help but he also taught us what real hip hop is a...

A whole shwack of us (Emman, Steve, Tyrone, Ashley, Annestassia, Ryan, Adrian, Joanna, Adonis, Pat, Sam, Jerry....) headed to the Gladstone Hotel for a two day showcase and conference event for youth arts programming... the IGNITE event. Different organizations were given a room to display themselves in, and the room exhibition was themed "HOSPITAL". We got the radiology room. There were some neat workshops and panel discussions. On day one, towards the end of the day events, there was a pitch contest, where different upcoming organizations and initiatives performed for a panel of judges for a chance to win $3000 for their projects. Three groups received the prizes. It was a pretty cool show. For our Tuesday night Catch da Flava Radio show, we did a live broadcast from the Gladstone Hotel. Tyrone is still excited about it. We interviewed people who were a part of the event, as well as those just visiting. On day two, Adonis was on the panel for a discussion about the challeng...

On Friday, Regent Park Focus staff/volunteers (for the record: Steve, Tyrone, Christian, Angela, Pat, Adonis, Emmanuel, Sam and AJ) met at the Goodwill on Bloor Street to do some figuring out with our supporters and partners. I suppose there was about 20 of us there. Carol from the Cabbagetown Regent Park Museum was there, Sheila from George Brown, I met a man named Kirby who is going to help us bring the magazine out to the schools and other community sites. Our meeting facilitator, Chris started off each segment in the meeting by telling philisophical stories from different parts of the world. He had a long ponytail and was very friendly. When I walked into the meeting room, we had a conversation about Quark, the program I use to layout the magazine. He answered a few of my questions. At any rate! The meeting started off with all of us contributing to a time line history of Regent Park Focus, from approximately 1990, to the present. I think a couple of people quipped that we...

Yesterday on the Catch da Flava radio on CKLN, Steve Blair hosted a segment about alternative schooling. The guest was Dillon McManamy. McManamy is the student coordinator of SEED Alternative School located at Broadview and Dundas. On the show he talked about the importance of the Toronto public alternative school system and how they provide students with choices in education. Alternative schools evolved out of the hippie movement of the sixties which sought to challenge the classroom authority of the teacher by creating environments where everyone contributes to the learning process. Prior to sixties the standard notion about schools was that teachers knew everything and can do no wrong..while students were empty vessels needing to be filled. Although things have changed since the sixies, generally speaking McManamy feels that alternative schools tend to be more democratic. According to McManamy, students attending alternative schools have more say in how and what they're learning...

The Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre works with a wide range of community partners. One of the exciting partnerships involves six youth from the O'Connor community. These youth are participating in a 14 week digital media program involving the production of radio, video, music, magazine and photography. Tasha and Ashley, two young women in the program, began their activities by carryout an extensive search for people to interview for the What's Your Beef section of the new Catch da Flava mag and the radio. For this project they recorded random street responses to the idea of banning cell phones in high schools. After editing the interviews and producing a radio piece Tasha and Ashley were on hand on May 15th to lead the radio collective into a heated discussion on the right of students to carry and use cell phones at school. Right now Ashley and Tasha are working on a short video PSA about harassment in the workplace. In their video a girl is starting a new job ...

On May 15, 2007 the B-Boys and B-girls involved in the Regent Park Focus Break-dance Program held an end of the school year party. The Break-dance program is a weekly after-school opportunity for young people to engage in physical fitness through the art of Breaking. The program, which started 2 years ago, was not widely advertised and with only four members weekly had crept on a D-low until January of this year. Throughout January, Jerry Z the volunteer coordinator of the program, spent a lot of time outreaching to students at Nelson Mandela school. The result was tremondous. A large number of enthusiastic students from the ages of 8 to 14 registered in the program. Under the direction of the break-dance instructor Joseph Hersco, a true head in the arts of B-boying, the kids learned many new skills and funky moves. They also learned how to work cooperatively together and about the positive/non-violence side of the Hip Hop culture. The sucessful program is expected to run again...

On April 14th 2007, Lalita Krishna premiered her new documentary "Shooting for Change" as a part of the Reel World Film Festival at the Rainbow Cinema (Front St.). Krishna is an award winning Toronto based documentary filmmaker who is renowned for mixing social awareness and education in her work. In Shooting for Change she documented Adonis and the Focus program, filming us for about three months. The end result is a movie that highlights the Regent Park Focus community initiative and brings to light a side of Regent Park that is less often shown in regular news media - a community that is full of hope and working together to empower their own neighbourhood. Shooting for Change played before a packed audience. It was a good change of pace, putting Focus in front of the camera instead of behind it. For all of you who missed it, Shooting for Change will air on OMNI television in the near future. Stay tune. AJ

Did you know that RPTV videos produced by the Regent Park Focus team are regularly aired on TV? Well they are. The Hijab, a RPTV video produced by a group of young women this past summer, aired on Saturday morning the 19th on a CBC program called The Outlet. The Outlet is a childrens' program that comes on every Saturday morning. As part of the program they regularly feature short videos made by youth all across Canada. It looks like videos produced by Regent Park youth will be a regular feature because this weekend (May 26) the Outlet will air The Adventures of Bikeman (Part 1) and that's not all. The Adventures of Bikeman parts 2 and 3 will air on June 2nd and June 9th 2007, respectively. The producers are lovin it. Check it out. AJ and ADONIS

On May 11th, the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre (Emman, Ray, Adonis, Steve, Tyrone and Christian) was invited to the downtown Hamilton library to showcase a screening of videos produced by Regent Park youth. The screening was part of an event sponsored by Arts Hamilton called, Tackling Poverty through the Arts. The event was inspired by a book called "Looking for X" about a young girl living in a single parent family in Regent Park. Because of her low income background and people's sterotypes about Regent Park the girl gets blamed by her peers and adults for bad things that happen at school that she never committed. The girl feels trapped, hungry and angry with the world. Because her mother is so busy working and taking care of her baby brother, the only person that she feels can understand her problems is a homeless person named X. Unfortunately X is no where to be found when the girl most needs her. Similar to the book, the purpose of screening Regent Park yo...

Hey guys, So here it is! The Regent Park Focus blog! The Dundas streetcar is a mess right now, so let this be your most direct route to the projects, happenings, socio-melodramas and all of the excitement that you're going to want to be a part of this summer here at 600 Dundas. Okay, so here's the scoop: Recently the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (yes, the CBC) has requested episodes of RPTV o be aired starting this Saturday, May 19th 2007 at 11:32am on a program called The Outlet Yes that's right...This means that you to can learn the art of producing your own videos and become rich and famous like all of us! The Regent Park Focus video program runs every Thursday so get over here and register, like, today! Is the Globe and Mail a little too national for you? Is the Toronto Star too megacityish? Want something you can relate too..more local but with a view of the big picture? Well you read the rest now join the best. Catch da Flava magazine is yours for the ...

What a day of fun and activities, as Jamaican born storyteller Joan "Bumpyhead" Hutchinson came to Regent Park at to bring alive the spirit of ANANSI . Anansi is a cultural hero in West African folklore; a very important god and infamous trickster. Anansi stories have become a part of many cultures, which include African, Jamaican and the American South. You have probably heard an Anansi tale sometime in your life. In addition to telling Anansi tales, Joan Hutchinson taught the audience a little bit about Jamaican patois. Patois is a French term that originated to describe the local dialect of the French language. Quebec has a lot of Patois, and Africa too. Caribbean patois and that of the American South, when it's a French dialect is more recognizably referred to as creole. . Jamaican patois refers to the English Jamaican dialect, and Hutchinson discussed common Jamaican idioms and sayings, explaining how Jamaican patois served as a strategy to speak in front of slave ow...

April 1 wasn't the typical April Fools Day. As a matter of fact, there wasn't anything foolish about the day. What happened was something great and exceptional. Regent Park Focus received an amazing surprise visit from Adrienne Clarkson, the Governor General of Canada. The role of the Governor General was instituted when Canada became a country at Confederation in 1867. Our system of government is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy which means that Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Canada and her will is represented by the Governor General of Canada. Sworn in on Oct. 7, 1999, Adrienne Clarkson became Canada's 26th Governor General. Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson is the say-all and end-all when it comes to approving and passing federal laws. She is also the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces. Born in Hong Kong, Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson came to Canada as a refugee with her family during the war in 1942. She received her early education in the...