Focus Media Arts Centre Blogs

Crazy Kelvin and Onik host tonight's radio show recapping the G-20. They have a guest who is a video journalist who has brought some audio pieces that show a bit more behind the scenes of the city violence that occurred and people's reactions during the time they occurred. http://www.catchdaflava.com/radio/media/2010-07-27.mp3

Summer is here! What does that mean? The 2010 Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Summer Program has launched. This year participants of the Regent Park Focus Summer program have many different programs for children and youth to join. The main theme of our work in the summer is on Life Skills Development and Youth Mental Health, which also includes other social issues effecting youth such as; peer pressure, substance abuse, racism, discrimination, the environment and so much more. Each day we offer a series of two hour workshops. The goal of each of the workshops is to create an arts project that is based on resiliency skills such as; leadership, team work, goal setting, project-task management and conflict resolution and explores issues related to youth mental health. First off, every Monday afternoons we have a group of Brown high school placement students who are doing a placement at George Brown College. These students are working on an audio play and producing their very own ra...

Luminato illuminated Toronto with arts and creativity. For years Luminato displays the celebration of theatre,dance,music,film and so much more. The best part about Luminato is that most of the events and concerts are free. This is because Luminato is designed for the people to celebrate and explore the arts. On Friday June 11, 2010, the art festival that is LUMINTO, hit the city of Toronto. The opening night was a free DIVA themed concert at Dundas Square. The crowd was packed to see 3 amazing Canadian Divas. E Talk's Traci Melchor, was the host of the night. I cheered on Traci and she thanked me backstage for supporting her. Traci Melchor is seriously amazing. She is humble and down to earth. We got the opportunity to go backstage. She chatted with the Diva writing girl's group and took a lot of pictures with us. Traci was giving the young Diva writing group advice to reach for your goals and to never give up on following your dreams. She c...

A couple of months ago, Regent Park Focus welcomed two students from City View Alternative elementary school in April. Geordie and Finlay chose to do their final video ISU project at Regent Park Focus. The young boys had 1 week to put together an amazing video presentation on a social justice issue. Time was limited so could they pull it off? On the first day staff member and video expert Emmanuel involved the boys in the entire project by teaching them about the background of Regent Park Focus and video camera techniques. This incorporated learning how to use the video camera, equipment, the various angles, positions, methods and a tour around the media studios. The boys took turns practicing what they learned and helped each other out. I also filled in as their subject when they were using the camera for a practice taping. The next day implicated jotting down ideas tossed in the air and it also involved brainstorming. Many topics were discussed such as; homelessness, racism and bull...

On Saturday June 19th I had the privilege of escorting seven passionate young journalists to a panel they moderated as part of the Luminato festival, called Pop Divas . The panel was part of the festival’s Illuminations program, and the culmination of a few months of work. A group of young women including new and seasoned members of the Catch da Flava magazine collective participated in a series of workshops held at Focus where they met and discussed the art of music journalism and pop diva specific reportage with professional music journalists, practiced researching, writing and editing articles, and developed in person interview skills. These skills were applied in the development of their articles which are being published in a special edition of Catch da Flava magazine, and in the prep work and facilitation they did for the Illuminations panel. Some of Saturday’s panellists the girls had met before in their workshop sessions. Jody Rosen, music writer and critic for slate.com and ...

What is the definition of a Diva? A lot of people have their own opinion on the characteristics of a DIVA and who they think is a DIVA in the music industry. Luminato collaborated with Regent Park Focus and created a writing workshop for the youth. In the beginning it was both boys and girls who attended the writing group. However, the girls seemed more interested in the whole DIVA topic than the boys. Therefore, it was a writing workshop for young girls. The ladies met up every Tuesday as the Luminato crew explored the music world as they incorporated writing schemes. Special guests were also part of the workshops. Jody Rosen is the music critic for Rolling Stone Magazine and the online magazine Slate. His articles on popular music have also appeared in The New York Times. Another special facilitator was Canadian writer Carl Wilson, who is the culture editor at the Globe and Mail, and the author of 'Let’s Talk About Love: A Journe...

Speakers: Shamleiy, Saad and Abdi After hours of contemplating various radio show topics we had all come to the conclusion of talking about GM(genetically modified) foods. All of us being from 3rd world countries we this topic affects us tremendously. We started of speaking about the pro's and con's of GM foods and it turned out being a heated debated. Much information was discovered over the radio such as making GM foods is playing God. In our opinion this show was our best radio show do to the fact that we this show after doing many shows and gaining ample experience. We felt very sensitive about this topic due to our backgrounds and affects that GM foods has on our countries.

Speakers: Onik, Saad, Mohammed > The following radio show was based on : what obesity is, the problems related to obesity, health risks of obesity, preventing obecity, and being cautious about obesity. we spoke briefly on each of the above topics related to obesity. we also spoke about how obesity effects various people such as students, and adults. We also spoke about how to reduce the risks of obesity. We felt the radio show was sort of rusty in the beginning because of nervousness, but later we got into the feeling and starting speaking naturally. overall the radio show went better than the ones we did previously because we learn from our mistake and adapt to different situations.

Today on the radio show Tres, Anisa, Saeema and Michelle discussed a wide range of issues and subjects such as, abortion in Canada, women losing the right of equal pay, the niqab (similar to the hijab but only the eyes are visible) , the cut on funding for the Gay Pride Parade and rising TTC prices. One issue that really stumbled us was the abortion topic. Some people may say that it’s wrong because the fetus is person and others may argue, when is the fetus considered a person? We also talked about the Niqab possibly being banned in Quebec. One reason for this is that they want to know who people are. Not much to say about that, other than it just being plain ignorant and its discrimination. Political issues are also brought up such as, why would the government cut the funding for the Gay Pride Parade? It attracts so many tourists! Anyways that concludes the brief discussion of our discussion for today’s radio show. Make sure to tune in next time on 88.1 fm CKLN Catch Da Flava Radio...

On tonight's April 13th radio show we talk about last weeks international event, the Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a an hour dedicated towards Energy conservation by shutting off all electricity outputs such as lights, television, computers...etc for an hour. Earth Hour's objective is to remind us of the "small" things we can do in order to help save our Earth. Climate change and Global Warming are both relevant to Earth Hour's objective because it allows us to step back and think of the future consequences our daily habits of energy consumption can cause us. However is the initiative effective? Is it actually working? And as youth what can we do? Find out the answers of all of these questions through the voices of your Youth, the Youth of Regent Park! By: Onik, Thisaaan, Tamin and Sabbir Listen Now!

Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre did it again! We held another fabulous show at the Daniels Presentation Centre last Friday March 26. This time the show was dedicated to Latin music. The event got started around 6:30 pm with jerk chicken, chicken wings, fried chicken, and rice both brown and white. In other words the audience was well fed. Thanks to the Corner for catering the event. Following the food the event started off with the Regent Park Focus house band, da Youngstas. The audience was then entertained Rino Manfredi who led an interactive workshop on Brazilian drumming. Before we knew it Rino was conducting an orchestra of Brazilian drummers made up of the audience. Let’s just say it was GREAT. Rino was followed by Latin and Flamenco music provided by Alvaro Oyarce. Afterwards we were treated with the hilarious musical stylings of Mark Harris and the house band the Youngstas. The audience was well engaged in the performances and the event ended at 9 pm. Overall Last F...

In this radio show me (Ishtiaque), Bipu and Amer focused on teens and how they are treated around the community. We also talked about parents and how they perceive teens. Of course we also had a daily news where we talked about whats going on around in the world and our city. Listen Now!

On our radio show on March 31, 2010 we had Toronto Community Housing Revitalization Consultant Lancefield Morgan and Revitalization Project Manager Liz Root, as guests to talk about the Regent Park Redevelopment. The show was hosted by Rahul, Abdi and Ryan and we discussed a range of issues related to the redevelopment. One of the issues we touched upon was how the redevelopment will impact on the community. We also discussed Regent Park's association with crime.

Our radio show on Tuesday March 23, 2010 will feature a pre-produced show on two secret societies the Illuminati and The Free Masons. lluminati (plural of Latin illuminatus, "enlightened") is a name that refers to several groups, both historical and modern, and both real and fictitious. Historically, it refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776. In modern times it is also used to refer to a purported conspiratorial organization which acts as a shadowy "power behind the throne", allegedly controlling world affairs through present day governments and corporations. In this context, Illuminati is often used in reference to a New World Order (NWO). Many conspiracy theorists believe the Illuminati are the masterminds behind events that will lead to the establishment of such a New World Order. Another group associated with the Iluminati is the Free Masons, another purported secret society. Generally, theories...

On Tuesday March 16, 2010 we did our (Abdi, Atharul, Shamdi and Sud) radio show was on the subject of technology. During the show Sud hosted a discussion about role technology plays in our lives and the race of those in the industry to outdo each other to build faster, smaller and better technologies. Are blackberries, social media and computers helping to build stronger human relationships or are they alienating ourselves from each other. Technologies are part of almost everything that we do. Can we stop or reduce the ever increasing levels of technologies that we use in our lives? For example there are Amish communities that have rejected the use of technologies in their lives. What is the future? No one ever imagined 20 years ago that there would be a camera in a telephone. Should we be concerned about the new developments in the field that are integrating technologies in the human body (GPS computer chips in children that enable parents to know where they are at all times)? What ...

The final day of March Break featured a full day field trip to the Ontario Science Centre. The 16 youths who took part were divided into groups of three of four (this writer for example, supervised the four boys who took part in the trip). The trip to the Centre by streetcar, subway, and TTC bus was uneventful. Thanks to the excellent planning on the part of the Science Centre, we didn’t have to wait in line—it’s nice to be treated like a VIP! Once we were inside, the day was left deliberately unstructured—the kids were free to roam the Centre with supervisors in tow. Despite the crowds, the kids maintained a positive attitude and engaged in a variety of interactive activities. We took lunch a little early which worked out extremely well since the cafeteria was filled to capacity by noon. The highlight for the boys was a presentation at the Ontario Science Centre’s planetarium which was fun, educational, and offered a well-time break from walking. By the end of the day, everyone was t...

Andrea, Focus’ resident Comic Book program instructor conducted a half day workshop on Thursday morning for the 14 youths who were taking part in the program that day. Instruction focused on the basics of illustration and by lunch, all participants had created their own mini comic book. The participants remained engaged throughout the workshop and showed a really positive attitude. The second half of Thursday’s program consisted of a sidewalk chalk drawing exercise led by a group of graduate students from the University of Toronto who wanted to engage with the kids to discuss the issue of empowerment. Prior to the artistic portion of the activity, they asked: “What do you think makes someone powerful?” The responses showed great insight, depth of character, and a sense of community. Once the superficial responses like money were out of the way, the kids began sharing that things like volunteering, family, and sharing lead to a sense of personal power. It was very inspiring to hea...