Regent Park Focus

Blog- Oct 31, 2017 For this Halloween edition of Catch da Flava, Joel introduced the conversation by sharing a scary poem before handing things over to Diamond, for a panel discussion on Toronto's youth population caffeine consumption and the vulnerabilities associated with the excessive use of coffee and caffeine in general. We discussed our concerns as well as our own individual experiences with caffeine. With caffeine readily available, legally accessible and socially accepted in the form of pop, coffee, tea, energy drinks etc, this psychoactive drug can be used by anyone- even children- and it seems as if it's growing amongst young people as a coffee culture of sorts continues to rise and trend. Statistics show that 44.6% of adolescents, most of which between the age of 14-16 years-old consume caffeine between 1-6 times per week. We commented on why we as a society and individuals should be worried about the consumption of caffeine not only by our youth but in chi...

For the past month the participants in the Audio Production program learned to Open a new project in Logic Pro X, Insert sounds on tempo, Record using the microphone, loop their audio composition and add parts in real time otherwise known as "punch record". Few participants came in with no prior knowledge of the digital audio workstation, while others had basic knowledge of the program. It is anticipated that as the participants continue to attend, they will showcase what they have learned over the past weeks while continuing to create new instrumentals and songs... By: Hopeton LaTouche Date: October 2017

Date: Oct 30, 2017 Hosts : Shadae & Brianne Guests : Claudette Bled and Ramona Chereches from CAST Topic : Child Abuse Prevention October is Child Abuse Prevention month, and this week Shadae and Brianne lead a conversation to raise awareness about how to identify and help prevent child abuse and neglect with our special guests from CAST Toronto Children’s Aid Society. Before they went into an in- depth conversation, Claudette and Ramona, shared their history with CAST. For the second half, our hosts discussed the guidelines of one’s ‘duty to report’ and how CAS can help build better relationships with communities while strengthening families. A portion of the show was focused on how CAST can work with young families and strengthen relationships to reduce fear of the societies. Near the end of the show, the host led a discussion that involved questions from the communities. These questions were from young families who sometimes felt stigmatized. The conversa...

For this episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, co-host Erika sat down with guest Natalie Iuzzolino from the TD Centre for Learning, to chat about the centre and all the amazing resources the centre has to offer for residents in Regent Park. As a former student at the University of Toronto, Natalie had taken a political science course that saw her placement at the TD Centre for Learning. Having enjoyed the experience, she stayed on and was offered a position. As she developed her experience at the Centre, Natalie had a wealth of knowledge to share about the organization, its rich history, the resources it offers, all the wonderful programs offered free of charge to residents. She even made the time to fit it into her busy schedule, having to prepare for a graduation the next day for some participants in one of the centre’s programs. The TD Centre for Learning was created in 1972 and has a wide array of programs offered, all to promote a united community that encourages educational a...

For our October 24th Catch da Flava Youth Radio show, we started off with a panel discussion with Diamond Bailey discussing stress and how it can lead to mental illness. In studio we had Joel Williams, Beverley Fajardo, and Erika Kakrah to talk about their own experience with stress and how it can lead to more serious issues. Some of the questions revolved around myths or misconceptions of stress they know, “good” and bad stress, and whether there is even such a differentiation. Some participants noted that some cultures may not even view stress or mental illness as actual problems, and may go so far as to deem the individual “weak”. Some of the participants even noted alternative methods that can curb the negative effects of stress without turning to drugs, such as meditation. The participants shared their personal issues surrounding stress, some very relevant to their current situation, such as Beverley talking about an interaction with her parents that caused her to experi...

RPF Indie Game Dev Catalyst Club After a break at the end of the summer, the Catalyst Club is back and on a year long journey. For the returning youth, the first month of the year long program has been a time to wrap up on their summer projects while eyeing year long projects to start working on.  They're not beginners anymore, their ambitions have grown and they are building the courage (and skillsets) to start creating their dream games. For the new faces, the first month has been a challenging series of mountains to climb, building their programming and design proficiency while also working through tough questions of choice like "what do you want to create?".  Having reached the summit of basic skill development, they are now eyeing first projects to begin working on and/or additional skill set to acquire. Stay tuned to hear about the projects being developed and workshops being offered. By:  Fernando Restituto ...

For this episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, co-host Judy talked to founder of Human Rights organization JAYU, Gilad Cohen, about their sister project The iAm program and its upcoming photography exhibit on November 3rd at 6:30 PM EST at Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park. ​ The iAm program collects youth each year interested in storytelling and photography and teaches them workshops on both storytelling and photography from accomplished photographers and artists. The youth are tasked to take pictures and the photos are presented at a yearly exhibit, with all proceeds going back to the youth participants.​ This year’s theme is “reconciliation” with youth participants from the Canadian Native Centre of Toronto. All events, workshops, means of transportation and additional costs were funded by the program and looks to utilize storytelling, the arts, and specifically photography as a means of healing youth that face extreme social adversity, such as Indigenous communities that face t...

For Catch da Flava’s October 17th show, host Diamond Bailey held a panel discussion about post-secondary students reaching for ADHD drugs and other stimulants to achieve academic success. With students stressed and frazzled, they have turned to studying with the aid of prescription pills that are not necessarily their own.​ With 65 per cent of students surveyed by the Center of innovation for campus Mental Health saying that they experienced overwhelming anxiety in the last year, an increase from 57 per cent in 2013, we agreed that the increased stress students faced should encourage them to look to other coping mechanisms rather than such a dangerous alternative.​ Additionally, we discussed the topic of Nootropics also known as “smart drugs.” They are cognitive enhancers and are yet to be legal, so we wondered whether the government should allow it to be legally sold as it is illegal to sell in Canada. ​ Accordingly, we talked about the many side effects of ADHD drugs an...

Date: Oct 16, 2017 Hosts : Moya & Victoria Guests : Anny, Shadae, & Sherry Topic : Teen Pregnancy & Stigma This week Moya and Victoria shed some light on teen pregnancy and the stigma that young parents deal with on the day to day. Moya and Victoria welcome the rest of the PowerfulXNature team to the show which includes: Anny and Shadae; and Sherry the Youth Leadership Program lead at Jessie’s Centre ; who all share experiences throughout the show about pregnancy and parenting as a youth and the stigma that they have experienced. For the second half, our hosts lead a conversation on how the media can portray teen parents in a negative way and the impact that this can have. Being shamed for decisions that you’ve made and being stigmatized makes navigating the world very difficult. We also discuss how the team is changing the dialogue through the Community Education Program at Jessie’s Centre; and how Shadae through her blog, She's Too Young To...

For this episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, host Joel Williams interviewed guest Joshua Stribbell, President of the National Urban Inuit Youth Council. Joel asked Joshua a few questions concerning the issues around the Inuit population and why it seemed important to create an organization specifically for urban Inuit youth. While the Inuit population are native to specific regions in Canada such as Nunavut and Nunavik in Quebec, this organization looks to help those living in urban areas outside of those native regions. In doing so, it helps provide them cohesion and a sense of community as the Inuit population is ten times more likely to commit suicide than any other cultural group in Canada, and is also the youngest population in Canada, with its median age at 24 years-old, according to Joshua. Considering the extreme issues around health and wellness when it comes to the Inuit population in Canada, it is important to create resources such as the National Urban Inuit Youth...

For this week’s October 10th show, Catch da Flava once again revisited the issue of mental health and students, hosted by Diamond Bailey with guest panelists Judy Pham and Joel Williams. We talked about the demand for mental health services amongst Toronto's youth which contrasts with society's perception of this age group being relatively healthy. Additionally we discussed our experiences with mental health in a school setting. With 70% of mental health problems having their onset during childhood or adolescence and young people aged 15 to 24 being more likely to experience mental illnesses and/or substance abuse than any other age group, we fully understood the growth of demands and acknowledge the many universities and businesses who are doing more to combat the lack of services for Toronto's youth. Furthermore in respect to CAMH (Centre of Addiction and Mental Health) estimation of 4,000 Canadians dying of suicide as well as suicide being the second leading cause...

October 6th 2017 Starting off for the month of October the Divas shared their “This Is Me” poems that they wrote the previous week. Many of the poems were inspiring and the girls spoke highly of themselves. The Canvas ladies, Londzo and Maymuna, had an activity prepared that involved digging skin deep. The Divas were required to analyze their meaning of beautiful then study a few pictures of racial stereotypes and moved forward in having a discussion on the impact of these negative stereotypes. They even shared their own experience of being stereotyped. After a 15-minute break the Divas regrouped and watched a video about colorism then were to reflect on how they felt about the video. A lot of the girls had great insight on how they felt about the video. Lastly, the Divas wrapped up the rest of the evening with writing in their journals. Next week, there will be a lot more exciting activities for the Diva girls. By: Alexis Augustine Past Poems My Hijab My Right http:/...

For this episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, co-hosts Judy and Diamond held a panel discussion about how mental health has affected us or someone we know. We mention personal anecdotes about our experiences with mental health as well as how we dealt with the stigma associated with mental illness, whether this being from an outside perspective or battling with mental illness ourselves. We concluded that one of the best ways to combat the stigma of mental health is to further educate, as to better understand not only about mental illnesses but how it affects everyday life and how it differs from person to person. Additionally we talked about mental health services and medication that have both better and hindered our experience.Furthermore, we brought to light how it felt like to share and be open about having a mental illness and how this affected our lives or someone we know. Having people in you life in which you could depend on for support and comfort makes a world of diff...

For our Catch da Flava Youth Radio show on October 2nd, 2017 we centred the show on mental health concerns as it is mental health awareness week. We started the conversation with covering the recent news on 17-year-old teenager Noah Irvine and his quest to bring more awareness and resources to mental health concerns to the Canadian government. Noah was only five years old when his mother passed away from suicide. Then three years ago when Noah was fifteen, his father passed away from a drug overdose. Noah believes it could have been prevented if the government had provided more resources for mental health. He started off writing to every member of Parliament, then later was able to meet with the Federal Minister of Health, and just recently had a scheduled meeting with the Prime Minister, scheduled for Wednesday morning. Sharing this story, we also provided some audio clips of the story being covered by local media outlets to highlight how much public attention young Noah...

Divas Group September 29th 2017 Last Week was a very great week for the diva girls because they started their spoken word with Canvas. The girls started off with an icebreaker and decorated their notebooks. The girls then took part in the circle rock, where they told the group a few things about themselves. The Canvas ladies Londzo and Maymuna went over the program overview and came up with some “safe space” rules with the girls about what is expected when coming to the program. After a 15-minute break the Divas re- grouped to listen to Maymuna perform one of her spoken word pieces that she wrote. The girls were very moved by her poetry and after asking many questions and sharing their opinion on the poem they were able to create their own poems. The diva girls are excited for this week because they will be sharing their poems with everyone!

Date: Sep 29, 2017 Hosts: Brianne & Shadae Guests : Moya, Victoria (PowerfulXNature), Faith Hatchet, Hodan Osman, Monika Obermeier, & Sherry Rutter Topic : Who is Powerful by Nature & Jessie’s? This week, Powerful X Nature youth radio show debuts on the air. Our hosts, Brianne and Shadae introduce the Powerful X Nature team and lead a conversation to learn more about services and support offered at Jessie’s Centre. In the first part of the show you meet the PowerfulXNature team, consisting of 5 participants who have been actively involved in our Community Education Program and who share a commonality; they’re all YOUNG PARENTS. In the second part of the show, our hosts welcome staff from Jessie’s; Sherry, the Youth Leadership Program Lead; Hodan a Counsellor/Case Manager; Monika, the Parent Child Centre Lead; and Faith a Registered Nurse, who oversees the Health Program. This segment starts with a brief her story of Jessie’s Centre. Each guest then ...

For this episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, youth co-host Tyger introduced the topic of the adjustment period that students across Canada are experiencing now that school is back in session. Tyger and Diamond discuss their unique adjustment experience, as they both go to different types of schools. Tyger admits the change in time schedules is not an issue for her. As an international student, Tyger had been used to school in Vietnam, which she described as starting from 7AM and ending at 5PM- it is no wonder she had no issues adjusting! While Tyger is currently enrolled full time in highschool, Diamond discusses the differences for her, as she is enrolled in an adult learning centre, designed for mature students that need to complete their credits to receive a highschool diploma. For Diamond, she is enrolled in order to gain extra credit and to learn in the meantime while she waits for her university application to be approved. So her school schedule has not been very difficult ...

For our September 26th show, Catch da Flava explored the topic of racism in the education system. For our first half, our co-host Diamond led the discussion on racism in school. She brought up a recent event in Toronto hosted by Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate, which invited 30 Youth from across Ontario who witnessed or experienced racism, and how they participated in an engagement session. The event was held in order to bring a spotlight to the everyday struggles that students face, and to give legitimacy to the experiences that they youth face. Ontario’s Minister of Children and Youth Services Michael Coteau was present to give remarks before the start of the event, as well as the Minister Responsible for Anti-Racism. With the introduction of this topic, Diamond and another co-host, Tyger, discussed their personal experience in dealing with racism. Diamond discussed her general experiences as a young Black girl in the school system, and recalls an incident when she wa...

This week co-host Judy Pham shares an interview with Guo Gu, senior disciple to the late Chan Master Sheng Yen, and current author and Professor of Buddhism and East Asian Religions at Florida State University. The interview sheds light on how Chan Buddhist practice has helped both the guest and the interviewer in understanding oneself and one another through meditative practice. For more information on Guo Gu and Chan Buddhism, please visit:  www.tallahasseechan.com For our second half, co-host Rachael Abah chats with artist and spiritual seeker Evelyn Bailey on her inspirations, what art means to her, and how spirituality affects her creation. Evelyn studied animation before working as an artist, utilizing culture and spirit to inform her process.

Divas Media Group – Friday Sept 22, 2017 Today at Regent Park Focus, Sherry Rutter and guest speaker visited the Divas. Sherry is a youth leadership program leader at Jessie’s, which is the June Callwood Centre for young women. Guest speaker, a young mother shared her story with the Divas about what it is like to be a young mother and the challenges that mothers face. She also explained how Jessie’s helped her with her pregnancy, they even helped her get her high school credits and after she had the baby they provided her with supplies and daycare. After the girls heard about the story they had many questions that they were able to ask. The guest speaker answered all their questions and Sherry spoke a little bit more about what is offered at Jessie’s. The girls had a 15-minute break where they had refreshments and were able to chat. After the break the girls participated in a creative activity where they had to use words that described them to create an image. As a group they ...

This week (Aug 21- 25) for the Regent Park Focus Summer Program, participants wrapped up video editing for the Neighbourhood Kickstart Summer Camp program and held a screening of the videos on Wednesday, August 23rd. Youth participants were also there to film for the screening and get feedback from the summer camp. A few participants focused on preparing a segment on Student Life and Mental Health for Catch Da Flavour Youth Radio. For the first half of the segment, students had prepared a pre-recorded interview with registered psychologist and media personality Doctor Oren Amitay, to comment on the current climate of mental health among the student body. For their second half, they discussed their personal experiences in school and how it has affected their mental health. A few other participants worked on developing their games, such as a Tic-Tac-Toe platform, a Pokemon-style game located in the neighbourhood of Regent Park, and a mental-health themed game. They have bee...

This week (Aug 14-19th) Youth participants finished up their rough edits for the ten part video series in partnership with The Neighbourhood Group Kickstart Program. Participants collaborated to create uniformity in the videos by creating the same background images, credits reel and font type, to build communication skills and teamwork abilities. The rough draft of their videos were completed by the end of this week. Some participants also participated in the youth radio program Catch Da Flava. This week they focused on the issues of affordable housing, looking at local speakers on the topic and current events on affordable housing in Toronto. They had guest A.J. Withers come to studio to talk about the topic and their book on the topic. For the second segment, they had a panel discussion on affordable housing. A handful of participants also continued development in gaming, learning how to work with various different gaming programs and software. Some finished up ...

For this edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, Divine and Omar further discussed the difficulties of living in Toronto government housing and the way the system has treated community housing residents during the Regent Park Revitalization, as well as their personal experiences dealing with trying to get help with their homes. In addition, they talked about the difficulty there is with underlying prejudice with the superintendents of some buildings. Divine mentioned one case in which a family of six people were warned with the possibility of being evicted despite there being homes in their building occupied by 10 or more people in a 3-4 bedroom unit. They also talked about Regent Park’s silent policies about things that don’t particularly look “good,” such as bicycles being removed from parking spaces under the assumption of them being abandoned when they just seemed old or weren’t as nice looking, as well as another case in which Divine’s family wasn’t allowed to park their car o...

This week we talked to Author and Public speaker A.J Withers about how disability and poverty are connected and how we can make a difference in our community by speaking out and standing up for the less fortunate and the disabled. A.J spoke with host Divine and co-host Omar about A.J’s event that was held on July 20th, 2017 at 40 Oak Street in Regent Park. A.J talked about what they discussed during the event including the accessibility and availability of good quality community housing for the less fortunate and disabled in Regent Park. A.J also talked about the social problems in Regent Park for disabled people. Statistics Canada shows that people with mobility issues often live in substandard accommodation. Standard housing is affordable, requires little to no repairs, and is not overcrowded. Affordability is often the most common problem. A.J also shared where we can find their book around Regent Park and Toronto. A.J’s book covers most of the topics they talked about durin...

This week (Aug. 7-11) youth participants had another show of Catch da Flava youth radio, exploring the topic of race in North America. The first segment involved a debate with two participants along with a moderator and judge. The second segment focused on a discussion of race in general. The debate involved answering whether racism in Canada against Indigenous people was worse than racism in America against Black people. Participants were also engaged in assisting with filming for a community partnership with The Neighbourhood Group’s Kickstart Camp, and The University of Toronto. Topics covered and filmed for included “Everything Free”, “Freedom & Peace”, “End Bullying”, “End Racism”, and “Fresh Water.” Camp kids were ready to film, having memorized their scripts and provided visuals and some choreography for their filmed segments. Later in the week, participants commenced work on video editing the filmed footage, along with working on revising their proposal...

We’re into the swing of August now, and today’s class is playing through Mario levels, examining and determining “difficulty ratings” of the challenges presented to the player. Certain challenges will kill you if you fail. Others will not. Do the ones with greater reward have harsher potential punishment? Where do they occur? And just what is “skillgating”? Cutting edge game-analysis here in class…. even if the game is 30 years old. Other students, less interested in analyzing platformer games but more interested in telling stories through interactive means, are working on their individual projects… the fantasy WWE game has music being coded in, and in Blender3D, another student’s dreams of a death-spirit from a void realm has simplified into “I’m going to make a geometric animation for my stream channel”. So now we’re figuring out how to make pentahedrons out of a cube. Meanwhile, other students are creating custom “Pokemon” in our growing database of a combat ...

With the first month of the RPF indie game dev catalyst club drawing to an end, there's a lot to talk about.  The young creatives have answered the difficult question of "what do you want to create?" with some pretty awesome projects.   After picking up basic programming skills, one creative has begun working away at a graphic novel game.  You play as an emerging WWE character with the ambition of winning the women's championship belt. "Make alliances and beef with foes in this game of social choice." Produced using Renpy. A group project has been started.  One youth has been diligently learning C#, Unity and the Dungeons and Dragons gaming system with the intent of designing and coding a Pokemon-like battle system.  Two other youth are also learning Unity and C#, their plans are to code the adventure mode (over-world) and menu systems that will, with the battle system, complete a simple/small Pokemon-like game.  However, the collab...

Radio Blog - August 1st, 2017 This week on Catch Da Flava we talked to a teacher named Marcia who shared her insightful experiences on teaching in Nunavut. Her passion to work with children and to become an inspirational figure for a generation has not only fueled her decision in teaching in Nunavut above other places, but has driven her to continue teaching in Nunavut for 3 years and going despite a lengthy 10 years in Jamaica. We discussed the expectations not only she had going into Nunavut but also the expectations community, students parents and staff had of her ;whether that be negative or positive; and how she combated those negative stereotypes she may of experienced being a person of colour. Marcia also talked about the misconceptions of aboriginal schools have acquired due to the media's negative outlook and how he experience on teaching in Nunavut clashes with these perspectives. In contrast the school that she was placed in had resources similar to those in the ...

July 31- Aug 4 This week participants at Focus worked on discussing their pitches and shared their story ideas in a pitch meeting. They were asked to start on their scripts with the advice and suggestions they were given from the group meeting and to have them submitted later on. Participants also took part in a two day anti-oppression workshop with guest Rania El Mugammar, to give them context on how to write their newcomer stories. They were given several exercises and hand outs with definitions for what anti-oppression entails. They were asked to use this information to inform their script writing, but some of them will be using the information to work on their debate on race issues in Canada and America for next week’s episode of Catch Da Flava youth radio. By: Judy Pham

I interviewed rapper Emiricus Brown from Harlem, NY on this show. Emiricus is a unique artist who has his grassroots experience in poetry and is slowly trying to expand his rap interests as well. Emiricus is an amateur producer, and has only recently tried his hand at producing instrumental beats, available on his Soundcloud page. I started the interview with him asking questions about his youth and his early years dabbling in poetry and channeling his creative energy. He told the story of his youth, stating that he grew up anting to channel the hatred of the educational institution and the flawed system into is works in high school. He said that his poetry style grew as he advanced in age, and expanded from romantic poetry, to topics like politics and societal issues. Rap, he said, came naturally to him because of this. Throughout the interview, I asked him questions about his upcoming EP, his musical inspirations, and his role as a student at Emory University. I ended the show by pl...

In the second week of the Audio Production class, we touched on some basic composition and musical modes, but the practicality and interest level of the topic was lower than moving forward with mixing and focussing on sound rather than theory. In week three, we looked at more functionalities of basic recording knowledge, such as internally recording audio and sampling, and simulating space around a sound source with digital reverbs and EQ. This led us to discussion of editing audio for film and TV, and how a background in improving or manipulating sound quality for basic effects such as nearness or space is also beneficial in mixing music. Also in the third week, the students began working on audio replacement for minute-long segments of film. They were asked to find pieces of film which included foley, scoring, live sound, and dialogue. This tasked them with a holistic approach to the DAW by requiring them to work with both audio and midi, to record and to mix, to create auxilia...

The students of RPF’s 2-month audio production program initially came in once a week for 3 hours. Class began with 1 - 2 hours of discussion, instruction and demonstration before students would independently work and practice the content of the day’s lesson. Because we had 3 workstations and 6 regular students, at first we staggered the days on which some students would work on a computer, while the others were taken into another, separate lesson for the remainder of class; then in our third week we added one more day of class, so that when the students began their personal projects, they could spend more in-school hours working on them. The course content was presented under terms of self-direction and personal musical desires. The curriculum was drafted as a branching map of possible chronological creative and academic routes. When each student enrolled, they were interviewed one-on-one by the instructor on their previous experience with music and sound, what they wanted to ...

July 24-28 This week participants at Focus worked on submitting pitches for a seven-minute video they will be doing, with a focus on the newcomer experience. Three stories would be created into videos, while the rest were asked to focus on writing the script to familiarize themselves with script-writing. On Friday, participants held a goodbye party for six international student interns as their session at Focus were ​ finished. Participants were able to enjoy each others’ company, but also learn to balance that with completing all video projects on the same day. Some participants were assigned to be on air for Catch da Flava youth radio, where they discussed the experience of being international students, and the overall experience of trying to belong in a country that doesn’t wholly accept them as being a part of their society.

For this edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we talked to Erdine Hope, a mental health case worker  in the Regent Park community, about mental health, addiction and her journey to being clean for 22 years. Jaidyn and I delved into the challenging and rewarding world of a mental health case worker and learned about what a mental health case worker does, the challenges they face, and how Erdine started her career as a case worker. Erdine talked about her ongoing work with youth who have mental illness and/or addictions. She gets connected with youth in need through the courts, hospitals, and on a referral basis. One intriguing challenge she talked about was the difference between  working with men and women. From her twenty years of experience, she’s found that women are, “harder to transition into case management because they are more self-reliant.” On the other hand, she's found that men usually rely on the one-on-one support that comes with case management. F...

This week on Catch Da Flava, we talked to the Under the Stars coordinator Elizabeth Mudenyo. Elizabeth spoke to the co-host Jaidyn and the host Nicholas about current events and future events that the festival will be occurring with the festival. We discussed how the festival is a Regent Park movie night where family and friends can get to together to watch family blockbuster films outside of their homes. Some of the family films are Moana, Space Jam and The Hunter For The Wilderpeople. The festival also plays foreign movies like historical documentaries, Bollywood and drama films like Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na, Bicycle Thieves and Hidden Figures. Elizabeth also spoke about the programs and workshops that will occur during the events 6 weeks of the festival opening. There will be soccer games, dance classes, dj workshops and more. These programs will run every week and take place between 7-8:30 pm before the films begins on Sunday at approximately 9pm. ...

International students show! Radio Regent and University of Toronto Summer Youth International English Program collaborated to produce an hour long live youth radio show. On July 19 th , a class of 15 international students aged 13-14 from Japan, China, Vietnam, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Brazil came on a tour of Regent Park Focus Youth Media Centre. As a part of their class activities, one of the tasks was to produce a radio show. The teenagers were very excited as none of them had ever done any broadcast before. In fact, most of them were visiting a radio station for the very first time. The students had done their homework well; all the content was fully scripted and ready- to-air. The class was divided into three groups of five students each. On the show, the students discussed issues, benefits and complicacies involving the internet and social media usage for young teenagers. They shared views on their favorite social media apps and reasons why they use them. To keep th...

July 17-21 This week participants at Focus submitted three story ideas for radio show Catch da Flava, with an emphasis on social justice topics. They had a meeting about their pitches and presented them to everyone, and scheduled in which show they will be presenting their stories. They worked on securing a guest for the topic, learning how to write a radio script, having suggestions and revisions to it, prepared to be on-air for the next week. Some of the topics included were interviewing the cartoonist and author of Asylum Squad, Sarafin. Also, some participants wanted to discuss the experience of an international student, and another participant wanted to have a debate on whether racism was worse in Canada or the U.S. Along with this, a few participants focused on completing video editing projects and working on learning how to create their own games. By: Judy Pham

For this edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, co-hosts Judy and Diamond held a panel discussion about the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls of Canada and the anger towards the disorganization caused by resignations of senior staff within the inquiry. Resulting in families of the victims frustrated with the lack of clear strategy and strong partnerships with Indigenous communities across the country. With the recent resignation of 5 commissioners including  Marilyn Poitras, we discussed how many have questioned the leadership of the inquiry and whether this leadership problem should result in the inquiry being represented and driven by indigenous people. Furthermore, we brought to light how families feel less willing to participate in the process as their ability to claim justice for loved ones and victims are greatly affected by these resignations. We express our thoughts on the history of social and cultural oppression of indigen...

This week on Catch Da Flava we talked to Lead Organizer of Toronto Mad Pride Tim Brown about the history of Mad Pride along with how this festival jammed packed with the art, culture and heritage of psychiatric survivors became what it is today. Tim spoke with co-hosts Judy and Diamond about events to expect during this annual event celebrating and advocating for those around the world labelled as “ mentally ill”. We discussed how mad activists and the mad community seek to reclaim language ; such as “mad”, “crazy”, “lunatic”, “maniac”, and “psycho” ;just as the LGBT community have reclaimed the word “queer”; in an effort to challenge the discrimination they faced in the past and in the present day. Tim also spoke about how Mad Pride week is held corresponding to International Mad Pride Day on July 14, and Bastille day in which during the French Revolution, citizens stormed the Bastille to liberate prisoners and  mad people. This year the Toronto Mad ...

Weekly Summary- July 10-14th This week Regent Park Focus participants and summer staff held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss what needs to be done for the next two weeks. All participants were expected to work on a game idea to be developed and created with Gaming Instructor Fernando Restituto during the summer program. Executive Director Adonis Huggins announced Judy Pham as the summer’s Media Arts Coordinator, who will directed summer participants and hold radio workshops. Video Coordinator Dimitrije Martinovic discussed all the various video editing projects, their progress, and who was assigned to them. For the week, participants have been finishing up their video projects and starting to consider gaming designs and learning coding. Some students have been assigned to work on radio shows and have been working on securing guests, figuring out relevant topics to explore, and script writing for a radio show. This Friday, Judy held a radio script writing workshop to s...

The main focus of the underground hip-hop radio show on July 10th was to only showcase underground music selections from my personal cache of underground music tracks. I started off the show introducing myself to new listeners and then proceeded to play my secreted playlist. I feel like the more personal a song becomes to a youthful audience, the more it is epitomized as a song that defines a certain generation. Therefore before each song was introduced to the audience I gave aa personal anecdote or a story about the artist pertaining to that respective song. I started off the show introducing artist Vince Staples from LA, and showcased the song titled “SAMO” from his most recently released album “Big Fish Theory.” Throughout the show I played tracks by Jhene Aiko, Waldo, Smino, the WDNG CRSHRS, and finally finished the set off by playing “All Star” by Cousin Stizz.

The main focus of the underground hip-hop radio show on July 6th was to interview a rap artist from Atlanta, GA and ask him about his journey as a rapper in the youth community. I began the show by introducing myself and my guest artist BOREGARD to the radio audience and then promptly commenced the interview. In the interview I made sure to ask about his artistic vision and it developed and evolved since he was very little—music, he said, was a huge part of his life growing and allowed his youth to be more creatively fruitful. He answered questions about being a business student apart of an elite American institution, and how being an artist and a student helped him visualize his artistic dreams in a very efficient economic way. Listen Here: http://regentparkfocus.com//radio/media/undergroundvybes/Underground_Vybes_2017-07-06.mp3