Regent Park Focus

Throughout the last four winter months, Regent Park Focus’ Diva Girls Group has been collaborating with University of Toronto professor Aditi Mehta, and her urban policy seminar students. An objective of the class (which looks at youth, art, and engagement in cities) was to explore urban experiences from various identities, and thereby critique urban policy and plans accordingly. As such, the partnership was intuitive, given Regent Park’s initial goal to combat negative stereotypes about the community and to provide media literacy and production programming for youth in the area.   Together, U of T students, along with the Diva girls, have been learning about media projects initiated by young people across the world, and analyzing how various creative forms of expression were able to spur change and social movement in their respective communities. Moreover, the Diva Girls were able to teach and share their own unique experiences to the U of T students, a...

This session the girls met Caroline Acton who taught them a little about painting and abstract art. When the girls walked in they were asked to get into pairs and introduce the other person to Caroline, they were to say their names and 2 things they liked about the person.  They were then given canvases, brushes, and paint, and told about the different styles they could paint in, this helped to get ideas rolling. The pieces the girls have created will be on exhibit during the showcase, May 17th, 2019. The girls really enjoyed painting and are hoping they can do it again in the following weeks! Amna Quaid Azam

News & Views blog Apr 12 This week on Radio Regent News & Views, we will be exploring the following stories: 1. Wayne Greenway will continue his series of interviews with experts challenging the statements of Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government. This week his guest will be Annie Kidder, Executive Director of People for Education. He'll ask her about the recent claims from the Ministry of Education. 2. On April 11, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was removed from office by the military amidst ongoing protests, after having held office for almost 30 years. This past weekend, News and Views field reporter Dawit Tibebu attended a rally at Queen's Park in support of Sudan. We'll hear his interviews with three rally attendees. 3. Theo Nazary will join David Wall at Radio Regent to discuss the news of the week, including the new budget presented by Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative government and the recent elections in Alberta. Radi...

This session the Little Divas had a showcase and the older Divas were invited to watch! While the Little Divas were getting ready the older Divas and I talked about the UofT Showcase and how they felt it turned out at the end. We then talked about the sessions leading up to it and how everyone's experience went throughout it.   Soon after, we were all invited into the room the showcase was happening at and the Little Divas talked about the work they created and we were able to listen to a song the girls had created and then watched a dance they came up with together which had the message of empowerment implemented into it. Some of the pieces the girls worked on was a wall titled "Black Girl Magic", which included letters the girls had created to people they think embody Black Girl Magic. There was also a section titled The Future which included Time Capsules the girls created. More work created was on advertising, self-portraits, Taking back Stereotypes...

Regent Park Focus is partnering with the Youth, Arts, and Engagement Program at the University of Toronto to produce a media product that is based on the community. This is the eighth and ninth session. The next session will be at the Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre on April 8th for the Showcase exhibition. These two sessions were used to add last minute touch ups onto the final pieces both groups had created. This meant making sure they had everything ready and editing what they needed to change. On April 1st, the group presented their ideas to each other and brought examples of what they were going to do, the girls were then thanked and given a gift from Aditi, the proffer of the course. The participants then all went to the event room of the Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre and decided how they would like to layout and present their pieces. For more information on the tasks each group did per week you can click here ! Amna Quaid Azam

These sessions the girls used to complete their photography projects. The first session was used to learn about editing images with the guest artist Sydonnae. She then showed the girls their pieces compared to the ones they picked during the first session. The girls then said bye to Sydonnae and the session ended.  Some of the Final pictures are shown below, they will be included as part of the showcase.   Upon return to Focus the following Friday (March 29th) the girls went out around the community to take pictures. Before leaving they were asked to pick themes they wanted their photography to be about. They then got into groups and we headed out. The themes picked were: happiness, vacation, and fashion/modern. These pictures taken are shown below, they will be included as part of the showcase. Amna Quaid Azam

--> On April 9 th Catch Da Flava hosts Kylie, Thalia, Shejuanah, Meredith, Jenna and Jessica discussed the topic of “sleep.” To start off, our hosts described their own relationship to sleep. Experiences varied, though our teen hosts did have a tendency to stay up late, and even experiment with how long they could go without sleeping. After this, they discussed the stages of sleep, including the rem cycle and how each stage functions and interacts with one another. The hosts discussed the importance of getting to that deep sleep stage, and some sleep-related phenomena like sleep paralysis. Furthermore, our hosts discussed the importance of actually getting sleep, understanding now that experimenting with their sleep cycles might not have been the healthiest the decision to make. They talked about research that demonstrates the negative implications that a lack of sleep can have on one’s reproductive system, cardiovascular system and immune system, among others...