Sparrow d’Legend

  • May 5, 2010 10:39 am

sparrow the legend t-shirt

Toronto Mas Camp, Carnival Nationz has released its theme for 2010 and its line up of costumes. Nationz, the 2009 Champions decided to make The Mighty Sparrow the band theme this year. This means costumes are named after various Sparrow songs such as D’ Lizard, Jean & Dinah, Obeah Wedding, Congo Man and others. After attending the launch event, I’ve got say I am pleasantly surprised and inspired to see thousands of young people learning about the Calypso legend. The launch began with a video that took clips from some of Sparrow’s live performances and videos from the 1950s onwards. I thought this was great, rather than simply honouring the artist’s work in name only, the audience got a chance to learn about Sparrow’s life and his music. I had no idea he was born in Grenada!!!

Check out all the costumes here:

http://carnivalnationz.com/gallery/index.php/Carnival-Nationz-Band-Launch-2010

We live in an amazing city and we are so blessed to have creative people making creative costumes.  I am so proud of all the people involved in volunteering their time to make sure Caribbean culture says alive and the next generation is able to learn about our magnificent past.  It takes sooooo many individuals to setup mas camps, recruit people, do promotional work and tons of other stuff, that is the spirit of community arts.  I am wondering when people will finally be able to see these costumes as art, beautiful pieces of art that are deeply interwoven with our histories?

saltfish man and woman

carnival nationz white costume

purple carnival nationzDon’t want to make it seem like I am shamelessly plugging Carnival Nationz, so here are more info on other bands:

:: Toronto CARIBANA Mas Bands 2010 ::
(2010 Competing bands are currently listed alphabetically and NOT in order of appearance)

Black Sage (Selwyn “Nip” Davis & Corey Howard) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “Kopy Kat”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: 7
Costume Price: $100-$140
Kiddies Costumes: $50
Mas Camp Location: 60 Barbados Blvd, Units 4 & 5
Mas Camp Hours: 7pm-10pm weekdays | 2pm-6pm weekends opens May 15th
Phone: Corey 647-242-7715 Nip 416-286-0097 Alvin 905-940-2944
Email: corey@blacksagecarnival.com, nip@blacksagecarnival.com,alvin@blacksagecarnival.com
Website: http://www.blacksagecarnival.com, http://www.scsc.ca,http://www.nipdavis.com
2010 Launch Date: Sat May 1st @ Northern Tropics (Ellesmere and kennedy)
Pre Caribana Brunch: Sunday April 18 @ Northern Tropics 1pm – 5pm

Callaloo (Marlon Singh) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “Halloween”
Music on de Road: JMC 3VENI (Live Band 5 Times T&T #1 Band on the Road), Ravi (Chutney Soca Monarch King from Karma), DJ Shiva (from Bacchanal Radio), Blackberry Soundcrew, DJ Spinz, Tony Soul (from NY/Miami) & Crystal Vibez
Number of Sections: 11
Costume Price: $135-150 All-Inclusive / Also VVIP available (Inquire within)
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: noon – 1am
Phone: 416-576-0694 | 416-845-3754
Email: callaloocarnival@gmail.com
Website: http://www.callaloo.net
2010 Launch Date: Sat May 15 @ Everest Banquet Hall

Carnival Nationz (Bryce Aguiton, Dwayne Pitt, Marcus Eustace) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “Sparrow… D’Legend”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: 533 McNicoll Avenue (Vic Park and McNicoll)
Mas Camp Hours: 7pm-10pm weekdays | 2pm-6pm weekends (opens in June)
Phone: 416-565-4079, 416-985-8488, 416-930-9650
Email: info@carnivalnationz.com
Website: http://www.CarnivalNationz.com
2010 Launch Date: Sat May 1, 2010 @ Sound Academy 2

Connections – TCC (Mervyn Skeete) {Category B}
2010 Presentation: “TO BE ANNOUNCED”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: 416-492-5584 | 647-295-5584
Email: gemstonestcc@aol.com
Website: http://www.tocarnival.com
2010 Launch Date: TBA

De Freitas Carnival (Ken Defreitas & Justin Hospedales) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “Reign of Fire”
Music on de Road: Renegade Squad (Blueberry Bashment), Dj. Chief (Worldwide 89.5FM), Jump Up Kingz (Got JUK), Dj. Bass (Island Breeze 89.5FM)
Number of Sections: 8
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: Mon – Thu 5pm – 9pm / Fri – 5pm – 10pm / Sat: 12pm – 10pm / Sun: 2pm – 8pm
Phone: 416-209-0834
Email: defreitascarnival@gmail.com
Website: http://www.decarnival.com
2010 Launch Date: TBA

Doldron, Doldron & Associates (Courtney Doldron) {Category B}
2010 Presentation: “TO BE ANNOUNCED”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: 416-986-7875, 647-928-5609, 416-779-4211, 416-833-2641
Email: csdoldron@rogers.com
Website: N/A
2010 Launch Date: TBA

Fantazia International (Will Morton) {Category B}
2010 Presentation: “Fashion Runway”
Music on de Road: DJ Dingolay
Number of Sections: 7
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: 289-888-1247
Email: fantazia_09@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.fantaziainternational.net
2010 Launch Date: Sat May 15th, 2010

Genesis Mas (Russel & Jerry Jerome) {Category C}
2010 Presentation: “Exotic Birds”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: 6
Costume Price: $120 / ($250 individual)
Kiddies Costumes: $50
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: N/A
Email: N/A
Website: http://www.GenesisMas.com
2010 Launch Date: TBA

Guycan Group (Raj Persaud) {Category C}
2010 Presentation: “Sparkle Guyana Sparkle”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections:TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes:TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: N/A
Email: N/A
Website: N/A
2010 Launch Date: TBA

Louis Saldenah Mas-K Club (Louis Saldenah) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “Portraits”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: Daily noon-11pm (open from June 7)
Phone: 416-560-4419
Email: saldenah@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.saldenahcarnival.com
2010 Launch Date: Sat May 8, 2010 @ Embers Banquet Hall

Mas Toronto (Errol Achue) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “TO BE ANNOUNCED”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: Tam Heather Country Club – 730 Military Trail, Scarborough, (west of Morningside)
Mas Camp Hours: Mon-Thur 6-10:00pm | Sat 6-11pm | Sun 6pm-8pm
Phone: 416-282-7712, 416-283-6161
Email: info@mastoronto.com
Website: http://www.mastoronto.com
2010 Launch Date: TBA

Pleasure Players (Whitfield Balasco) {Category B}
2010 Presentation: “TO BE ANNOUNCED”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: 4TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: 905-568-9136
Email: werfamily2@hotmail.com
Website: N/A
2010 Launch Date: TBA

Toronto Revellers (Jamaal Magloire) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “Disco Fever… Aint No Stoppin Us Now”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: TBA
Email: info@torontorevellers.com
Website: http://www.TorontoRevellers.com
2010 Launch Date: Sat May 8, 2010 @ Everest Banquet Hall

Tribal Knights (Dexter Seusahai) {Category A}
2010 Presentation: “HOLLYWOOD: Glitz & Glamour”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: 416-893-1867
Email: carnivalartsent@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.TribalKnights.com
2010 Launch Date: Sat April 10, 2010 @ Grand Luxe

Tru Dynasty Carnival (Thea Jackson) {Category C}
2010 Presentation: “Fever – What Makes You HOT”
Music on de Road: TBA
Number of Sections: TBA
Costume Price: TBA
Kiddies Costumes: TBA
Mas Camp Location: TBA
Mas Camp Hours: TBA
Phone: 647-883-9033 / 416-768-8292
Email: trydynasty@gmail.com
Website: http://www.trudynasty.com
2010 Launch Date: TBA

HopeWorks Connection Film Fest 2010

  • March 17, 2010 11:43 am

filmfest3_final_feb_12

AN EVENT FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY TO BROADEN THE VISIBILITY OF CREATIVE AND INSPIRING FILMS FROM THE AFRICAN DIASPORA.

Feature Documentary Film “A Linc In Time” by Nicole Brooks, a revealing portrait of the great Lincoln Alexander, the first black Member of Parliament in Canada elected during the turbulent American civil rights era and the first black Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

Performances by TC3 – The Toronto Children’s Concert Choir and Performing Arts Company

1:00pm – 2:00pm Children/Family Films
“Henry Box Brown”, “Garrett’s Gift” and “Sticks and Stones”

2:30pm – 6:00pm Teen/Adult Films
“War Child” and “Life and Debt”

6:30pm – 9:00pm Reception with director Nicole Brooks

Feature Documentary Film “A Linc In Time”

Tickets: $10.00 Single Day Pass, $35.00 Group Pass (4 People)

*Tickets are available at the door*

1:00pm – 9:00pm

50 Nantucket Blvd, Scarborough

For more information:

Phone: (416) 751 – 9970
Email: info@tc3.ca
Website: www.tc3.ca

Filmmakers Workshop–> Documenting Black Experiences with Sylvia Hamilton

  • February 24, 2010 12:08 pm

Dr. Sylvia HamiltonThe Harriet Tubman Institute

and

The Centre for the Study of Black Cultures in Canada

proudly announce

Documenting Black Experiences with Sylvia Hamilton Meet the filmmaker and watch the films of Sylvia Hamilton

Friday, 26 February, 2010: 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm

Workshop: Filmmaking in the Canadian, African-Canadian and African-Nova Scotian contexts.

Venue: Centre for Film and Theatre (CFT) Room 106.

Saturday, 27 February, 2010: 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

See the films of Dr. Sylvia Hamilton and attend her public lecture and discussion.  Venue: San Romanoway Community Centre, Screening Room,
15 San Romanoway (off Finch Avenue, opposite Jane Finch Mall)

The films that will be featured will include The Little Black School House, a chronicle of Canada’s racially segregated schools, Black Mother Black Daughter and Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia and Portia White: Think On Me, a documentary about the extraordinary African Canadian contralto.

Both events are FREE and OPEN to all York students, faculty and the public.

Dr. Sylvia Hamilton, acclaimed Nova Scotian documentary filmmaker, writer and educator, has produced a number of pioneering films which have chronicled the rich histories and experiences of African Canadians in their struggles to achieve dignity and equality in a society which has not always acknowledged or welcomed the African Canadian presence. She has been the recipient of major awards, including a Gemini, Nova Scotia’s Portia White Prize for Excellence in the Arts, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation’s Maeda Prize, the Progress Women of Excellence Award for Arts and Culture and the CBC Television Pioneer Award.

Leaders of Tomorrow African-Canadian and Diaspora Students Conference March 5th

  • February 22, 2010 1:40 pm

Beautiful People,

This is a one day event, and is free with advance registration required for catering purposes. High school students are also welcome to participate.  Make sure you come out and check Dr. Sylvia Hamilton’s film “A Little Black School House”

OBHS conference U of T

Prefix Gallery @ 401 Richmond (Richmond and Spadina)

  • February 9, 2010 2:46 pm

prefix gallery panther in pool
February 9, 2010 at 7:30 PM

The New Orleans–based artist and activist, Jackie Sumell discusses The House that Herman Built, her longtime collaborative project with former Black Panther and current Louisiana Penitentiary inmate, Herman Wallace. Moderated by Betty Julian, independent curator and an adjunct professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Presented by Prefix and Wedge Curatorial Projects in association with the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery.

Where do you find inspiration?

  • February 3, 2010 12:17 pm

This is my first post and I hope it incites thought leading to further artistic creativity. Yesterday I lost a great source of inspiration in my artistic and academic life, Professor Rex Nettleford was a cultural and intellectual icon of the Caribbean and I can say that I am who  I am as an artist because he created so much opportunities for me to practice my art and moreover he linked it to the cultural fabric that is JAMAICA. I have gone on to be taught by a teachers who worked Professor (as he was affectionately called), also to work with Garth Fagan  (a personal friend of Mr. Nettleford). His academic work as author and vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies brought out the intricacies of how the Arts was informed by culture.

To loosely make a  connection to some his work would be like this” The flow of the rivers and ebb of sea were in the brush strokes and the mountains stood tall like the most gracious dancer connecting to it’s ancestral past. Those very mountains were home to the Maroons, who despite being slaves, ran away to the mountains to create an independent community” Now its not about the drudgery of  black movements of opposition or tagging on to Black History month. it’s about the Arts and culture and where you find inspiration regardless of cultural background. I am an artist first and foremost.

Inspiration should, I feel be informed by your cultural past but also your culture present..its about the subway, Toronto, the cultures with whom you share a space, an identity, a world view, places travelled. How else can someone understand you inspiration? It should appeal to a humanistic part of their being and senses referring back to who you are. I challenge all who read to seek different source of inspiration, languish in the process of creation because as I have learnt from one such inspiration like Professor Nettleford “this is where experience lives..in the process of creation and understanding”

I hope that we all can realize that: when we make our beats, when we paint, when we dance, sing, act, teach. That we too like those who practiced before us are inspiring a generation to come.Interview from the 2009 Commonwealth People\\\’s Forum with Prof. The Hon. Rex Nettleford (Respect and Understanding)

THE HATE & THE QUAKE (HAITI) by Sir Hilary Beckles (UWI)

  • January 19, 2010 12:37 pm

THE HATE & THE QUAKE (HAITI)

Published on: 1/17/2010.

BY SIR HILARY BECKLES

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme Rethinking And Rebuilding Haiti.

I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.

Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti’s independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.

The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.

The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.

In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.

The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place.

The French, also, declared freedom, fraternity and equality as the new philosophies of their national transformation and gave the modern world a tremendous progressive boost by so doing.

They abolished slavery, but Napoleon Bonaparte could not imagine the republic without slavery and targeted the Haitians for a new, more intense regime of slavery. The British agreed, as did the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.

All were linked in communion over the 500 000 Blacks in Haiti, the most populous and prosperous Caribbean colony.

As the jewel of the Caribbean, they all wanted to get their hands on it. With a massive slave base, the English, French and Dutch salivated over owning it – and the people.

The people won a ten-year war, the bloodiest in modern history, and declared their independence. Every other country in the Americas was based on slavery.

Haiti was freedom, and proceeded to place in its 1805 Independence Constitution that any person of African descent who arrived on its shores would be declared free, and a citizen of the republic.

For the first time since slavery had commenced, Blacks were the subjects of mass freedom and citizenship in a nation.

The French refused to recognise Haiti’s independence and declared it an illegal pariah state. The Americans, whom the Haitians looked to in solidarity as their mentor in independence, refused to recognise them, and offered solidarity instead to the French. The British, who were negotiating with the French to obtain the ownership title to Haiti, also moved in solidarity, as did every other nation-state the Western world.

Haiti was isolated at birth – ostracised and denied access to world trade, finance, and institutional development. It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history.

The Cubans, at least, have had Russia, China, and Vietnam. The Haitians were alone from inception. The crumbling began.

Then came 1825; the moment of full truth. The republic is celebrating its 21st anniversary. There is national euphoria in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

The economy is bankrupt; the political leadership isolated. The cabinet took the decision that the state of affairs could not continue.

The country had to find a way to be inserted back into the world economy. The French government was invited to a summit.

Officials arrived and told the Haitian government that they were willing to recognise the country as a sovereign nation but it would have to pay compensation and reparation in exchange. The Haitians, with backs to the wall, agreed to pay the French.

The French government sent a team of accountants and actuaries into Haiti in order to place a value on all lands, all physical assets, the 500 000 citizens were who formerly enslaved, animals, and all other commercial properties and services.

The sums amounted to 150 million gold francs. Haiti was told to pay this reparation to France in return for national recognition.

The Haitian government agreed; payments began immediately. Members of the Cabinet were also valued because they had been enslaved people before independence.

Thus began the systematic destruction of the Republic of Haiti. The French government bled the nation and rendered it a failed state. It was a merciless exploitation that was designed and guaranteed to collapse the Haitian economy and society.

Haiti was forced to pay this sum until 1922 when the last instalment was made. During the long 19th century, the payment to France amounted to up to 70 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

Jamaica today pays up to 70 per cent in order to service its international and domestic debt. Haiti was crushed by this debt payment. It descended into financial and social chaos.

The republic did not stand a chance. France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance. In the years when the coffee crops failed, or the sugar yield was down, the Haitian government borrowed on the French money market at double the going interest rate in order to repay the French government.

When the Americans invaded the country in the early 20th century, one of the reasons offered was to assist the French in collecting its reparations.

The collapse of the Haitian nation resides at the feet of France and America, especially. These two nations betrayed, failed, and destroyed the dream that was Haiti; crushed to dust in an effort to destroy the flower of freedom and the seed of justice.

Haiti did not fail. It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have a primary interest in its current condition.

The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate. In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate.

Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation – a crime against humanity.

During the 2001 UN Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, strong representation was made to the French government to repay the 150 million francs.

The value of this amount was estimated by financial actuaries as US$21 billion. This sum of capital could rebuild Haiti and place it in a position to re-engage the modern world. It was illegally extracted from the Haitian people and should be repaid.

It is stolen wealth. In so doing, France could discharge its moral obligation to the Haitian people.

For a nation that prides itself in the celebration of modern diplomacy, France, in order to exist with the moral authority of this diplomacy in this post-modern world, should do the just and legal thing.

Such an act at the outset of this century would open the door for a sophisticated interface of past and present, and set the Haitian nation free at last.

l Sir Hilary Beckles is pro-vice-chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, UWI.

  • December 23, 2009 8:01 pm
For more than three decades, they sang Mozart in Latin, Bach in German, and Cole Porter and Stevie Wonder in English, from Alice Tully Hall in New York to Royal Albert Hall in London.
Uniforms used by the Boys Choir of Harlem have been stored in the damp basement of the Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home.
For the audiences that marveled at the Boys Choir of Harlem, it was an additional wonder that the young performers with world-class voices had emerged from some of the most difficult neighborhoods of New York. December was always a busy month, as the choir toured the country’s premier concert halls and appeared on television Christmas specials. But this year, the boys are nowhere to be found. Last week, Terrance Wright, a 39-year-old choir alumnus, picked up a microphone in front of the altar of Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home, and delivered news that surprised few people but saddened many.
“Tell the people. Let it be known,” Mr. Wright said, glistening and exhausted after leading a Christmas concert by former singers in the choir. “There is no Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem.”
This is very sad to me.. ik
see the whole article here.. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/nyregion/23choir.html?_r=2

articleLarge

For more than three decades, they sang Mozart in Latin, Bach in German, and Cole Porter and Stevie Wonder in English, from Alice Tully Hall in New York to Royal Albert Hall in London.

Uniforms used by the Boys Choir of Harlem have been stored in the damp basement of the Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home.

For the audiences that marveled at the Boys Choir of Harlem, it was an additional wonder that the young performers with world-class voices had emerged from some of the most difficult neighborhoods of New York. December was always a busy month, as the choir toured the country’s premier concert halls and appeared on television Christmas specials. But this year, the boys are nowhere to be found. Last week, Terrance Wright, a 39-year-old choir alumnus, picked up a microphone in front of the altar of Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home, and delivered news that surprised few people but saddened many.

“Tell the people. Let it be known,” Mr. Wright said, glistening and exhausted after leading a Christmas concert by former singers in the choir. “There is no Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem.”

This is very sad to me.. ik

this is a piece of a larger article.. see the whole article here.. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/nyregion/23choir.html?_r=2