On July 16th our community lost one of its most passionate advocates for Black students. A citizen of Trinidad & Tobago, Vernon Farrell emigrated to Canada in 1965; completed his M.Ed. at University of Toronto; taught and was a principal in the North York Board of Education from which he retired as Principal of Brookview […]
LONDON, England — Ansel Wong, a community leader, historian and political activist has been selected as the new chair of the Board of Trustees at the Black Cultural Archives (BCA). Wong will work alongside the team to help realise its 2030 strategy. The Trinidadian born CBE holder has been based in the UK since the […]
To Trinidad and Tobago, Brother Resistance was much more than an artistic icon; he was a fount of cultural knowledge. With his passing at a private hospital on July 13 (he had been ailing for some time), the country has lost an elder of its musical artforms—calypso and soca, to be sure—but more specifically, its […]
She was inspired to write her first book, Adria The Carnival Princess, based on her own life experiences with the help and guidance of her mother. Ad’Ria is a model, actress, masquerader who loves going on adventures and taking her readers along for the journey. Carnival Princess begins on the day of Ad’Ria’s […]
By Stephen Weir If you are a David Rudder fan and have missed seeing “Sir David” perform during the pandemic, honk your horn this July 31st. And if you really want to hear some of the new material he has written over the past year or so, honk again and flash your high beams. On […]
Winston ‘Soso’ Lockhart, 69, one of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ greatest soca and calypso icons, died last Sunday from complications of kidney failure. In June of 2020, the Vincentian Cultural Ambassador suffered from a kidney failure and was placed on dialysis treatment, since then he was unable to work. There were several fundraising efforts […]
By Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony and Ashley Abdul Whether you’re part of the Caribbean diaspora or not, everyone knows summer isn’t complete in Toronto without the Carnival season, in particular the Caribbean Carnival parade, formally known as Caribana. For many folks who immigrated to Canada from the Carribean islands, Caribana was a welcome taste of home […]
By Lincoln DePradine Despite a collaboration with the Festival Management Corporation (FMC), under which pannists are able to ply their trade and now earn income at some Toronto restaurants, leaders of the pan movement in the city still aren’t satisfied that the artform is receiving the financial and other support that are required. “Right now, […]
By Arienne Johnson As a little girl at the Church of The Nativity, a black Anglican church in Scarborough with a strong Caribbean presence, I used to admire our church’s steelband. At the age of seven I was too young to join the band but I always stuck around to listen to the rhythm of […]
By Rhoma Spencer Caribana, now known as Toronto Caribbean Carnival, was presented as a gift to Canada as part of the country’s centennial celebrations in 1967. Trinidad and Tobago nationals and their Caribbean counterparts came together to give Canadians a taste of the Trinidad carnival, the pre-Lenten “farewell to the flesh” that culminates in […]
