All posts on 2019

Black Theatre Workshop’s ‘How Black Mother’s Say I Love You’ opened at the Centaur theatre on February 28 at Centaur Theatre and will be playing until March 16. The play has a strong Caribbean influence but it will resonate with not only immigrants but also families who have dealt with separation. The play chronicles, Daphne a mother who has to start a life in Canada and ends up away from her two children for six years. This is a story of separation and reconciliation infused with a bold original score that blends gospel, reggae and R&B with classical music. Playwright …

We are now in the year 2019, the year of expectation. It’s good to know the numbers and their representation. For example, the number 10 is the number of man and the number 9 is the number for fruitfulness. A woman’s fruitfulness is demonstrated by birthing children and it takes nine months before giving birth a full-term baby. Every human being must live with expectations. To expect something is to look forward to something or to anticipate something; both of these words imply considering what is to come. So I want to put the emphasis on how we consider our …

On Sunday February 24, a dead man was raised to life in South Africa. At least that’s what Pastor Lukau wanted parishioners to believe. It was obviously a stage-managed miracle. In Africa, these kinds of stunts happen here and there, where some pastors will pretend to heal people from diseases they didn’t have or make them stand from wheel chairs they weren’t confined to. While this is a menace what is an even bigger problem is how petty one off nuisances from Africa are told with such grandeur in the western media. When the news of the resurrection broke, various …

By Rasta KEITH As the two-year long election campaign in America begins to pick up steam (and setting aside the kind of sarcasm; nay, satire, so cleverly engaged in by Swamp Dogg in his song “God Bless America”), anyone uttering the slogan “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” would unequivocally be making the presumption that Americans actually have the wherewithal to make America “great.” But then the question immediately arises as to the etymology of the term “great.” The Muslim phrase “Allahu Akbar,” generally translated “God is Great,” provides an appropriate context in which the term might be best understood. There are …

Trinidad & Tobago carnival season has ended and this year history was made. This year, Soca artists from Grenada and St Vincent made a massive impact and one or two historical firsts. Now that it’s over life starts returning to normal for some but for many others such as the Soca artistes, foreigners, and Djs like myself, the business of spreading the love of carnival and Soca music has only just begun. The International Soca Monarch title has gone to Grenada as three Grenadian artist, one St Lucian and two Trinidadian emerged at the top of the International Soca Monarch …

Here we are in March, longer days and the official start of spring, and the promise of renewed life as plant life push through the last of the snow. March 8 annually ushers in its wake the moment to celebrate the contributions of women and the revitalization of efforts to achieve gender equality in Canada and other parts of the Diaspora. It is a day when without regard to divisions—be they national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political—women are recognized for their achievements. While there appears to be some controversy as to how the first Women’s Day was established, there …

The son of Bob showcases his extraordinary songwriting and musical talent with latest album Contact Staff As one of 11 children of one of the biggest names in the world of music, Julian Marley knows a thing or two about individuality and finding your own ground. “When it comes to music you must have your own identity,” is the way he tells it. “And it’s important to know that you can win by being yourself.” It’s not like he is on the music scene to win anything. The music he creates, he says, “is an inspiration from the Almighty,” that …

Stories of the Caribbean Domestic Scheme find resonance in Trey Anthony’s How Black Mothers Say I Love You, Contact Staff The way Tamara Brown sees it, BTW’s 2019 main stage production, How Black Mothers Say I Love You, which plays on Centaur Theatre from February 28, is really a story that reflects our community. The play, a masterpiece by Toronto playwright/comedian Trey Anthony, speaks to the reality of many families that have been impacted by the pangs of separation that came with decisions made by many Caribbean women to emigrate to major metropolitan centres in search of better lives. Anthony, …

Award winning Jamaican-born novelist spins a mesmerizing tale Rosie AWORI “The child is dead, and there is nothing left to be known,” Marlon James eerily pronounces in his highly anticipated book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Yet the Man-Booker prize winner displays the mastery of his craft by taking the reader on a 700-page journey showing and telling what should be known. James spins a lyrical, gripping and mesmerizing tale set in a fantastical African universe. The fantastical universe James has dreamed up is a testament to his keen and thorough research; he weaves African folklore filled with symbolism and fantasy …