Posts in category News

By Contact Staff On April 23, Montrealers have another opportunity to stand with those who are going through life facing daily challenges, when second annual Born To Rise Show comes to the Crawley Arts Centre in NDG. Show organizer and founder of the organization Aiesha Robinson, has chosen the theme:  “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always…” upon which the event is built this year. And she’s anticipating a strong show of support, especially after the success of last year’s event. “Last year’s show came out to be exactly as I envisioned, I …

Band Launch on April 23 Contact Staff For Carifiesta 2016, the streets of downtown Montreal will be awash with the traditional sailors of carnival, as a group of mas lovers have made it their business to bring back a taste of traditional masquerade to our summertime parade. Helen Baptiste, one of the coordinators of the newly established FrienZ Mas Band, says she and her cohorts Gary Johnson and David St. John have been planning for the past two years to bring this touch of excitement to the local carnival. “Sailor mas’ has been around for a very long time, well …

Champion… Champion… Champion… Champion… Champion… Egbert Gaye At least two million US dollars flowed into the Caribbean after both men and women teams of West Indies won the Cricket World T20 2016 title on April 3, at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India. Both teams did it in spectacular fashion with the women team trouncing world champions Australia by eight wickets, ending the Aussies four-year domination of the tournament. It was the WIndies women’s first hold on the championship. The game, which was played in the morning, saw Australia batting first and amassing a 148 for five, the team’s highest total in …

Free homebuyer seminar on April 19 Two recognized professionals, real estate agent Pamela Dass and mortgage advisor Seinjit Jit, are joining forces to host a home buyers seminar aimed at helping first-time buyers and others learn how to navigate the complex terrain of purchasing a home. The free seminar will be held at the Atwater Library, 1200 Atwater Ave, in downtown Montreal, on Tuesday, April 19, from 6pm to 7:30pm. The two highly skilled professionals promise to guide participants through the maze of negotiations and even show them how to purchase with “NO CASH DOWN.” They will also show you …

BTW’s production of Ann Marie Woods’ She Said/He Said from April 13 Contact STAFF Love, they say, is a many-splendored thing, but it can also be a complicated thing. Throw in the complexities that certain cultures and ethnic groups bring to the journey and we can well be on our way to a strange place. Award-winning playwright Anne-Marie Woods offers a fresh and nuanced look at the emotional journey in her new play She Said/He Said, which is described as “a spoken word and theatre experience that explores love, communication and relationships between Black men and Black women.” The way …

Geordie Productions’ Bethoven Lives Upstairs For many of us, when we think of legendary German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven, we think of the music he created and ‘gifted’ to the world. We rarely think about Beethoven as a man, as a person who struggled to bring his creative visions to life. That is the premise of Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a play that returns to Geordie Productions, a professional children’s theatre company here in Montreal, in April. The show tells the fictional story of when Beethoven moves in with a boy named Christoph and his family while trying to finish off …

Evangelist Bridget Blucher back in town on April 16 Contact Staff As always, Evangelist Bridget Blucher will bring a powerful presence when she comes to Montreal on Saturday, April 16, at the House of Prayer for All Nations, located at 4119 Blvd. De Maisonneuve Ouest. In a city with a fan base that’s loyal and enthusiastic, it’s always a celebration of love when the St. Vincent-born Evangelist and entertainer takes to the stage. She has a repertoire of hits that have made her one of the most sought after Caribbean-style Gospel performers on the planet. Over the years, she has …

Black community for long, represented among the poor in Canada Egbert Gaye Depending on whom you ask, the number of Canadians living in poverty ranges between 3 million to 4.5 million, which anyway you cut it is a damn shame given the accumulated wealth of this country. And sadly, after eight years under the last Conservative government, poverty in Canada became more entrenched, further marginalizing groups such as indigenous people, single parents and racialized minorities, including the Black community, which has long been well-represented among the ranks of the poor in this country. So on March 22 ,all eyes were …

On behalf of Black man murdered by police and other injustices Egbert Gaye Since Saturday, March 19, Black Lives Matter-Toronto have been mobilizing outside of the headquarters of the city’s police headquarters building a protest against a decision by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), not to recommend that charges be brought against a police officer who shot and killed Andrew Loku, a 45-year-old Black man. Loku, a father of five, was shot last July after an altercation with him and a neighbor brought the police to his apartment building. When the police arrived they found Loku with a hammer in …

Cuba Fidel criticizes Obama’s visit Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused US President Barack Obama of sweet-talking the Cuban people during his visit to the island last week and ignoring the accomplishments of communist rule in an opinion piece titled “Brother Obama” carried by state-run media in Cuba on Monday. “One assumes that every one of us ran the risk of a heart attack listening to these words,” Castro said in his column, dismissing Obama’s comments as “honey-coated” and reminding Cubans of the many US efforts to overthrow and weaken the Communist government. “We don’t need the empire to give …