20 + Anniversary!

Over 20 Years of Regent Park Focus. Isn’t it hard to believe?! Our anniversary celebrations may be over. However, making meaningful media productions with youth in Regent Park is continuing.
If anyone does not already know who we are, Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre - commonly known as Focus - is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1990 as part of a provincial government initiative to promote healthy communities. Now entering its 21st year, Focus has just moved into a new facility as part of the Regent Park revitalization project, and despite provincial and city funding cutbacks, it continues to provide young people with the space, equipment and training needed to use radio, photography, print, video, and music to bring their voices into the community.

On Friday, October 28 Focus officially kicked off the anniversary celebration with a public party at 246 Sackville Avenue where we honoured the organization’s many partners, sponsors, donors, volunteers, alumni, and other distinguished guests. The event also featured an awards ceremony acknowledging the involvement of those whose contributions to Focus over the years have helped it to thrive and grow into the successful organization that it is today.

Myself and staff member Jerry Z were the M.C’s for the night. We even had a DJ, who was spinning the whole night. Festivities included refreshments, speeches and performances by the Regent Park Focus House Band, who were amazing as usual. Prizes were given away in raffle draws. There was some spoken word done by Yusra Ali, who is a youth and young woman from the Regent Park community. Yusra’s spoken word is very powerful and she really brings deep emotions and thought provoking lyrics into her words. We continued on the spoken word theme by bringing on stage to have two young participants from our Diva Girls program to read a poem about what Diva Girls means to them.
Mahra and Nafsia were really shy but as their program facilitator, I encouraged them to have the strength as a Diva Girl to express themselves, show their talent and inform everyone on what it means to be a Diva Girl. Not only did they perform but they also spoke to CBC news in an interview! I will discuss more about CBC’s impact shortly. However, I must talk more about the performances and the rest of the fun night.

Next, Jerry and I brought to the stage Solitair who is a hip-hop producer and rapper.
When I first heard of Solitair, I assumed he was rapper Kardinal Offishall’s wing man because I just see him performing on the side with him. Nevertheless, Solitair has worked with many artists and even wrote songs for them.The International and 2011 Juno nominated producer, and songwriter, Silver Roland, is a positive Canadian role model who provides nothing but inspirational music to his fans around the world. On his website it says that his "upcoming full length release,The Departure, is aptly titled as it demonstrates Silver Roland’s musical evolution. The album defines Silver’s departure from predictable hip hop elements by fusing rock, pop, and alternative genres in his music. His album includes collaborations with heavy hitters such as Lil Wayne, Estelle, Nina Sky, and Kardinal Offishall. Silver Roland’s first single release, Come True, featuring Kardinal Offishall, marries the alternative 90s sound with hop hop. Solitair helped me introduce hip-hop performer Dan-E-O who brought some old school hip-hop flavour to the evening. Dan-E-O is no stranger to Regent Park as he has done music workshops with the kids. Dan-E-O has been in the hip hop industry for a while and even has a teamed up with artist Promise to form a duo called ‘Perfeck Strangers’.
Check out the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra0rJxXfiIs

The crowd was waving and dancing to his music. We also had some young dancers who performed in groups including South Side Swagg and a South Asian cultural dance group. Finally, we had the Snooky Times Family band bring some rhythm and SOUL to our event when they played some powerful funk music for the crowd. The crowd was jiving to the extemporaneous moves and music. Another special guest I invited was former City TV now CBC anchor and reporter Dwight Drummond. I am so glad Dwight came because he told me he had already committed to an engagement in the evening so he was not sure if he was going to make it. CBC also told me Dwight would not make it. Than at around 10p.m at night, I get an email from Dwight asking if he should dress up in a suit or be casual. I told him I was gonna dress up but he could wear what he was comfortable in. On the night of the event, I totally forgot about Dwight until halfway through someone told me Dwight was here. I was so excited because Dwight was a hit with the audience! Dwight is a huge influence in the media and is an amazing role model for people of color! Dwight was thrilled and excited to meet the families and support the youth in Regent Park. He truly cares about all of the communities for are wrongfully targeted. Dwight recognized Regent Park Focus does many exciting things for the youth in a community labelled “at risk” by society. Again, it was very appreciative to have Dwight take time out of his busy schedule and be a great role model in the media for the youth who look up to him as inspiration. Did I mention Dwight said I was pretty?! He’s in my good books! Love you man! I told Dwight to grab a cupcake and he did for his daughter. Dwight took a lot of pictures with community members and he even took time to talk to everyone. Overall, the night was jam packed with exciting moments.

As I mentioned above, CBC was there to cover a story about our event. Thank you CBC for covering our event. It means a lot to us when the media recognizes the work Regent Park Focus does and views of the Regent Park community in a positive portrayal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUHtfniB-ZI&feature=channel_video_title