REFLECTION & REASON

This week I was fortunate to be able to watch two really interesting hip hop documentaries. The first being "Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest" directed by Michael Rapaport, and the second was "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap" directed by legendary hip hop artist Ice T. Both easily kept my attention from beginning to end, and gave me a mini-refresher on the importance of remembering your roots, and also how powerful this culture was and continues to be. Surprisingly, I only found out about these movies through a random Netflix browse, although I wish I had caught them in the theatre with the extra audio boost and big screen. This could be because I live in Canada and they were on limited release...or it could be because they weren't heavily marketed. Nonetheless, it was great to see the stories being told, and re-told, and great to take the familiar stroll down musical memory lane with the artists I have grown to love ov...

It's been a sad week for children. Thinking about children, remembering being a child, thinking about parenthood, and just worrying about the future in general. The Sandy Hook Elementary School incident in Newtown, Connecticut has people around the globe thinking the same thing: why? Childhood is supposed to be a protected time. A time for joy, for laughter, for friendship, and play...love and warmth, and pleasantries. Not everyone is blessed to have a problem-free childhood, but the one thing that we can count on is innocence. If nothing else...your childhood is protected by an innocence and a hopefulness, truly because you don't know any better! So thinking about those children who perished, and those who had to witness the murders of their classmates, and hear the destruction of their peers, and live through the heartbreak of their community and neighbours is nothing short of devastating. Thinking about the innocence and hopefulness that was snatched away from ...

I love the media. It's no secret. I admittedly watch "E! News" daily to stay up with Hollywood, I watch those fabulous The Breakfast Club (Power 105.1) interviews regularly to keep up on what the hip hop and R&B world is saying, I check out TMZ online to see the breaking news, and I am awards show addict and Kardashian watcher. In short... I enjoy the worlds of music and entertainment. Immensely. But every now and then this feeling of disgust takes over, where I look at how completely terrible the spotlight/aka the "video light" can be, and what it does to the lives of otherwise innocent people who are really just trying to achieve their goals, live their lives, and make a few dollars in the process. Every now and then I am disguted by our media-hungry "society" (of which I am obviously first in line), and feel guilty for even caring about what happens in anyone's life outside of my Toronto circle. Like Kevin Clash. It was just a little ov...

I'm already a week late. Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire" album was released last Tuesday, November 27, yet I just heard it for the first time last night. I usually like to catch the albums of my favourite artists hot-off-the-press, but was glad that I had my first listen to it the way I did. I stumbled upon the video on YouTube: "Alicia Keys Premieres 'Girl On Fire' with Live G+ Hangout," and was locked in for a solid two hours at the unique in-studio listening session that was live streamed by Google on November 20th. Brilliant. While I would have really enjoyed catching the event in the moment, I was still pleased to be able to get the track-by-track breakdown from Ms. Keys herself as she sat in her New York studio, surrounded by friends, co-collaborators, and international online attendees (including ultra-sultry soul brothers, Maxwell and Miguel) to go through each song and take her fans watching online through the album's journey. ...

Kya Publishing was initially established to support the books I (Stacey Marie Robinson) have written and to provide an outlet for me to share these works with others, with the hopes of seeing Kya Publishing  develop into a natural home for other urban Canadian writers who have not yet established a place within the current Canadian literary market. I am a writer, and have been an “aspiring author” since adolescence. I had the ideas, the passion, and the determination, but was not always presented with an opportunity. The Toronto Urban Book Expo (TUBE) is my way of giving an opportunity to writers like myself, and including myself, so that we have a consistent venue to display our work, and share our art and voice with the greater society. The importance of being a supporting voice in the Canadian urban literary and cultural community was reinforced for me when I was invited to attend a Toronto Public Library event in celebration of Black-Canadian writers in February of 2010....