REFLECTION & REASON

I just HAD to visit Jamaica for carnival this year . There was no question about it. Ever since the carnival bug hit me during a 2006 "girl's trip" to Miami Carnival, the international phenomenon captured my spirit and had me doing weird and new things like listening to soca music, and playing mas...BUILDING mas, and diving head first into Toronto Carnival. I fell so hard that people close to me didn't know what was going on! In fact, many of them STILL question this niche obsession I have. But, I digress. Like any carnival enthusiast will declare: "You HAVE to experience Trinidad, though!" Admittedly, I have been hesitant. I've seen the pictures, the videos, the fetes, and the costumes. I've heard the stories, and experienced the second-hand enthusiasm and extreme passion that people have for Trinidad Carnival. But still, I hesitated. Jamaican in heritage, I always promised myself that I would NOT touch down on Trinidadian soil for carnival u...

Since the age of twelve, Kamilah Haywood has been crafting stories based on the realities she has witnessed, growing up in the Canadian city of Toronto. She did not choose to be a writer, or intentionally design her life to be an urban author with a unique perspective on the world class city she calls home. Writing chose her...and even now, she is not sure why. The first author to sign to independent Canadian publishing company, Kya Publishing , Kamilah is ready to have her literary voice recognized as a contemporary communicator of Toronto's urban culture. Though categorized as an "urban fiction" author formally, Kamilah's work is literary treasure, as she encapsulates and personifies a sector of Canadian life not often exposed through literature or pop culture. Diverse by nature, the city of Toronto is visibly filled with community members of all nationalities. Anyone who visits Toronto or rides the TTC (Toronto's transit system) for the day can clearly ob...

I grew up listening to Byron Lee. There was Byron Lee...and there was Bob Marley. Definitely a big deal. And then of course there was Ashford & Simpson, Whitney Houston, and countless other disco, pop, and soul artists that were playing in my household in the early 80s. Blondie. Music was music, and good music was good music. But of the most memorable artists, one of them was definitely Byron Lee. He was raised in Manchester parish, as were my parents. Born in my dad's hometown of Christiana in 1935, and he trained in music in my mother's hometown of Mandeville . The son of an Afro-Jamaican mother, and a Chinese father, Byron Lee was a young athlete and member of the Jamaican national soccer team before his deep journey into music began. It was while playing for his college soccer team "The Dragonaires" that Byron and his teammate Carl Brady claimed the name for their new band. They began playing ska and mento, but it was in calypso music that they found...