REFLECTION & REASON

I feel it was a big weekend for Toronto dancehall. A couple of days have passed, and I realize it felt significant enough for me to keep processing what just happened. Two things in particular: 1) Spice performed for the Pride festivities during Pride weekend in Toronto. 2) King Turbo 's founding members reunited on stage at the Canada History Clash. It's possible that either event just passed you by this weekend. With the amount of outdoor functions, gatherings, pool parties, fetes, boat rides, and dancehall events, you truly could have been out celebrating the first week of summer with all of the energy and vibrancy you've been holding on to for months. Years. Last summer we were free, but this summer...we're FREE free. You could feel the vibration it in the air...folks in Toronto are ready to have a good time for the next two months, by any means necessary. I saw the footage of Spice performing live at Dundas Square, and it made me smile. It made me feel proud. I was...

CARNIVAL SPOTLIGHT (2014) by SM Robinson Paperback | Ebook I wrote this book as a follow up to " Video Light " and the lives of the main characters Delia and Ryan Wright. An admirer of Sister Souljah's writing , I truly appreciated how she would take various characters from her books, and develop them independently at another space in time. I loved the way that readers had the opportunity to follow up with characters later in life, and continue the fictional journey with them in another book. In writing "Carnival Spotlight" I wanted to explore Delia and Ryan's relationship and whether or not it was capable of evolving. In 2014, I was also headpiece-deep in the production and administration of Toronto's Caribbean Carnival with one of the city's larger masquerade bands, the Toronto Revellers , and I would often observe the social aspects of mas making and marvel at how unique and niche the experience really was. Participating in Toronto Carnival as a...