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...

I saw Dave Chappelle perform live in Toronto back in 2006 at Massey Hall, and can't believe it's been a little over ten years since the peak of my love and appreciation for this comedic artist. I made sure I purchased those tickets the second they went on sale, and remember how difficult it was to catch a glimpse of this superstar at that time. He was hotter than hot, and I was happy to be in the audience downtown taking part in that experience. Like most fans of Chappelle's Show remember, it was tough when the program came off the air because we all felt a gap in comedy for a minute. In "black" comedy in particular. There was a void that took a long time to fill. Gone were the days of laughing hysterically, and repeating lines by heart. There were hardly any other hilarious shows left on TV. Times were hard. Eventually, Kevin Hart took over and refreshed our smiles as the comic-of-the-moment, but Dave was one of a kind . He was then, and he is now. A...

Hip hop artist HAJJI BLACKSTONE is releasing his first solo project, entitled " Lil Senegal " and is proud to highlight the Harlem location characterized by a large concentration of Senegalese and West African residents. A Senegalese-American, Hajji has been a musician for years , participated in various group projects and group albums, but "Lil Senegal" will be his debut as an independent artist, and he couldn't have picked a more timely moment in history to highlight the immigrant story, and the cross-section of American dreams. He's lived in America since the early 90's, and identifies most with the New York City/east coast lifestyle although he now resides in California, and grew up in the D.C. area. Despite there being various Senegalese communities in different states across the U.S., Hajji feels that the closest thing to Senegal on the continent, is the New York neighbourhood referenced in his project. Challenging himself to a different soni...

I fell in love with carnival culture. Unexpectedly. And then I wrote a book about Carnival in Toronto . Out of necessity. My parents are Jamaicans, and didn't grow up "playing mas" or "jumping up" in costume to celebrate emancipation, crop over, their culture, or the countless other reasons that individuals participate in carnival around the world. It wasn't until they moved to Toronto where they decided to take part in the tradition of carnival, otherwise known as "Caribana," and bring my siblings and I downtown to University Avenue to watch the colourful procession of masqueraders, costumes, steel pan bands, and the delicate constructions of Caribbean elation . We celebrated our Jamaican culture in other ways: with oral traditions, foods, social practices, music, literature, movies, and visits "back home"...and carnival was never a huge part of that experience. But like other young adults and teenagers in Toronto, when you'r...

Dave Chappelle's making his highly anticipated post-SNL television comeback there, Neal Brennan has a stand-up comedy special circulating there now...and Netflix wins . Big time. I stumbled upon " 3 Mics " by accident, after watching Brennan's promotional interview with Charlemagne and the gang on the The Breakfast Club. His stand up special has been on Netflix for a little under three weeks now, and it's really, really good. I'm a fan of Brennan by default . In fact, any fan of the Dave Chappelle show (that Brennan co-wrote, co-produced, and directed with his best friend from 2003 to 2005) has already been predisposed to like his thought processes, and have already spent countless hours laughing at his comedy sketches and sense of humour . Repeatedly. For years. What else has Brennan written? He wrote for "Keenan and Kel," for "All That," for a show called "Singled Out," and of course also for the 1997 movie " Ha...