Toronto Star Media Group has suspended publication of Sway magazine due to economic conditions which have resulted in weak advertising results. The final issue was the July 2012 edition currently on the stands.
Thank you for your interest in Sway over the years.
John Cruickshank
Publisher, Toronto Star
President, Star Media Group
Tamar-Melissa Huggins
By Takara Small
The recent tech revolution that propelled dot-com companies to billion dollar heights is still woefully lacking women and minorities. This is according to Tamar-Melissa Huggins, 26, creator of Driven Accelerator Group (DAG), a start-up firm that aims to finally give minorities their turn in the digital spotlight.
“Youth think that sports or entertainment is the only way to make money and that’s the problem,” says Huggins. “We all have Facebook, so we want people to think, ‘Hey, I want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.’”
These experts who act as mentors for the program represent not only the diversity they hope to achieve but some of the best tech specialists Canada has to offer. Among them are Amber MacArthur (tech journalist and strategist), Gladstone Grant (VP of Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Group) and Maggie Fox (founder and CEO of Social Media Group).
The all-encompassing nature of the experts who guide budding techies in building their dreams is something of which Huggins is incredibly proud, considering her entire business plan is based on helping minorities to succeed in their chosen field.
“It doesn’t make sense to encourage diversity if you don’t have anyone to look up to,” remarks Huggins after disclosing how diverse the group’s experts are. Applications for spots in the summer or fall program are invited in the following categories: mobile computing, mobile applications and consumer development.
The five companies chosen by the expert panel will have access to funding, mentorship and training, all in return for four per cent equity. It’s a different approach than other organizations that might charge higher fees or ask for a greater investment return, but for Huggins it’s not about the money. It’s about making a notable difference for the next generation. “I want to leave a legacy for my daughter,” she says. “I feel with Driven Accelerator Group I’m making a real difference.”
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Jay Douglas
By Agya Oppong-Kyekyeku
SWAY: How did you get your start in show business?
I’m from Jamaica and music is a part of the curriculum—so it’s with you every day. I was singing in primary school, public school and then I moved onto talent shows.
Q: What did those experiences teach you about being a singer and performer?
Those shows weren’t as big as American Idol but they taught us how to be smart on stage. When you were up front and the band made a mistake behind you, you weren’t allowed to turn back and look. You had to be accountable for it. It also helped me recognize the greatness in other artists like The Blue Notes, Tony Elias, Wilson Samuels and Tony Grey.
Q: You had the opportunity to connect with Bob Marley. What was that like?
He was just like any other brother I met, but now that I have gotten older and looked at the old times, it was for a very good reason. I looked at how he behaved in the studio with the rest of the Wailers and how focused he was. He had an incredible spirit. I will cherish it forever—in this life and the next life.
Q: What was the Caribbean music scene like when you were coming up in Toronto?
At that time, rocksteady was huge and they had a club called The West Federation. That was where everybody would meet on the weekends. I was singing with a band called The Cougars and we were the house band there. We were just one big happy family. It shaped the community. After rocksteady came reggae and it never stopped. I also remember Club Jamaica, the Colonel Club, the Embassy Club, the Fabric and Starfire. Man, you had to look sharp, look beautiful. A lot of good things were happening downtown.
Q: You’re known as an artist who really blends Canadian and Caribbean sensibilities. On your latest disc, Lover’s Paradise, you reinterpreted Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. How did that happen?
One day, a friend of mine put a CD in my hand and told me to listen. It was “Hallelujah” by the great writer Len Cohen from Montreal. I knew right then and there I was going to slap in some reggae to the song. I went to Jamaica, did the track, came back up here and finished it off. This album has helped my career so much and was nominated for a Juno. Just listen for yourself and I’m sure it’ll make you feel good!
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By david singh
Marcia Brown has been involved in Toronto theatre productions for 12 years. She puts out a new play annually, usually around Father’s Day weekend, and wraps it up shortly after. But things are different with her latest production, I Need To Know My Father. “We are still running,” says Brown. “In all my years of doing plays in the city, this has never happened before. This is my longest running play.”
I Need To Know My Father opened in June 2011 and has only been gaining steam since. It’s had such resonance that local community groups and churches are inviting Brown to perform the play in their spaces.
Father tells the story of a teenage girl who was born out of wedlock. Not knowing anything about her father, the details of her conception are also kept from her. As a result, she wrestles with a range of emotions.
The production, which is steeped in Jamaican culture, is Brown’s baby. Not only is it the first play she’s ever written, but directed, produced and acts in. “I do everything, the whole nine yards,” she says with a laugh.
Brown’s theatre career has been slowly arcing to its current zenith.
Born in Saint Ann, Jamaica, she was introduced to the craft at a young age. She cut her teeth working in LTM Pantomime, a premier Jamaican theatre company, where she developed a zeal for the trade. “Once I hit the stage in the Pantomime, I knew that’s where I wanted to be,” she says.
After coming to Canada in 1989, Brown continued to pursue her passion, writing comedy skits and performing at small functions. In 2000, she produced her first full-length play, Country Duppy. She’s put out a number of productions since, including Feminine Justice, Rosetta and Wipe That Smile.
But with Father, Brown drew from her own experiences to pen the script. “I didn’t know my father,” she says. “Some of the stuff that comes out in the play may be my own subconscious thoughts that I never got to ask my own mother.” Although Brown says she grew up in a “loving environment” and not knowing her father didn’t bother her, the catharsis came about with the pen in her hand. “There were some things there that I never touched, but the minute I started to write the play, it came out. I drew on my family experiences and also things that I’ve seen from … children who don’t know their father.”
Despite limited resources, Brown says Father has been exposing her to a new, more culturally diverse crowd. She’s currently working on a sequel, which she hopes to launch on Father’s Day weekend 2013. In the meantime, Brown wants to make sure the message is heard loud and clear.
“The play talks about forgiveness,” she says. “It has so many messages. For young people who are hankering to know who their father is, it will give them insight into how to go about doing it. Parents will also get insight on how to deal with their kids when they ask. Not to shut them down, but to understand where they are coming from.”
Recently, the Jamaica 50 publication committee recognized Marcia Brown for her contributions to Canada. She was one of 250 Jamaican-Canadians highlighted in the book When Ackee Meets Codfish.
Brown gives back to the community, awarding bursaries each year to post-secondary arts students.
For more on Brown, visit marciabrownproductions.com
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By david singh
Forget that Chantel Riley didn’t have any professional acting experience and had never spoken a word of German in her life. There she was, set to head to Hamburg, where she would audition for the role of Nala in the German version of The Lion King musical, after making a strong impression on the creators of the award-winning production during a Toronto casting call.
This gave Riley, who is of Jamaican descent and grew up in Toronto, only two days to learn a German song that she would have to perform during her audition. “I was listening to this song all day,” says Riley, 25. “When I was in my car, when I was at home, on my laptop, whatever chance I got, I was listening to that song.”
Riley’s method proved successful as she nabbed the role of Nala, but her work was far from done. She was given a phonetics teacher to help her learn the new language—an experience she counts as the most trying of her career.
“For six weeks of training and rehearsals, I was learning the script in German,” she says. “I would be in there for four hours, going over the same lines over and over again, getting the right diction and learning how to say the vowels properly. I was doing that every day just to make sure I was ready for my premiere night.”
Ready she certainly was and Riley went on to play Nala for 14 months in Germany before returning to Toronto this past April. That’s an impressive feat for someone whose only previous performance credits included her church’s Easter and Christmas productions.
“When Chantel first auditioned for us, there was an incredible truthful raw quality about her,” says Canadian John Stefaniuk, associate director for Disney’s The Lion King, worldwide. “We were so impressed with the way she handled the material … There is a beautiful blend of vulnerability and strength that is truly intoxicating when watching Chantel. You can’t help but become totally enthralled by her performance.”
Stefaniuk and The Lion King producers were so impressed with Riley that they recently asked her to reprise her role in the New York production of the play. “It’s huge to be a part of a production like that,” Riley says. “It’s still sinking in because it’s a shock for me. There are so many amazing, talented people in New York, and the fact that I’m going to be there is crazy. I’m excited. It’s definitely been able to set me up for the future. They say once you do Broadway, everything else will just come so easily.”
Riley’s run as Nala on Broadway is set to begin in late summer.
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Patrick Deane
By M. Boateng
Although it may come as a surprise to many, Hamilton, Ont. has just become one of Canada’s forerunners in the preservation of Jamaican-Canadian culture—thanks to the donation of the Miss Lou archives to McMaster University.
The archives, donated by the Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley Estate through trustees Fabian Coverley and Pamela Appelt, date from the latter part of Miss Lou’s life, and reflect her roles as a writer, performer and a promoter of Jamaican language.
“McMaster has become a public institution with a very diverse profile,” says McMaster University President Dr. Patrick Deane. “The relationship between McMaster and the Jamaican community has always been strong, and our relations have been strengthened by our institution taking on the responsibility of looking after and disseminating Miss Lou’s archives. This was a very proud moment for the university. We feel that we have been entrusted with a very important piece of Jamaican heritage and we take that very seriously.” The university also plans to grow its relationships with Jamaican organizations and academic institutions, with several projects currently in the developmental stages.
For Deane, academic institutions play a critical role in helping communities to retain important foundational knowledge that is connected with the past. He also believes that historical archives can help guide students toward an informed understanding of present day situations, and provide the reference points necessary for future decision making.
“I think that a university has a critical role to play,” says Deane. “Our culture at large is inconsistent at preserving things that matter, especially in a culture as diverse as ours. I think if you go back and look at the history of our university, or any university, you will see that a part of what they have existed to do is to retain the memory of cultural and social history for the benefit and illumination of subsequent generations.”
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Lillie Johnson
By Stephanie Pollard
Working in nursing, a field that was considered to be one of the most prejudiced in the 1950s and ’60s, Lillie Johnson decided not only was she going to stay but that she would also make an impact. That is exactly what she did by founding the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario.
Sway: What was your first impression of Canada when you arrived from Jamaica?
Lillie Johnson: I came to Canada in June 1960. I was a traveller then. I had gone to England and Scotland and spent seven years there. Then I went back home then went to the United States and came from the United States to Toronto. I knew there would be quite a bit of difference but Canada was different because the kind of prejudice I met was so subtle.
What lessons from Jamaica have helped you thrive in Canada?
If I wasn’t Jamaican, I don’t think I would have survived as well as I have. The lessons I learned was that I am a human being regardless of my colour and if you believe in yourself, you stand up for the truth. I knew I was here for an opportunity and I wasn’t letting anybody send me home. If the prejudice is so bad, I will take my slippers, dust off my feet and move on. That was what we, those who came to Canada from Jamaica in those times, did.
What advice do you give to Jamaicans settling in Canada today?
Speak up! Although you might be told, ‘You’re too qualified for a job,’ speak up. But you have to maintain your integrity. You have to go to school and you have to have your skills and go out there and apply for the job.
By Saada Branker
The island of Montreal has an internationally known port overlooking a river—not Caribbean waters. But that minor detail never dissuaded Gemma Raeburn-Baynes from organizing Montreal’s 12th annual Taste of the Caribbean (TOTC).
Each year, the festival raises funds in support of TOTC’s scholarship program for youth who might otherwise never get an opportunity to excel in culinary arts. In late spring, more than 850 food lovers converged in Old Montreal’s historic Marché Bonsecours to bolster Raeburn-Baynes’ commitment to her “kids.” Among the foodies were celebrity chefs from as far as St. Croix, St. Thomas Virgin Islands, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and Jamaica. Hosted by Raeburn-Baynes, the chefs showcased all that their sunshine islands offer—not just in food, but in culinary arts.
Raeburn-Baynes says she got lucky when Jamaica’s Chef Anthony Mair happily accepted her invitation to TOTC. Mair recently moved from Toronto, returning to his island of birth. From Negril, he and a team of chefs launched the Caribbean Culinary Network (CCN). The CCN’s mission is to provide the necessary tools to culinary students throughout the Caribbean so that they can advance globally in culinary arts.
“Anthony Mair did an excellent job,” says Raeburn-Baynes, before noting that the chef came with a wider palette so that people could appreciate the variety and history of what the Caribbean offers in its cuisine. “He prepared a different kind of food—not just curry goat and rice and peas, which is what we’re used to seeing in Caribbean menus.”
For his part, Mair says he arrived at TOTC ready to school his team of first-year students from Montreal’s St. Pius X Culinary Institute that there’s more to “Caribbean food” than heat and spices. What they prepared together boasted fresh ingredients that were indigenous to local Caribbean markets and farms, including four different types of curry, ginger, coconut, ackee and yellow yam.
From him, the Canadian culinary students also learned creative menu ideas. “The students were outstanding,” says Mair. “They were respectful, receptive and communicated well.” They also admitted to their Jamaican chef that they had expectations of being “gophers or dishwashers,” but were pleasantly surprised to get hands-on experience. “It was great,” says Mair. “They told me the next time they planned their own menus they would incorporate Caribbean ingredients to bringout more flavour in their foods.”
Mair says his own expectations of TOTC were to foster dialogue. The CCN is looking to create exchange programs that would bring Jamaican students to destinations abroad, he explains. “It would help them to really see our local ingredients are in many respects just as good or superior in their freshness and flavour as those in the rest of the world. They don’t see that now.”
For information on Montreal’s TOTC scholarship program, visit atasteofthecaribbean.ca. To learn more about The CNN, visit facebook.com/caribbeanculinarynetwork
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You’d be right to think that a professional belly dancer would have no problem baring it all, but Joanna Williams (who is also a baker) wasn’t always so brave.
“Even just a couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have done this,” she says. “But I’m starting to do what I want to do as opposed to what I feel I should do, so why the hell not?” And don’t forget the keepsake factor: “I want to be able to look back fondly and say, ‘Grandma looked good!’”
Power Moves
“I was chunky as a teen and when I started to do martial arts, I slimmed down a bit. But what I really loved was the development of strength and the feeling of strength through the practice. What gives me confidence is feeling strong and fit, as opposed to feeling skinny. Now, I get a sense of strength from yoga, and a sense of fluidity and poise from dance.”
Belly Beautiful
“Belly dancing helps you become more in tune with your body, and the costumes make you get used to being more exposed. You become more comfortable overall. But in particular, it emphasizes the movement of your body, not the shape. It’s more about using what you have and your strengths to express yourself, and less about fitting a certain image. You learn to project yourself and embrace all that you are.”
Hot Off the Press
“I’ve told everyone I know about doing this shoot! They’ve all been positive reactions. My dance friends are very enthusiastic and want to see it the minute it comes out! And my boyfriend was very supportive, too.”
Sway Body Beauty Tip
The only way to get your glow on is with the most coveted bronzing lotion known to woman: Scott Barnes Body Bling Original, 120 ml, $45, murale.ca. Created by the makeup master behind Jennifer Lopez’s legendary ‘lit from within’ look, you can trust that it’s just the thing to make you sensationally sun-kissed from head to toe.
Photography Alexis Finch
Makeup & hair Suzy ‘Blush’ Boswell, @blushtheartist
BEAUTY EDITOR INGRIE WILLIAMS
This Yasmin Warsame look-a-like is one busy woman: a commercial property manager by day, paralegal student at night and a part-time model. Even with her hectic schedule, she agreed to pose for us on a moment’s notice when another participant couldn’t make it.
Why?
“Alexis is an amazing photographer, I trust her,” she says. “She was the first person to shoot me and it’s because of her that I ever even thought of modelling. I also said yes because Sway has stature and I knew that the images were going to be something I’d be proud of.”
Hello Strangers, Goodbye Clothes
“The camaraderie on set was my favourite part of the shoot. I only knew Alexis, but the vibe was relaxed, progressive and mature. That really helped me to project what I needed to in front of the camera, especially without any clothes on. A positive environment enables you to produce good work.”
Seeing Stars
“When I was younger, I didn’t feel comfortable with my body at all. In my teenage years, I thought my nose and lips were too big, and it was seeing strong Black women like Mel. B from the Spice Girls, that helped me.
Aaliyah was also an amazing inspiration because people said she had no hips or no butt and her lips were big, and she just was who she was and worked with it. I’ve grown into myself and come to realize that this is the way I look and as long as I present myself in an optimal condition, I should be comfortable with it.”
Say Spa
“Ever since I was a kid, before I knew what a spa was, I would spend hours in the bathroom exfoliating, toning, moisturizing and coming out with really soft skin or nice nails. Those things surround me now like a comforter. No matter what I’m wearing, I can touch my skin or look down and see my nails, and have happy thoughts. And that projects on the outside.”
Sway Body Beauty Tip:
Ladies, all the lotion in the world can’t work its magic against a barrier of dead skin cells. Make gently sloughing off that outer layer a regular ritual with a body scrub that boasts skin-friendly particles that get the job done without being overly harsh, like H2O+ Spa Sea Marine Body Scrub, 240ml, $28, h2o-plus.ca.