“Exploring African Roots Through a 21st Century Perspective” is the theme for this year’s Kuumba Festival. More than just an exhibit, Kuumba offers an in-depth look into African culture and seeks to make connections between the past and the present.

The expansive white space of the Power Plant Gallery gives the show of new black and white photography a dramatic and theatrical kind of presence that adds to its impact.

Nayani Vathsaladevi-Thiyagarajah is an up and coming filmmaker of important documentaries such as Shadeism – a short film that explores the issue of skin colour and discrimination within the African, Caribbean, and South Asian diasporas.

The show features the work of 20 Egyptian artists and designers who were asked to express their thoughts and feelings on Cairo on 20cm x 20cm canvasses. It’s not a lot of space to get a message across but the talented group displays a thought provoking range of ideas which are displayed in a grid along one of the walls of the café.

Toronto-based visual artist Eye Candy Kamel has been depicting black men as she sees them: beautiful. One of her creative goals is to capture the essence of the African male through her celebrity portraits, which feature artists such as Drake, J Cole and Jay Z.

Artists took over the downtown streets to wheat paste and construct their various displays in the three designated zones along Yonge Street, from Bloor Street to Queens’ Quay East.

Beside Egypt and around the corner from Rome is where you’ll find the Galleries of Africa: Nubia at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). It’s a location that makes sense in both geographic and historical terms, and the gallery is one of four that just opened in the summer of 2011.

Nation Cheong recently made his photography debut at the ROM, which showcases an archive of photos that provide retrospective look at the history of Caribana in Toronto and legacy of Carnival more generally.

Magic Squares is an imaginative exhibition that begins with the “magic square” concept and then looks at its application and added meaning in African Muslim cultures and beyond.

Belinda Barrocks, AKA Kamshuka, is a socially conscious superstar artist in the making. Her photography work has toured all over Canada as well as in the Bahamas and South Africa. She describes her amazing work as “the interpretation of her heart” through creative and unique images.