Results tagged “africanamerican”

Beyond the month of February, it is not often that Torontonians have a public opportunity to celebrate their city’s black legacy. But they’ll get one this weekend at the 15th annual Marcus Garvey Celebrations. The celebrations, which honour the iconic Jamaican American revolutionary, will this year also pay tribute to Torontonians Lucie and Thornton Blackburn in commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in Ontario.

Yesterday, thousands of University of Toronto students took to the front campus to protest the University's policy of allowing graduating students to bring no more than two guests to their Convocation ceremony. Their attempt at revolution fell short, and the policy stands.

If today’s column title gets Rachel Sweet’s Hairspray stuck in your head for the rest of the day, good! Because then we’ll have made our point that the version of Hairspray hitting this weekend isn’t as good as the John Waters original. Though the music not being as good is only part of it. There’s also the inherent irony about making a musical in which one of the central themes is integration through a shared love of largely-African American music that features only music written by a couple of white dudes. Hell, the irony of just making a musical about that. Musicals are basically the whitest form of entertainment we can imagine.

The youth offerings of IFOA get under way today and run through the end of the school week. Oriented mainly to school groups, Young IFOA readings feature international authors representing a variety of perspectives and books intended for a range of ages, from picture books and early readers, to young adult fare. Stay-at-home parents and regressive hipsters may also find much to amuse and educate. Tickets are $15.