André Alexis: the puzzle of “home” | Closeup By Donna Yawching | Issue 150 (March/April 2018) Born in Trinidad, brought up in Canada, writer André Alexis is a “Nowherian” — and that complicated identity, along with his passion for exploring big ideas, drives his philosophical and deeply literary novels. A recent string of awards has raised his international profile, but as Donna Yawching learns, it was no overnight success for one of the most original writers in both Caribbean and Canadian literature
Richard Fung: no easy readings By Jonathan Ali | Issue 141 (September/October 2016) Born in Trinidad, based in Canada, navigating between identities — gay, Chinese-descended, Caribbean diaspora — filmmaker Richard Fung was “intersectional” before the term even existed, writes Jonathan Ali, and his complicated background informs his pioneering, innovative work
Toronto: summer in the city By Donna Yawching | Issue 134 (July/August 2015) Home to one of North America’s biggest Caribbean populations, Toronto comes alive in the summertime, with festivals, street fairs, and — this year — the Pan Am Games. Some of the city’s Caribbean residents give Donna Yawching their advice on the best of Toronto, from music to food to outdoor fun
Sandra Brewster: the shape of a name By Nicholas Laughlin | Issue 121 (May/June 2013) For Guyanese-Canadian artist Sandra Brewster, the phone book, with its long lists of names, sums up the way individual lives can disappear into
Kobo Town: sing the beloved country By Donna Yawching | Issue 120 (March/April 2013) Based in Toronto but drawing on the musical traditions of Trinidad, Kobo Town fuses old-time calypso with up-to-the-moment poetic lyrics.
Hot Shoppe in a cold country By Debbie Jacob | Issue 112 (November/December 2011) It’s not just homesick and hungry West Indians who visit this Caribbean outpost in Canada. Debbie Jacob finds out why
Anton Gabriel: the man with the golden boots By Donna Yawching | Issue 107 (January/February 2011) T&T Carnival now has a home in the east end of Toronto, where Anton Gabriel has founded his own museum of mas. Donna Yawching dropped by
Rhythms International rocks By Garry Steckles | Issue 106 (November/December 2010) Radio DJ Angus Mackay is spreading the gospel of world music, one Iraqi at a time. Garry Steckles is a convert to the cause
‘Round breakfast By Donna Yawching | Issue 103 (May/June 2010) Early-morning jazz music is a specialty at Ellington’s café in Toronto. Donna Yawching samples the menu
Buljol, business and books By Mirissa De Four | Issue 87 (September/October 2007) A friendship formed over a plate of bake and buljol has resulted in the establishment of A Different Booklist, a Canadian bookstore
Hurricane Harold helps out By Donna Yawching | Issue 78 (March/April 2006) When Trinidadian-Canadian Harold Hosein visited Cuba in 2002, he noticed how many people were riding 50-year-old bicycles...
Frances Anne Solomon: Beating the System By Bruce Paddington | Issue 36 (March/April 1999) Bruce Paddington on the career of young Caribbean film-maker Frances Anne Solomon
Trinidad’s Stephen Ames: Seeing Green By Mark Meredith | Issue 32 (July/August 1998) Stephen Ames is putting Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean on the golfing map. Mark Meredith finds out how it all started
Sandra Dean: Rethinking Education By Pat Ganase | Issue 31 (May/June 1998) How does the sheltered daughter of a suburban community in Trinidad come to be one of the most decorated principals in Canada?
Trinidad Mas: Carnival of the World By Pat Ganase | Issue 12 (Winter 1994) More than a hundred cities and countries around the world now stage Trinidad-style Carnivals
The Bellairs Research Institute: Finding the Answers By Roxan Kinas | Issue 11 (Autumn 1994) The work of McGill University's Caribbean-based research institute in Barbados
