Our group’s activities this week was comprised of two parts: the articles and the tour. Elaborating on the former, we used the first half of our time together discussing articles that we can use to help shape what pictures we are going to take. Over the weekend, Michelle and Shayla compiled a total of nine news articles from sources such as The Star, The Globe and Mail, and The Toronto Sun. These articles touch upon different aspects of Regent Park. What draws them together, in terms of our project, is that they all have some hints of stigma and/or do not align with the residents’ lived experiences. One interesting conversation that happened during our article discussion relates to the restaurant, Paintbox Bistro. Early on in the semester before coming to Regent Park, the U of T students read an article by David Hayes, which highlighted the bistro as one of the signs that revitalization is working in Regent Park. Shayla also mentioned how Paintbox Bistro is talked about everywhere because it is one of the popular examples for a social enterprise in Toronto. Sumeya said that she and her friends never visited the bistro. Sahara, who is part of the Remember Regent group, also joined in and said that food there is very expensive. Both girls do not find it worthy of going to eat there, and they do not have an all too positive outlook about it. From this story, we get a sense that the media and the girls who live in the area have very contrasting opinions. This also highlights something we were seeing across different media articles — the news can be a powerful source of information and can make the public aware of a variety of different issues, but what is said in the media may not always be one hundred percent accurate.
After reviewing the articles, we asked Sumeya which places that she wanted to show us in reaction to the article that we had gone through. Unfortunately, Fazra was not able to join us this time because she had to go to a doctor’s appointment. After listing a few notable ones, the three of us are on our way to tour around Regent Park. One unique place we visited is called the “Art Wall.” It is a graffiti wall made in 2015 by Clandestinos as marked on the bottom right portion of the wall. After typing the name on Google, we found out that Clandestinos Art is an award-winning couple, who is very well known for their contribution in creating murals all over the world! The couple’s pseudonym is Smoky and Shalak. (Here’s Shalak’s website: https://www.shalakattack.com/, which includes the Clandestinos Art bio also). In the case of their creation at the Art Wall, it consisted of a few objects, including what is known as the Regent Park Eagle. What makes this eagle different is that it is blue. Sumeya also added that the eagle was said to come to Regent Park every summer (which she then, later on, stressed was only a story and that the eagle never really comes). We then also visited a field on the east end of the neighbourhood, she explained that it is always packed with activities during the summer. They hosted soccer matches there and even used the area for Eid last year. It was difficult to capture significant pictures that depict these positive stories because we are still enduring winter, harsh winds, and the cold weather. Although winter is ending, the cold weather still made it hard for us to see residents coming out to enjoy the field.
Here’s a little sneak peek of our progress, stay tuned for more!!
We then went back (before we froze to death!), and it gave us a short amount of time to discuss what we had obtained from this session. In regards to our intended audience for this media project, Sumeya’s answer was only one word: everyone. Instead of focusing on specific demographics, we aim to focus more on getting many people to see our media project and make Regent Park better known. This, in a way, is another goal that we hope to achieve, in addition to combating the stigmas that the mainstream media has depicted. Moving forward, Shayla and Michelle agreed to concentrate more on how to connect the news articles to the pictures that have been taken up to this point.
Shayla, Michelle, Sumeya, and Fazra are The Legacy Leavers.