Firstly, our group has exciting news to share from this week: we have gained a new member! We would like to take the time to introduce Marwa. She is a girl living in the Regent Park community who will be working closely with us on our podcast/radio show media project. We are super excited to have her on board!
The goal for this week was to finalize the outline for the first episode of our project. We allocated specific roles to each of the members. This was done for organizational purposes; so each member is clear on what they are responsible for. But this is also done so that each individual can use their own strengths and interests, and bring these talents together to create a strong final project. The roles are now as follows:
Faduma Hagi: Artistic Coordinator
Katie Glancy: Liason and Host
Marwa Hassan: Music Operations
Anita Ifeadi: Administrative Director
Our plan is to begin recording episode one of our podcast on Thursday March 14th. We hope to get all or most of the episode recorded this day. This is necessary to do early as we would like to potentially get this show picked up and broadcasted at a radio network. Our first podcast episode can act as a draft or a pitch for this purpose. The subject of our first episode is Gang Violence and Rap culture.
We intend for this podcast to be for a general audience. Issues and discussions we talk about in the show will be sourced out of Regent Park. We intend on talking specifically about the Regent Park experience, at least in the first episode. However, the general topics of the show revolve around issues that are prevalent to all of Toronto. We will encourage those from all areas in Toronto to engage with the show.
The underlying goal is to broaden a narrative of policing and safety, particularly within Regent Park. This means discussing with individuals from the community what policing and safety means to them. As our first episode centers on gang violence, we want to explore how violence in the community affect’s community member’s perception of safety. How do responses (police or otherwise) to such violence help or hinder these feelings of safety? In what ways does the community talk about safety, and experiences of violence and policing? How affective are modes of communication at giving the community a voice on the topic of policing and safety?
For our first episode, we want to explore these questions by interviewing a few rappers from the Regent Park community. We want to talk about their experiences living in the community. However, of particular importance, we want to talk about how these experiences can be shared through their own music and media. What experiences do or don’t they share? What stories do they want to tell? Who are the audiences they would like to reach? What are the perceptions of them from other people in the community? What messages would they like us to share?
YB TAK30VER & Drizzzy are rappers from the Regent Park Neighborhood that we hope to be in contact with. This is an instrumental sample of their work!
The goal for our first episode is to potentially interview two rappers. This week we sent messages to a number to see who would be available for interview. There is also the potential to do an interview with either Faduma and/or Marwa to discuss their experiences living in the community. What do they think of violence and policing in the community? What factors influence their feelings of safety?
Our week was successful in organizing and planning our podcast and podcast topics. In addition to these interview segments, we also have other segments planned in our podcast which aim to educate the public on the Regent Park community and on safety and policing as a whole. We have a “did you know” segment planned for our podcast where we can share important and interesting information of the neighborhood. We also plan to feature music from the neighborhood, including any music from the rappers being interviewed. We hope to next week be able to share some samples of this week’s recordings! Until then, stay tuned!
The On Air Police is comprised of Faduma Hagi, Anita Ifeadi, Marwa Hassan, and Katie Glancy.