CaribbeanTales is...


CaribbeanTales is an innovative multimedia project producing educational films, audio programmes and new media products that reflect the rich tradition of Caribbean-heritage storytelling.

Our projects include CaribbeanTales.ca, our quarterly E-newsletter featuring profiles of Caribbean storytellers, cultural commentary as well as news and events; LiteratureAlive, a multimedia project that includes documentaries, audio books, and an educational website, all profiling Canadian-Caribbean authors; CRICK-CRACK! a Writing Contest for young people Grades 9-12; the CaribbeanTales Annual Film Festival, and more!

We plan to document the diverse histories that make up the Caribbean, to tell all the rich stories that never reached our school history books. This website also hopes to evolve into a highly interactive meeting and recording place for different kinds of people of Caribbean heritage and all those who have gone on to make (often unsung) contributions to Caribbean life.

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About Us

Get to know the people behind the CaribbeanTales project, and the organisations that support us.

Artistic Director, Founder
Frances-Anne Solomon

Company Directors
Frances-Anne Solomon
Anthony Hall
Ramabai Espinet
Denise Jackson
Robin Foster
Sharon Nathaniel
Anne Marie Stewart
Andrea Smart

Advisors
Debbie Burke Benn
Dr.Rita Cox
Dr. Yvonne Bobb-Smith

Staff:
General Manager
Susan Fueg

Production Co-ordinator
Jeff Beadle

Audio Producer
Leonie Forbes

Assistant Manager/Business Support
Malik Hussein

Website Administrator
Seyed Davari

Associates:
Regan Macaulay
Lana Lovell
Kevin Risk
Mauri Hall

Partners

Gayelle The Channel
University of Toronto Caribbean Studies Programme
York University Caribbean & Latin American Studies Programme

Funders

Ontario Trillium Foundation
Department of Canadian Heritage
Canadian Race Relations Foundation
Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund
Cultural Human Resources Council












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Feedback Corner

Hear what you've been saying about CaribbeanTales!

Your newsletter is awesome, marvelous, and extremely informative! It is wonderful to have our information thus collated. I can imagine when it is developed to its fullest. Thank you for letting me be a lil part of the action! Give Praise!

Dr. Yvonne Bobb-Smith, PhD, Lecturer in
Caribbean Studies at Ryerson University

How exciting to receive your newsletter in my email. What a wonderful idea! I agree completely that there has been too wide a gap between the voices of Caribbean Canadian scholars and Caribbean Canadian people. It is a chasm I seek to bridge with my own criticism in the popular press and it is very reassuring indeed to see academics reaching out in this manner. In fact, it is thrilling and so very long overdue. God bless you in your endeavour and let Caribbean Tales become an enduring site of inspiration and support for our people.

Donna Bailey Nurse,
Author, What's a Black Critic To Do?

Great idea to do an electronic newsletter. It looks good, is nicely designed and easy to navigate, it is full of information and must be a LOT of work! You sure are keeping busy....lots of luck to you!!

Andra Sheffer, Executive Director of Bell New Media

Congratulations! The newsletter is very good.

Anne Marrian, Program Director,
Canadian Race Relations Foundation

I am the principal of a small progressive private high school in Toronto and I look forward to encouraging my students to read Caribbean Tales too. I think the kind of story telling you promote, where oral history comes alive in the voices of the rememberers, is very important, especially in a country like Canada, struggling to contain and to welcome all of us from all over, and make a rich new culture by the mix.

Dr. Meg Fox, Principal,
The Dragon Academy, Toronto

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LiteratureAlive

Documentaries, Audio Books, an educational website, a writing competition, and more!



LiteratureAlive was launched in December 2004, during an event at the Trane Studio, Toronto. There we announced our aim to produce documentaries, audio books, radio programmes and an educational website, showcasing the rich wealth of Caribbean published Literature

Two years on, here are the fruit of our labours:

Literature Alive Documentaries

Literature Alive Audio Books

LiteratureAliveOnline

LiteratureAlive on CBC Radio



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Audio Books

To purchase your personal copies of these products please visit out E-store

If you would like to buy a copy that includes public performance rights, for use in your school, library, university or other institution, please download our Educational Catalogue.
2005-2006 Audio Books Catalogue
Our first series of audio books by Caribbean authors was completed in July 2006, and we're hoping to produce many more. We welcome your feedback on these productions.

Skin Folk - A Collection of Short Stories by Nalo Hopkinson
Skin Folk is a vibrant collection of short fiction that ranges from Trinidad to Toronto, from fantastic folklore to frightening futures, from houses of deadly haunts to realms of dark sexuality. With these tales Nalo Hopkinson explores the surface of modern existence and delves under the skin of eternal legends.
"Rollicking, sensual...Required reading...[from] one of science fiction's most inventive and brilliant writers." – The New York Post

The Swinging Bridge - A Novel by Ramabai Espinet
When Mona returns to Trinidad to reclaim her family’s land, she must confront the hidden secrets of a winding personal history begun on the Indian continent almost two centuries ago. Steeped in the rhythms and lyrical lilt of Caribbean life, this exquisite novel from Ramabai Espinet explores the Indo-Caribbean immigrant experience with compassion and humour.

This Body - A Novel by Tessa McWatt
After the death of her sister, Victoria becomes the guardian of her 8 year-old nephew Derek. These two strangers struggle to connect, despite individual concerns: Victoria is still grieving a lost love; Derek is preoccupied with finding his unknown father. Moving evocatively between London, Toronto, and Guyana, This Body is enriched by recipes, letters, and legends, resulting in an astonishingly wise novel about love in a world cross-cut by old wounds.

Gardening In The Tropics - Poems by Olive Senior

Gardening In the Tropics is a collection of poetry that digs deep into the land, culture, and history of the Caribbean, and stirs up thorny issues such as colour consciousness, class-consciousness, and racism. Olive Senior is at once satirical and profound, wry and heartbreaking, allowing language to blossom in refreshing and wonderful ways.


My Mother's Last Dance - A Collection Of Poems by Honor Ford Smith
In this powerful, humourous, and tremendously moving collection of poems, Honor Ford Smith weaves together a commemorative work: a tribute to her Mother’s life and death and a celebration of her legacy as Jamaica’s first “coloured” doctor. With poems that span four generations and two continents, My Mother’s Last dance is a graceful and personal meditation of loss, memory and hope.

Audio Book Producer: Leonie Forbes
Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, actor and broadcaster Leonie Forbes has worked in the dramatic and visual arts for many decades, and played lead roles a host of stage, television and film productions.The wide-ranging talents of Jamaica's First Lady of Theatre and Film, Leonie Forbes, alias 'Miss Lee', have attracted both national and international recognition. She has graced the silver screens in major Hollywood movies and is fondly remembered in Jamaica for her smooth and silky voice as a radio broadcaster and TV hostess. Her list of stage productions includes Old Story Time, Arawak Gold, Champagne and Sky Juice, Whiplash, The Rope and the Cross, and Smile Orange. Her film and television credits include Shattered Image, Milk and Honey, Going to Extremes, The Orchid House, Passion and Paradise, Club Paradise, What My Mother Told Me, and Children of Babylon. She also starred in the Caribbean-Canadian sitcom Lord Have Mercy, for which she was nominated for a Gemini Award in Canada in the category of Best Actress in a Comedy or Drama.

Sound Recordist and Composer: Mauri Hall
Mauri has been doing music since the age of seven, singing and song writing, as well as composing. He has produced many songs for radio in Trinidad and Tobago, working with artists such as Bunji Garlin and 3 Canal. He has composed for Literature Alive, a 13-part documentry series which aired on Bravo! in late 2005 for Leda Serene Films. Mauri has composed for theatre productions such as A Winter Tale (Leda Serene/Caribbean Tales) and is also working on the music for a feature film version of A Winter Tale. He is also an audio engineer, holding a diploma in recording engineering from Recording Arts Canada and has worked professionally as an audio engineer since 2000.

Sound Editor and Mixer: Kevin Risk Kevin Risk graduated from theatre school at York University in 2000 and completed his MA at the Drama Centre at the University of Toronto in May of 2006. He has appeared in various stage productions, including Modern Ritual (A Beautiful Lie/David Goyette), Titus Andronicus (Hart House Theatre), The Paradise Lust Romance Series and Crime and Etiquette (Triple Take Productions). Kevin recently starred in Triple Take’s feature film Space Zombies: 13 Months of Brain-Spinning Mayhem! He was also Director of Photography, Sound Designer/Editor and Special Effects Editor for this film, which is airing on SPACE and Drive-In Classics. Kevin was one of the editors for Fairy Tale II (airing on OUTtv) and Literature Alive (airing on Bravo!) and was also Sound Editor for a series of audio books as well as five 15-minute documentaries airing on CBC Radio (for Leda Serene Films and Caribbean Tales). Kevin has written a number of stage plays, radio plays and film scripts.

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The CaribbeanTales Film Festival

In August 2006 CaribbeanTales held it's First Film Festival, in association with the National Film Board of Canada, and the Irie Music Festival. We're planning for this to become an annual event showcasing new films from the Caribbean region.


"'Miss Lou' (Hon. Louise Bennet Coverley) talks about the roots of her art and its links to working class culture in Jamaica in our LiteratureAlive documentary 'Miss Lou: Then and Now'".

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Contact Us



OUR ADRESS:

CaribbeanTales
99 Gore Vale Ave
Toronto, Ont
Canada.

416 598 1410
416 598 1354
info@caribbeantales.ca

VISIT OUR WEBSITES:

  • Leda Serene Films

  • CaribbeanTales e-newsletter

  • LiteratureAliveOnline

  • LiteratureAlive Audio Books

  • Newz From Leda Serene & CaribbeanTales

  • Lord Have Mercy! Sitcom

  • E-store


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