Why does everyone love a parade? CBC's Louise Martin went to Gold Cup 2025 to find out
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
How BAMBII uses her 'DJ brain' to produce genre-blending electronic music
BAMBII is a Toronto-based DJ and producer whose innovative, genre-defying sound won her electronic album of the year at last year's Juno Awards. Since then, she's opened for Jamie xx and performed at music festivals around the world, like Glastonbury and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. But BAMBII's journey into music was anything but clear cut. Unlike some artists who found support from a record label early on, BAMBII achieved her music dreams by carving out her own space in the electronic music world. More than 10 years ago, she founded JERK, a wildly popular rave series that centres queer and Caribbean communities. Those parties helped her become a better DJ while also allowing her to play the music she and her friends wanted to dance to. "I was DJing for like two seconds," BAMBII tells Q guest host Garvia Bailey in an interview. "I had no idea even truly, actually, how to DJ. I just knew I needed to hear these songs in this space.… What that grew into and the responsibility of it came later." WATCH | BAMBII's full interview with Tom Power: After her DJ sets started blowing up, the next step for BAMBII was to learn music theory and how to produce her own songs. Her Juno-winning EP, Infinity Club, mixes global club music with Jamaican genres such as dancehall, reggae and dub. Now, she's back with her follow-up, Infinity Club II, which proves just how expansive electronic music can be. "People don't know how varied or conflicted the electronic space is," BAMBII says. "It's very much a faux pas and very much taboo to bring in different sub-genres into that space as a DJ or even as a producer…. I'm not consciously trying to actually make a statement. It's just representative of how I grew up and the travel I've done, which is pretty extensive as a DJ." Growing up in Toronto as an only child, BAMBII was listening to an eclectic mix of music, from Bruce Springsteen to Buju Banton. "Basically anything my mom was listening to, I was listening to," she says. "I feel like my mom kind of set the tone for having an eclectic taste. I mean, I wouldn't even label it. Just being open-minded." WATCH | Official video for Mirror: In many ways, her approach to producing music is the same as her approach to DJing. "I produce with DJ brain and I feel the best thing about DJs is their ability to hold their memories," she says. "As a DJ you have about 2,000 favourite songs. You're very familiar with large amounts of music and you're very familiar with patterns in music, and obviously genres and sub-genres…. It's taking you a bunch of different places [and] it's making unlikely connections."
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
d'bi.young anitafrika's story goes to show that every artist needs nurturing
The award-winning artist, playwright and dub poet d' anitafrika broke onto the Canadian theatre scene when they were cast in Trey Anthony's play Da Kink in My Hair. But their life in the arts started way before that. They were only three years old when they realized they were destined to be a griot (a storyteller). In an interview with Q guest host Garvia Bailey, anitafrika credits their mom, the pioneering Jamaican dub poet Anita Stewart, for inspiring their passion for storytelling and nurturing them as an artist. "I actually had a blueprint," anitafrika says. "My mother was the blueprint…. She took me to the library every Saturday. My mother taught me how to read when I was two. She gave me a lot of autonomy…. So the environment was there for me to be nurtured, and my mother provided a mirror of possibilities for me." WATCH | d' anitafrika's full interview on Q: Though anitafrika was raised to freely express themself without shame, after they moved from Jamaica to Canada at age 15, their natural artistic vibrancy and exuberance wasn't always understood or encouraged. "I experienced deep, deep self-loathing because I couldn't understand what was so strange about me," they say. "Racism was something I'd never encountered before. I had encountered classism because I grew up working class … [but in Canada, there was] a real rejection and a real demonization of Jamaican-ness because remember, this is 1993." Luckily, anitafrika was able to find "femtors and mentors" to help guide them through the difficult periods of their life. While studying at McGill University, anitafrika met educator and journalist David Austin, who helped them overcome their self-loathing and lean into their talent for storytelling. "He was specifically talking about the way that I had been speaking," they say. "So five years into being in Canada, I had this unrealistic accent, which was my attempt at covering my Jamaican-ness. I had this unrealistic persona that was, again, an attempt at survival in a hostile environment…. Somehow he had seen through all of that and had seen into this young person who had the gift of storytelling, who had a gift of communication, but was burying those gifts." This year, anitafrika is celebrating a major milestone as their critically acclaimed Sankofa Trilogy turns 20. The three solo plays of the trilogy — benu and word! sound! powah! — follow three generations of Jamaican women from their experiences of growing up to motherhood. You can catch anniversary stagings of The Sankofa Trilogy, which has now been adapted into a multi-cast production, from Aug. 13 to 17 at The Theatre Centre in Toronto.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
‘How this has not worked out for us': Winnipeg choir falls into Air Canada cancellation
A Winnipeg choir is grounded after their flight to an international festival was cancelled amid the ongoing Air Canada labour action. Harrison Shin has more.
