{"id":1433,"date":"2013-10-01T15:10:05","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T19:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.successbl.com\/?p=1433"},"modified":"2013-10-01T15:10:05","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T19:10:05","slug":"festival-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/changeprohosting.com\/websites\/sbl\/2013\/10\/01\/festival-express\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival Express"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Manifesto\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We catch a ride to the city\u2019s biggest community hip-hop fest with a group of youngsters and hear about suburban alienation blues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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BY:\u00a0TIFFY THOMPSON<\/a><\/div>\n
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\n

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Last Sunday afternoon, under grey skies, seagulls swooped overhead while a couple sat in a rusted Honda Civic in the Jane Finch Mall parking lot and ate McDonald\u2019s. Suddenly, an enormous luxury coach bus pulled up alongside a blue dumpster. The bus\u2014chartered by Toronto urban community-building organization Manifesto, in cooperation with city youth-outreach workers\u2014was there to offer young people in priority neighbourhoods a lift to and from the main stage of the Manifesto Festival celebrations downtown. A handful of teenagers trickled in, a few wearing a practiced fa\u00e7ade of coolness. The veneer quickly dissolved, though, once they settled in for the long ride and started talking about their \u2019hood.<\/p>\n

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The Manifesto Festival, now in its seventh year, began as a grassroots celebration of urban culture. It brings in artists from across the GTA and North America to showcase breakdancing, live graffiti, and hip-hop performance. It was started as a response to growing negativity towards hip-hop, particularly in the wake of 2005\u2019s \u201cyear of the gun.\u201d (Around that time, there was an increase in government funding for programs looking to quell incidents of gun violence.)<\/em>Though the positive vibes of the festival have grown along with its popularity\u2014around 50,000 people came out this year\u2014the spectre of violence is still a real concern for the communities it aims to serve.<\/p>\n

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The free buses (sponsored by Yahoo!) are difficult to fill, due to \u201cturf wars, both at Jane-Finch and in Scarborough,\u201d said Jade Lee Hoy, one of Manifesto\u2019s original team members. (In fact, no one boarded at the second stop, St. Alban\u2019s Boys and Girls Club.) \u201cPeople won\u2019t come on if [certain] other people come on, and it depends where you\u2019re picking people up.\u201d Additionally, Hoy said, \u201c[This neighbourhood has] lost two, maybe three young people in the past couple of months due to gun violence in the area. They\u2019re also dealing with [that] trauma.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s just about getting people outside of their neighbourhood,\u201d she added, referring to the \u201cneutral zone\u201d of Yonge-Dundas Square. \u201cSome of them have never even seen the CN Tower. People don\u2019t know what\u2019s in their own city. Some of the acts at the festival are from Jane and Finch [but the kids] don\u2019t know that these rappers and performers are from their neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hoy told the teens when the buses would be departing the square in the evening, and gave them advice on what to do at the fest. \u201cFeel free to ask artists questions. They will answer you; they\u2019re very friendly, and I think you guys can learn a lot from your community. Remember that you\u2019re a part of [it] and we really want you to not be afraid to go all in.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Matthew Alay sat gazing out the window as we raced past strip malls and payday loan shops. The soft-spoken 19-year-old began working as a carpenter a month ago. \u201cI plan on saving and then moving out of Toronto. I\u2019ve been in Toronto my whole life,\u201d he said, citing the shifting social climate as his motivation. \u201cPeople change. A lot of people get aggressive over nothing. That leads them to gun violence and all that type of bullshit. Personally, I\u2019m trying to get away from that because I grew up watching it. You can only take so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By heading into the heart of downtown, 20-year-old Winston Luc brought a positive view of his home turf to the party. He\u2019s sick of reporters asking about misconceptions of the neighbourhood, saying, \u201cThe questions to be asking are: What\u2019s beautiful about Jane and Finch? What do we have that other communities don\u2019t? I feel that we are the heart of diversity. I know that Toronto is diverse, but it gets more colourful when you set foot inside Jane and Finch. You see every race, every religion, every culture, and every ethnicity. The guns and stuff is only a small portion.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sariena Luy nodded in agreement. The slight, 14-year-old hip-hop dancer and aspiring photographer was excited for the breakdancing at the festival\u2014this was her first time attending the event. \u201cAt Jane and Finch, there are a lot of different opportunities. I\u2019ve been involved with performing, and there are so many great dancers, singers\u2026everything.\u201d Luc leaned over to show me a version of a short music video on his phone. Though it was edited and choreographed by 13-year-olds from the neighbourhood, the skill level was MTV-calibre.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As they dismounted the bus almost two hours after leaving the \u2019burbs, the bass from the main stage rattled car windows nearby. The group was all grins as they stepped out on the street. \u201cWe all go through the same struggle,\u201d said Luc. \u201cBut we have a big unity, when we get together there\u2019s always a good vibe. There\u2019s nothing to be afraid of.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thegridto.com\/city\/local-news\/festival-express\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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