#9102 - Mar 1991

Digital Archiving Completed by the Ethnography Lab, A University of Toronto Anthropology Initiative
and Produced in Collaboration with David Perlman/Wholenote Media Inc between July-December 2015.
18 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT The Kensington Market Drum, March 1991
Benefit Drum Roll
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Here's as complete a list as is possible of those who contributed to
the benefit.
Musicians: The Virgins, Keith McKie B~nd, AI Cromwell, Steve
Fever, The Workshop, Caitlin Jenkins, Lee Shropshire, The Foggy
Mountain Deadboys, Culture Shock, Kate McNeil, Norm Amadio,
Eileen O'Toole Showband, Rod McBimie
Equipment: Bob Boucher, Steve's Rentals
Food and Drinks: Upper Canada Breweries, Patty Palace, Hsin
Kuang, Diaz Fruit, Castle Fruit, Augusta Fruit Market.
Door Prizes/ Auction Items: Rebelos, Cheese Magic, Micalaense
Bakery, Dancing Days, Fairland Bargain Centre, Bloorcout Veterinary
Clinic, E.M. Porter, Asylum, Timbuktu, Bears Lair, Noise,
Expose, Asylum, The Second Cup, The Silver Dollar, Spadina
LCBO, Kensington Sound, Nimkiis, Allematives
Photos: Buzz Burza, Miki Toma, Frank Burritt
For the Benefit
Of ...
Just above Spadina and just above the table dancers - the
Upstairs Silver Dollar; home of the Drum benefit
photo by Frank Burritt
Other Good Folk: Shawna MacGregor, Bob The Waiter, Adam
Calhoun, Larry Walker, Norah MacTaggart, Nancy Harvey, Doug
Macfarland, Mike Milando, Chris Melo, Joanne Harburn
Matyas
The Rest of the People we forgot to mention
by Colin Puffer
It may be unbecoming for a
newspaper to say "we told you
so", but it is nice to see
predictions borne out. There
was a lot ofbombast and puffery
in the last Drum, telling
Kensingtonians about a great
party that was going to take
place at The Silver Dollar on
Sunday, March 24. Well, it was
truly a great party. Those in
attendance ate, danced, drank,
bid on auction items, won some
of the fabulous door prizes and
listened to music until a little
after 1 am .. It would take ·
columns tosaysomething about
everyone who helped out with
the benefit but there are a few
people. · who deserve special
mention.
The Drum would like to
thank Eileen O'Toole for her
role as M.C., chief auctioneer,
band leader and stage manager.
We'd like to thank Lee
Shropshire for opening with
AI Cromwell helping the audience walk their blues away
Steve Fever raising peoples temperatures with a hot set
such a strong set and Culture
Shock (which turned out to be
99% of Revelation) for staying
so late and providing such a
perfect ending to the evening.
And Angie Choly who came
just to party and ended up on
the door most of the evening.
A definite thanks is also due
to Lawrence MacTaggart,
Manager of the Upstairs Silver
Dollar for giving us the space
and helping so much during
difficult times. And thanks to
Glenn MacLaren for doing
sound set ups for more than 10
acts and providing such good
sound under trying circumstances.
And finally, a big thank you
to Adam Calhoun of Upper
Canada Brewery for providing
::: the brew to keep the delicate
-~ throats of the musicians well
~ lubricated.
£
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Problems with "No Probl-ems"
by Maisela Kekana
No Problems Here - this is
Canada. Racism is the disease
of uncivilized and barbaric and
savage white people 10,000
miles away with their apartheid
plague. This is overall the myth
that the Company of Sirens play
No Problems Here seeks to
explode.
The play was good. The
theme obviously catchy, the
actors were excellent. But the
overall production lacked that
something to write home about.
There were too many
unconnected scenarios, so the
play did ·not develop. For
example racism comes in many
forms, but a very important
part of the message needs to be
that unfortunately the
substance always stays the
same. Whether Oka­
Kanesatake or Alabama­
Mississippi or Brixton-England
or Auschwitz-Germany or
Gaza Strip-Israel or Soweto­
South Africa, racism is boringly
the same. It is the ruthless tool
of international white power.
A play cannot afford to be
boringly the same.
No Problems Here was
successful in making the point
that Canadian society is in the
league of Racist Nations. The
play was also successful in
pointing out the subtleties of
plot possible in a society with a
very multicultural racial
makeup.
But the drama lacked equal
sophistication in its treatment
of the way these incidents
reflect tactics and strategies
employed by the system in its
day to day discriminatory
process. This lack meant that
the large, mostly white audience
in the Scadding Court gym
failed .to get emotionally and
psychologically involved in the
drama. The audience was not
left with the final responsibility
of searching for answers and
solutions to the questions and
probkms presented by the play.
For example there was a
potentially telling moment
during the job search discrimination
episode. The white male
job interviewer asks the native
guy if he has any Canadian
experience. So far so good.
Leave the message to sink into
the auqience. Instead the job
interviewer gets to deliver a
"just kidding" kind ofline. And
the victim looks like someone
with no sense of humour. The
same went for the job interview
with the Caribbean woman -
because the dramatic choice is
for an overacted scene, the
whole thrust and message get
lost. ·
The Classic example oflosing
the message was the student
party scene where the alleged
victim, a black woman from the
Caribbean, new alone at a socalled
"white" party is approached
by this drunk. The
panorama could have had an
indelible impact on the
audience.The storyline should
have been - to add insult to
injury, then there was this drunk
who approached me, and told
me he does not mind sleeping
with black women. Instead we
get "then this~drunk came
on to me" investing her with his
motives.
The Star praised the Company
of Sirens for being able to
"sound the siren without scaring
people off," for not being
"preachy or absolutist", and for
evoking "a new understanding
of racism".
But it is not nece~sarily
understanding of racism that
we are looking for. It is the end
to it. And if a siren doesn't
scare people off, then what is it
for?