Revitalization, Social Networks, and Safety

Rap Culture In Regent Park Is Perceived To Make Regent Park Unsafe. How True Is This? And In What Ways Does This Change Or Not Change With Revitalization?

“You can put up new buildings, you can make things look beautiful but the reality is the issues are not being dealt with,” - Catherina Perez, Toronto City Council Candidate.

The On Air Police was created as a lens through which Policing and Safety, especially in Regent Park, can be critically addressed. Often times, the terms “to police” or “policing” is loosely understood as the laws and orders in the city as enforced by the police force within the boundaries of an agreement or civic regulation. With the recent shootings of the Regent rapper Smoke Dawg and the fifteen year old teen Mackai Bishop Jackson in the summer of the year 2018; Toronto’s 81st homicide within the year, one would think that in order to curb homicides in the city, city officials should result to gun bans and restrictions on firearms. In fact it should be much more than just bans and restrictions bound by city laws and orders because social policies can contribute to the solution. The On Air Police seeks to address the tension between Rap Culture and the ongoing revitalization in Regent Park and how these conflicts have increased safety concerns in the neighbourhood. It was important to understand the different perspectives of the players involved. Which are the Rappers and/or the Regent Park residents who are also consumers of Regent Park rap culture and that of the neighbourhood police to get their view on how the revitalization changes have crippled the social networks and social capital that once existed as a form of individual and community expression which in turn has affected safety for the residents. We use rap as a tool and an example of a culture with strong ties that functions as a form of social network and social capital. The significance of these social ties does not go unnoticed and is part of what undoubtedly puts Regent Park on the map. We first look at Rap Culture, the history of Rap culture in Regent Park, its significance, contributions and various roles it has played in the community till date. Secondly we uncover the rap scene before and after revitalization. Thirdly, we explore how rap is an example of how social ties as a whole can be interrupted with intervention and revitalization and what this breakdown of social ties means for safety.

In terms of accessibility, the components involved in creating a podcast was readily accessible and available to us. Each one of us was able to bring a necessary skill set into production which enabled us to not only become more efficient but also to learn from one another. It was a platform where our various literacies could converge. With converged literacy, like the words individually suggests, the processes of creating content, which include the processes of either making, understanding, reading and interpreting text, is housed in one platform but yet still distributed across other platforms and is distributed in different forms from that single location, or the said content is distributed across a wide range of platforms. With “converged literacy,” we create a way for a hybrid social justice pedagogy. In using the medium of a Podcast, we wanted a platform where the content created and shared maintains its relevance over time, because by posting our content on the internet, it will be able to reach a diverse audience in a diverse geography. More so, for a podcast listener, the content can be consumed indirectly and passively. The listener is able to remain engaged with the content while doing other things. A podcast is a suitable platform for us to have a “point of view.” This way, we are able to clarify our knowledge and perspectives within a larger social context to strategically express ourselves better. In doing so, we are able to challenge and reinvent the archaic principles of journalism and that by doing this, we intend to tell a different story, “a story no one is telling,” as long as it further emphasizes and maintains the point. In fact, a podcast promotes the need for a less rigid structure in media, to reach a more targeted, relatable and marginalized audience, especially the marginalized youth. This way, both the hosts and the marginalized youth audience can effectively engage with the digital realm through our deeply shared convictions and similar experiences. The youth will be encouraged to share more stories that challenge the status quo. And the narratives used by mass media to brainwash the audience.

The strategic goal for our podcast is to show that although there is a rise in securitization as urban renewal and revitalization is ongoing, mistrust and fear become a consequence of an unintegrated and unjust city created from such revitalization. Firstly, through research and interviewing both parties with our podcast, we aim to help both parties and our listeners understand the conditions with which rap culture and gang violence was born. In doing so, we are able to provide a space void of stereotypes and misperceptions to create a normalized “level playing field.” Secondly, we would explore real life stories experiences and perspectives from both parties on their different encounters with different scenarios. Our target audience extends beyond the Regent Park listeners and includes listeners in Toronto and the diaspora. Lastly, we aim to provide an alternative to the different ways to improve safety in the community and how both the newcomers and local residents can contribute to improving safety in the community irrespective of the insecure tensions caused by revitalization. The alternative we propose is to build on existing social networks in the community. This is particularly important given that we argue revitalization played a role in dissolving some social networks the community had prior. Our final goal is to promote Regent Park rap culture to be able to normalize the possibilities that rap has as a form of creative expression to possibly reduce the casualties of gun violence.

Residents of similar communities like Regent Park are dense with social housing that houses the marginally disenfranchised neighbourhoods where a large population of immigrant families, experience intensified policing and supervision due to the heavy gang violence witnessed in such communities. The over securitization and aggressive police response to neighbourhoods like these due to revitalization has made the residents question their confidence in their neighbourhood police. There seems to be a lack of relationship between the residents and the police. Rap was a reaction to the violence from poverty, segregation and neglect experienced in social housing, and in turn was an escape on a search for social justice. The rap culture as an interdisciplinary mission that created the “other community” that provides a sense of safety and youth literary and lyrical engagement. On the other hand, we learned that in engaging with the youth of Regent Park, they equally have a right to the city. They can secure this right through engagement in a collective understanding of network of social sub-movements. One simple yet innovative way in which the Regent Park residents suggest as ways to improve safety, is for newcomers to make an effort in knowing their neighbours. This way, feelings of safety is increased and crime rates are reduced. In Regent Park safety and gender intersect. The residents we interviewed claimed that as females, they feel more secure in the neighbourhood than the male youth, which was surprisingly the norm. This is because of the history of existing gang violence in the area, and the tendency for young women to not be involved in said violence.

In conclusion, the main message we learned and the one we want to spread to our listeners is the following: know your neighbours. This was the critical element which hindered resident’s feelings of safety and trust. This concern of not knowing others in the community was echoed in the interview with police that work in the neighborhood as well as the interview with the Regent Park residents. We hope the discussion in our podcast encourages those affiliated with the community to work on not just building new buildings and making things that look beautiful but also, rebuilding social networks and trust that were lost in revitalization, and to build them bigger than ever before.

Listen to our podcast here:

References

A New Regent Park. (2017). Regent Park Redux, 90-108. doi:10.4324/9781315748993-5

August, M. (2014). Challenging the Rhetoric of Stigmatization: The Benefits of Concentrated Poverty in Torontos Regent Park. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 46(6), 1317-1333. doi:10.1068/a45635

August, M. (2016). Revitalisation gone wrong: Mixed-income public housing redevelopment in Toronto’s Don Mount Court. Urban Studies, 53(16), 3405-3422. doi:10.1177/0042098015613207

Calvert, P. (2011). XML Retrieval. The Electronic Library, 29(3), 410-411. doi:10.1108/02640471111141151

Franz et al (2012). New Media, Hip Hop, and Young Migrants: Social Capital, Entertainment and Political Articulation of Minority Groups. Paper presented at the International Studies Association Convention, San Diego,17, CA, April 2012.

Harding, Simon. [Review of the books Youth Gangs, Violence and Social Respect, by R. White, and How Gangs Work: An Ethnography of Youth Violence, by J. Densley]. The British Journal of Criminology, 54(2), 2014, 368–373, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azt078

Nast, J., & Blokland, T. (2013). Social Mix Revisited: Neighbourhood Institutions as Setting for Boundary Work and Social Capital. Sociology,48(3), 482-499. doi:10.1177/0038038513500108

Pinn, A. B. (2009). Rap music, culture and religion: Concluding thoughts. Culture and Religion,10(1), 97-108. doi:10.1080/14755610902786361

Soep, Elisabeth, and Chávez Vivian. Drop That Knowledge: Youth Radio Stories. University of California Press, 2010.

Winton, Ailsa. (2005). Youth, gangs and violence: Analysing the social and spatial mobility of young people in Guatemala City, Children's Geographies, 3(2), 167-184, DOI: 10.1080/14733280500161537

The On Air Police is comprised of Faduma Hagi, Anita Ifeadi, Marwa Hassan, and Katie Glancy

Instagram: @onairpolice

Facebook: OAP UofDivas

Email: onairpolice@gmail.com

Phone: +1 437 217 7302

Finalizing Our Podcast

Throughout our project we’ve learned a lot about how residents and community members perceive safety. Specifically, we’ve studied what safety means for Regent Park community members, from youth residents in the community as well as community workers (ie: the police officers we interviewed). From here, we’ve begun analysis on how we can improve safety and feelings of safety in the neighborhood.

This week, we’ve begun planning how our final exhibition will run. Originally our plan was to create a multiple episode podcast on policing and safety in Regent Park and also Toronto at large. We in part wanted to do this because the topic of policing and safety is so broad we wanted to touch on as much as we could. However, in order to address this topic in an in depth manner which makes use of scholarly sources, we narrowed out area of focus to perceptions and experiences of safety Pre and Post redevelopment in Regent Park. We’ve begun planning our exhibition presentation with our core research question being: Is the Regent Park community really safer post redevelopment?

This is a particularly interesting research question because throughout our research the answer has been mixed. After academic analysis and personal interview, the answer to this question is not a decisive yes or no. Elements of pre-redevelopment Regent Park made it safer, while development brought increased resources and attention to the neighborhood. Our final presentation will address this question more directly.

Because of the amount of data we collected, our challenge this week was deciding what to use and what to focus on. Our scope for this project turned out to be much too large given the timeframe and guidelines. We had collected over two hours’ worth of interview data, not including research data, which is not consumable for viewers in an exhibition format of presentation.

Photos from the U of T Radio Studio! We are here this week recording and mixing more of our podcast.

This week, our main challenge is bringing together all we’ve learned and trying to put it into a single forty-five minute podcast. This is not going to be an easy task. We want to convey a number of things. Firstly, we want to be clear that while redevelopment is consistently portrayed as a positive thing in a lot of mainstream academic media, with regards to community safety, it can actual hinder individual experience. However, given that this is a complicated subject, it can also have a number of benefits. It is important to remember, not all community members are equal, so an act that might improve the safety of one would not necessarily improve the safety of another. Additionally, we want to highlight that while certain aspects of a community might make it seem dangerous, it can actually benefit the community a lot and make it safer. We do this through discussion of rap culture and rap music production in the Regent Park community.

Because we’re creating a podcast, our media project is highly auditory. In order to make our exhibition more enticing we want to add a more visual element to our assignment. Our plan thus far is to have multiple laptops set up at our exhibition station for people to listen to our podcast. Included will be a full transcript of our podcast. There will also be an index for each interview question. For example, if someone want to hear the answer to: “What do you think could be done to bridge connection between the police and the Regent Park community” as answered by Regent Park police, the individual could skip to 22:05. We will also showcase photos taken throughout our project and will include our group’s description and goals.

Finally, to tie the project together and increase interest, we are compiling a mixtape/playlist of Regent Park local rappers. Rap is intricately linked to our analysis of how communities deal with safety and engagement, at least in the Regent Park area. We want to make sure we direct attention to local rappers who have had influence in the neighborhood, and have helped put Regent Park on the map apart from the highly idealistic discussion of “social mix housing” in which Regent Park is often mentioned.

The On Air Police is comprised of Faduma Hagi, Anita Ifeadi, Marwa Hassan, and Katie Glancy

Instagram: @onairpolice

Facebook: OAP UofDivas

Email: onairpolice@gmail.com

Phone: +1 437 217 7302

Ready Set Action!!!

Episode 1 Recording #1: Interview with the Toronto Regent Park Rappers

In keeping up with our processes and journey to greatness, we, again have exciting news to share from this week from our experience of successfully recording our very first episode. While we were able to successfully record our first official episode this weekend, it was not as straight forward as we would have preferred it to be. But, notwithstanding, here is what we learned in doing so.

Scheduling! Scheduling! Scheduling!

One challenge we faced in preparing for our first episode was with booking the guests for the interview that were supposed to take place on the show. For the week, our theme was supposed to explore the Gangs, Violence and predominantly the Rap Culture in Regent Park, and in an attempt to make an episode that was effective and informative, we thought we would reach out to Regent Park rappers to be able to interview an insider with a more familiar perspective on the community. Let’s just say celebrities are indeed a huge deal. It is no debate that the Regent Park Rappers are pulling a credible weight by putting Regent Park on the map through their ability to create amazing music, but with their newly acclaimed fame, it has become difficult to keep up with the celebrity lifestyle of being unavailable. Our goal was to reach out to every Regent Park rapper we could find, via Instagram DMs, Facebook messenger, emails and including text messages, and out of 15 rappers, we got 2 replies. In the replies, the rappers politely stated that they were not going to be able to attend the interview as they were busy.

Improvise! Improvise! Improvise!

The show had to go on. As a testament to how we were able to cope well in such unexpected situations, we had to be spontaneous and creative in our approach towards the scheduled theme. Our team members, Marwa Hassan and Faduma Hagi are residents of Regent Park Toronto, so we interviewed them instead. To our surprise, they knew a whole lot about the rap culture in the community, and that was all we needed. Our weeks of research on the rap culture and gang violence in Regent Park in preparation for the show and interview sessions did not go in vain. All we had to do was stick to the script (we created intro and “outro” scripts to aid with the fluidity of the show as we were all new to this), ask the questions we prepared well in advance and lastly were natural and had fun.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

…Connect with The On Air Police!!!

Finally, our Facebook, Instagram and Email accounts have been created, activated and are fully functioning. Listen to the podcasts on Facebook and Instagram where we will be going live, so join the conversation on all our social media platforms. We keep you updated on the journey to becoming great community ambassadors. All episodes are posted on Soundcloud and Facebook. #staytuned because next week, we will be journaling our experience with the Regent Park neighbourhood police, and you do not want to miss it.

In interviewing Faduma and Marwa, we learned that the Regent Park Rappers are indeed putting Regent Park on the map like the community’s favourite Lil Berete who is signed to New Generation record label. When asked if she felt like the community was safe, Faduma said that although the community’s biggest problem is gang violence, especially from gangs outside of Regent Park who come to terrorize the community, She felt safe in the community on a regular day. Ironically she also felt safe in the community because she is a female child. Women in the community are not suspected to be gang members and a lot of the crime in Regent Park is associated with men, especially male black rappers. In as much as the rappers write and rap about gangs, they do not necessarily commit gang crimes in the neighbourhood. The killings are of other gangs in other communities retaliating to the songs and diss records put out by Regent Park Rappers

One way in which Faduma and Marwa suggest that crime in Regent Park can be maintained and ultimately reduced is through a scheme that they call “Know Your Neighbours” As simple as it sounds, when you know your neighbours you will be able to identify them and protect them whenever there are shootings. Both Marwa and Faduma encourage the neighbourhood police to make an effort in making the residents feel comfortable around them. From as simple as wearing a smile on their face, to having a regular conversation to get to know the residents. They feel that the new Regent Park since the revitalization, took away the sense of community in the neighbourhood and there exists a sense of disconnect between the staff the police and the residents.

The On Air Police is comprised of Faduma Hagi, Anita Ifeadi, Marwa Hassan, and Katie Glancy.

Instagram: @onairpolice

Facebook: OAP UofDivas

Email: onairpolice@gmail.com

Phone: +1 437 217 7302

Producing Our Podcast and First Drafts!

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.

Planning a Podcast and Radio Show

Our goal for this week was to finalize our group’s mission objectives so a detailed outline of our media project could be produced. Our mission is to give voice to the Regent Park Community and larger Toronto, and create a space for the community to speak out about safety issues that matter to them. We aim to amplify community voices (literally), as we plan to invite the larger community to participate in our radio and podcast work. Given that policing and safety affects Regent Park but also extended neighborhoods of Toronto, we want to give people from all communities in Toronto the ability to participate.

The struggle this week was narrowing down what to talk about. Safety and policing as a topic is itself quite broad. The original plan was to have a weekly radio show running, each episode highlighting a particular subset of safety and policing. Examples of this included carding, gun violence, or drugs. However given the timeline and constraints of the class, multiple episodes (each with a different topic) might not be feasible. We will instead be working on a pilot podcast episode focusing on a single topic, with potential to include more topics in additional episodes at a later point.

Time and availability were the main factors in the scope reduction of our project. Personal availability affects ability to personally produce and organize content. Furthermore, issues of radio time slot availability had affected options for broadcasting our show. In addition, the issue of maintaining permission to broadcast given content. As a result, we will focus on creating a podcast or pre-recorded radio show if live broadcast is not a feasible option.

As we work to make our project more concise, we must make critical decisions on which topics to touch on. Discussing a plethora of content as originally planned might no longer be a realistic option. But this makes the topics we do discuss even more important. We decided that an issue that is particularly prevalent both in Regent Park and Toronto at large is the problem of gangs and gang violence.

Given that we want to amplify the voices that already exist in the community, it is important to consider which stakeholders exist here. Community engagement and involvement is particularly important to us. To begin discussions on gangs and gang violence in the neighborhood, we are interested in hearing about personal experiences from those living in the neighborhood. These personal experiences can ideally be recorded in the form of interviews to feature on our podcast.

We invite the Regent Park community and other stakeholders to become involved in our discussion of gang violence in Regent Park and greater Toronto. This week, however, we came up with some options of particular individuals to contact regarding the matter. We are particularly interested in musicians in the community and their experiences with gang violence. These individuals, rappers mainly, are already producing content on issues that matter to them. We hope the interviewing process could help to collaboratively discuss and address issues of safety in the neighborhood pertaining to gang violence. A wider audience could hopefully be reached by including these stakeholders and the process could be mutually beneficial.

Our goals going forward are then to contact possible participants and consider what kinds of questions we want to ask them and the community at large. We will want to do further research on current and past gang issues in the community to gain further insights on what we want to discuss.

Thankfully we have secured much of the required equipment for our project production. We have a central location to meet with potential interviewees (Regent Park Focus). At Regent Park Focus we also have a quiet space and the required equipment to record interviews.

We are excited to begin collecting stories from the community, and presenting them to you. Stay tuned!

Our Podcast/Radio Show Theme Song

The On Air Police is comprised of Faduma Hagi, Anita Ifeadi, and Katie Glancy.

Starting a Radio Show or Podcast

The process of starting a radio show or podcast is not an easy task. Before you take center stage to perform your long-dreamed and overly rehearsed intro, all protocols must be duly observed.

In creating the “On Air Police,” as a class requirement, we were tasked to create a youth media platform that engages with Policing and Safety issues that face the Regent Park neighborhood in Toronto, but we have decided to take the task a bit further. We have decided to not only engage with Regent Park but also with the city. This urge to create a platform that hopes to live behind the classroom and the semester gave birth to the “On Air Police” O.A.P.

Now let’s get down with business.

First, Be Organized

We had to figure out what this really meant to us as a team. In doing this, we came up with a mission statement, vision statement and an objective. We tasked ourselves for the week, to create a logo, a name and a slogan, that was effective, easy to remember, to find on the internet and that was also catchy.

Second, Team Work

Faduma made the logo and we all brainstormed and decided on the group name together. Katie wrote the Mission, Vision and Objective statement, while Anita drafted the show schedule and proposal.

Third, Do Your Research

We did not know the difference between a vision and mission statement, but on this journey, we have learned that the difference between a mission and vision statement is that a mission statement describes what is to be done now, while a vision statement outlines the projections and where the show would see its self in the future.

Fourth, Choose Your Host Publisher

The fourth stage will be to pick a host with which you would like to share your content. For us, we approached our local radio station called CIUT 89.5 FM which is our University of Toronto Radio station, catering to audiences in the downtown Toronto core, and the GTA. Now, in your case it may be Spotify, iTunes or youtube. Make sure to meet with the program director via email or in person to discuss your idea. They will be able to direct you on the further steps to take in actualizing your content on their streams. For us, Ken, who is the program director for CIUT, gave us a proposal guideline specific to CIUT and its stakeholders.

Fifth, It Is Not As Easy as It seems

Over the week, writing the show proposal, was not an easy task. While, google serves a great purpose for getting started, and providing quick start inspiration, and answers, we would advice you seek the help of someone who is a professional in the field and has written many proposals in font of, and behind the scenes. This would prevent you from getting lost in the pool of information that exists on google and assist you with more specific ideas.

Sixth, What we learned

In writing a media proposal, imagine you are lawyer in front of a jury — the jury is looking for a reason to say no to you. Write your proposal in a way where they would have to say yes and have no reason to ask questions but still be curious to know where you would take the proposed idea to.

Lastly, Have a Checklist

We are happy to announce that a show name “On Air Police” has been finalized, and checked off the list, a show logo, the show’s vision and mission statement along with the proposal which includes a scheduling run down, has also been finalized and will be handed over to the CIUT stakeholders for an assessment on whether they will adopt/adapt the show for a possible live programming on the waves.

Until then, you can connect with us on all our social media platforms @onairpolice and connect with us using the hashtag, #UofDivas. Feel free to email and message us if you have any questions trying to start you own radio show or youth media engagement. We are always happy to help.

The On Air Police are Faduma, Anita, and Kati.