Word of Mouth is the Key to the Success of Vivienne Nelson-Campbell's Catering Business

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed.       Vivienne Nelson-Campbell, CEO of Viv's Catering and Take Out in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

When Vivienne Nelson-Campbell, CEO of Viv’s Catering and Take Out, was working at the Jamaican consulate in Toronto, her co-workers were tantalized by the aroma of her lunches and suggested that she should cook and provide lunch for them daily.

She also observed what a restaurant that catered many events at the consulate offered and one day decided to do her own.

Since 1989, Nelson-Campbell has been whetting the taste buds of people in and out of Canada. Her clients include some of Canada’s major banks such as Scotiabank, CIBC, Royal Bank and TD Bank, but also Jamaica National Bank, Jamaica Tourist Board, JAMPRO, GraceKennedy, The Gleaner Company, Mercedes Benz Canada, universities, colleges, and community organizations. She prepares all the meals for Jamaican artistes visiting Canada to perform.

Soon after providing lunch for her colleagues, she found a hole-in-the-wall at Spadina and King streets and was amazed at the array of her customers.

“You should see the people in their suits and everything sitting on the steps eating their lunch. The TD Centre staff, the Winners, all these people coming over to buy their lunch.” 

The business was moved to Lakeshore and Islington, then to Eglinton Avenue West and Keele where students at nearby schools bought their lunch.

Nelson-Campbell eventually moved the business into her garage at home in Mississauga. A client was so impressed with the work she did for him that he asked her where she was located.

Photo contributed      Vivienne Nelson-Campbell with her Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service for her contribution to the Jamaican Diaspora in Canada at the Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards on the lawns of King's House in St. Andrew, Jamaica, on October 20, 2025 — National Heroes' Day. Standing beside her is one of the 141 honourees at the ceremony.

Upon hearing that she was operating out of her garage, he took her to a location at Pantera Drive in Mississauga where she relocated for 15 years. As a result of the pandemic, the business moved to a different location in 2019.

Nelson-Campbell, 68, who is from Clarendon but grew up in Duhaney Park, says her customers have kept her in business. 

“They rely on me so much and it happens that it goes through generations. Even though the parents or grandparents have died, the children and grandchildren are still buying from me.”

Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt globally and she had to be creative to survive. Knowing that most of her customers are seniors, the affable entrepreneur prepared the meals and took them to their homes.

“I did a menu and WhatsApp it to them and then they started ordering so that’s how now we prepare it, and we deliver it at home,” she said, noting that the pandemic also resulted in the business changing “eatery” in its name to “take out.” Customers pick up and go, and orders from office staff are delivered.

The pandemic also led Nelson-Campbell to develop a festive season meal so when it is Easter she sends the menu to her customers for them to order and she delivers.

“Since COVID we started doing all the festive season meals so Christmas, Independence, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s; we prepare the meals and people order.”

Nelson-Campbell used to do a cooking show on Toronto Star TV, on CFRB Radio, and would do cooking shows whenever JAMPRO had new products and held grocery showcases.

She says she has some good customers, and they are all repeaters.

Photo contributed.   Jamaican-Canadians honoured on National Heroes' Day in Jamaica. Vivienne Nelson-Campbell is flanked by Dr. Sylvanus Thompson who was appointed to the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer for invaluable contribution to community service and the advancement of Public Health and early Childhood Education in Jamaica from the Canadian Diaspora, on the left, and Chris Campbell, right, recipient of a Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service for his contribution to the Jamaican Diaspora in Canada.

 

As the last child of her parents — both of whom were excellent cooks — Nelson-Campbell said she was labelled as a spoilt child who did nothing and there was no expectation that she would know how to cook.

“I always hear you’re not going to know how to cook anything because you’re not learning. Everybody is saying that you can’t do this, you not going to do this, and I like when people challenge me.”

 While they are there talking, she was surreptitiously learning from them how to cook.

One of her elder sisters was well-known for her culinary skills and opened a restaurant in downtown Kingston but eventually left to become the concessioner at the new Daily News. That sister became the concessioner at the National Bakery and then went to Grand Cayman where she opened a restaurant near the cruise ship port.

“I watched them and see how they cook and then I started doing the things and because of that, that’s how my co-workers at the consulate told me to cook for them,” said Nelson-Campbell, noting that it was one of her colleagues there that suggested the name for the hole-in-the-wall — “Viv’s Island Take Out.”  

How does she Nelson-Campbell explain the popularity of her business? 

“To tell you the truth, I do not advertise because it’s just word of mouth so obviously I realize that my food is good.”

She has developed such a convivial relationship with her customers that they can tell her when she did not cook a meal.

Nelson-Campbell’s full-time job is a child and youth care practitioner, but she ensures that every process is complete in her business. She also has a Caribbean Meals on Wheels for seniors who cannot leave their homes.

 

Trailblazing Work of Sister Vision Press Commemorated

 

By Neil Armstrong

From left to right: Honor Ford-Smith, Courtnay McFarlane, Ayoola Silvera, Stephanie Martin, Douglas Stewart and Ramabai Espinet at 40 Years of Sister Vision: A Radical Legacy of Black Women and Women of Colour Publishing at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, on September 25, 2025.

Admirers of the work of Sister Vision — Canada’s first Black women and women of colour press — recently gathered to celebrate its establishment 40 years ago, and to give the co-founders, Makeda Silvera and Stephanie Martin, their flowers. Martin attended in person while Silvera tuned in online.

On September 25, writers, publishers, archivists, and scholars attended a symposium at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, to reflect on the books, conversations, and interventions that Sister Vision made possible from 1985 when it was founded to 2001 when it folded.

“40 Years of Sister Vision: A Legacy of Black Women and Women of Colour Publishing,” the title of the conference, underscored that the founding of Sister Vision was a radical intervention in Canadian publishing.

It said that, “In describing the significance of the name Silvera notes: “We looked close to home for a name, in other words, at who we were—two sistas—two feminists with a vision. And so, the Press was named Sister Vision.”” 

The programme of the conference noted that, “Writings by and about Black women, Indigenous women and women of colour were significantly underrepresented and there existed numerous institutional roadblocks to publishing these works. Sister Vision would become an important space for publishing lesbian and queer writing. It offered a nexus for works articulating intersectional social concerns.”

The day included two panels, one on the writings of Silvera and the work of Sister Vision chaired by Dr. Michael A. Bucknor, Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black Global Studies at the University of Alberta; the other titled “Maps of Diaspora, Maps of Desire” chaired by Professor Beverly Bain, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies,  Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus, and workshops.

The symposium ended with “Stories and Memories of Sister Vision: A Roundtable Conversation” chaired by Honor Ford-Smith with participants: Stephanie Martin, Ramabai Espinet, Courtnay McFarlane, Douglas Stewart and Ayoola Silvera.

In a statement read by her daughter Ayoola, Makeda noted that she could not attend because she was sick with corticobasal syndrome— a rare, progressive brain disorder and form of atypical parkinsonism—and as a result was unable to speak and move with ease.

Tracing her journey, Makeda outlined that she did community work in her teens and then worked at the community newspaper, Contrast, serving the Black community. Starting there as a typesetter— the only job available to women—she later worked her way up to cover news, especially the plight of domestic workers.

After leaving Contrast, she worked at Share newspaper as an assistant editor serving the Black community. While there, she covered the news and had a column called “Women’s Lips.” 

Noting that she stuck with the domestic workers, Makeda said out of that came her first book, “Silenced,” which is about domestic workers and in their dialect.

“This was the first time anyone did that, write in a domestic worker’s own language,” she notes, adding that she did community work throughout her life.

Makeda was at the Black Education Project where she worked in their summer program. She knew she always wanted to start a press, but before that she worked at the newspaper and Fireweed, a feminist quarterly of writing, politics, arts and culture founded in Toronto in1978 by the Fireweed Collective. 

The Jamaica-born writer was the only Black woman at Fireweed and remembered in 1984 when they published Issue 16, their first collection by women of colour.

Makeda stayed several years to hone her skills and while at the quarterly journal, she also worked at the Hotline for Black Youth and at the Immigrant Women’s Centre.  She did community work at the first centre for immigrant women. “It was during that time that I had the urge to form a press.”

In 1983, Makeda was invited to Vancouver as one of four keynote speakers for the first Women and Words Conference which drew approximately 900 women from across Canada.

“As the keynote speakers, we were asked to address the question, how far have we come? I responded with “not far enough” and began my speech with, “For every step that we take as Black women, we have to fight, cuss, and kick every inch of the way.” I ended with, “Stop correcting our voices.” There were gasps followed by silence in the large auditorium.”

She overheard a well-established white woman writer ask another, “why don’t they start their own journals and presses and stop complaining?”

“When I got back to Toronto, I was determined to establish a press by and for women of colour. At the time, I could count on one hand the number of Black women who had published single author books or were featured in anthologies.”

Makeda said she then formed Sister Vision with Martin, who at that time was her partner. “It was during that time I quit my job and dedicated my time to Sister Vision, that was in 1985. Sister Vision was formed in the basement of 101 Dewson [Street]; all this time, I was still involved in the Black community going to demonstrations and also involved in the women’s community and the gay community.”

She said they started Sister Vision Press with a book of poetry in the dialect of Jamaican Patois. Publishing the book of dub poetry, Speshal Rikwes, by ahdri zhina mandiela, was to prove to the audience that they intended on publishing people in their own language.

Another early publication was the book, Blaze a Fire: Significant Contributions of Caribbean Women, by Nesha Z. Haniff, about famous grassroots women that were nameless, farmers and people that did ordinary jobs. They soon started publishing women from the community.

“Stephanie and I relied on lots of volunteers to do the work. We couldn’t do the work without them.” 

Makeda mentioned the book, Lionheart Gal: Life Stories of Jamaican Women, by Honor Ford-Smith for which the rights were with The Women’s Press in London, but Sister Vision wanted to publish it and in doing so learned the skills of joint publishing and buying rights to be able to publish it in Canada.

Ayoola said when she was 14 years old and could use a typewriter, she was helping to transcribe manuscripts from the hard copy to the floppy disk format during the production of Creation Fire: A CAFRA Anthology of Caribbean Women’s Poetry by Ramabai Espinet.

She said at the time, 101 Dewson Street was structed as a collective for a few years with most of the other people being racialized lesbian mothers in the 1980s and 1990s. 

“I think that gave the kids in the house the gift of a kaleidoscopic view of the world, by which I mean we had assumptions and paradigms that people around us didn’t have and we didn’t know that until we went out and said things, and started talking and people were silenced.”

Stephanie Martin described the time that Sister Vision started as tumultuous, crazy, and a wild time, but it also had wonderful gifts, joy, and laughter.

“We lived in a home, which as Ayoola said, was a collective environment. We had Doug [Douglas Stewart], Debbie Douglas, the children, myself, the other children, and Connie Fife. And it was different, and it definitely had a different view of life,” she said, noting that they could sit and talk about many stories related to 101 Dewson Street.

Martin said she and Makeda did not research anything about starting a press, they just decided to do it.

She said when Makeda wrote “Silenced,” she approached the Women’s Press but nobody was interested because of the voices or wanted to read the dialect, the patois, the Jamaican language or the other languages in the book.

Martin said the dream of publishing and owning a press was Makeda’s vision. “It was a struggle; it became a life kind of obsessive struggle, it was very difficult. We had no money and it doesn’t make money so it was hard because I’m sure it was hard on the young people because we were focused on this press and they were a part of it.”

Sister Vision was the nucleus at 101 Dewson Street and all the other political organizations started there; it was really a hub of political activity, she said. 

Her advice to anyone wanting to start a press is to do the research, learn about business management, accounting, and marketing. Sister Vision had many volunteers and Martin said they could not have accomplished what the press did without them.

From left to right: Honor Ford-Smith, Ayoola Silvera with her standing standing in front of her, Stephanie Martin, Douglas Stewart, Ramabai Espinet, Courtnay McFarlane and Ronald Cummings

McFarlane said he, Martin, and Debbie Douglas for the last few months have been working on putting together a text for a plaque that will go outside 101 Dewson Street. 

He said 101 Dewson Street was the home of Sister Vision Press and “the home for some of us who weren’t working with Sister Vision Press and weren’t living in the house, but for whom 101 Dewson was a safe harbour.”

McFarlane said he connected with the house through ZAMI, which was the first group for West Indian gays and lesbians that held its meetings at The 519 Community Centre.

This was in the mid-1980s and McFarlane said he was in high school, very conscious of his queerness and his blackness, and felt isolated in Scarborough. 

Describing 101 Dewson Street as a memorable site, Espinet said she is pleased to know that a plaque is being worked on because it was a site in the city that was, “a creative hub, a political hub, a liming spot, a cussing spot; it was everything” and she spent wonderful times there.

She said the first book she published with Sister Vision was in 1990, Creation Fire: A CAFRA Anthology of Caribbean Women’s Poetry. 

Espinet said, in March 1985, a meeting was held in Barbados to mark the end of the UN Decade of Women. It was convened by the Women Development Unit (WAND) at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill. 

She said it was the Caribbean celebration of this event. “Activists from across the region attended the launching of CAFRA, which is the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action, followed the WAND celebration. And to mark the occasion, many women there spontaneously wrote poetry. They shared them at the meeting and there and then the idea of an anthology of poetry was born.”

Espinet was asked to lead the project by CAFRA. She said the 1980s was a time when many organizations were formed and women activists were travelling across the region and got to know each other for the first time, and got to know the territories as well. 

They defined themselves as “feminists,” a word Espinet said provoked anger and disdain in mainstream quarters in the Caribbean at that time. 

The writer, academic and critic said at the Canadian end Sister Vision realized their radical vision of creating a publishing house dedicated to producing work by Black women and women of colour.

“It was a revolutionary act and a challenge to the Canadian literary establishment. Almost all the literature published at that time was written by Caucasian Canadians. There was simply no room for the category of writer whose publishing needs Sister Vision was addressing.”

Stewart, whose mother recently died, said one of the things his brother reminded him of is that men are often regarded as giants, but their mother was the giant of their family.

“We feel that frankly when we look around our families and around our communities, the giants are often women, often unacknowledged, often being undermined in all kinds of ways.”

Stewart said one of the things he is struck by regarding Makeda—and for many in movements, particularly in early queer activist movements — is that many are rooted in their Black communities.

“Outside of identifying as queer people, we were clearly centred in our communities, in our families.”

 He said Makeda was also part of the Rastafarian Movement and anchored in the music community, hip hop, reggae, and so on that was evolving and carnival.

The 1980s was a fertile time for social and political movements, activism, and creativity in Toronto. 

“One of the things that I really appreciate in Sister Vision’s journey was being in a household where every weekend, also like every day, there was some personality in the house—Ramabai, Jean Binta Breeze….

“Literally, anybody who was anybody doing stuff, it was a magnet house for us to be exposed.”

Stewart, McFarlane, Debbie Douglas and Makeda were the editors of Ma-ka Diasporic Juks: Contemporary Writing by Queers of African Descent, published in 1997.

Ford-Smith said 101 Dewson Street was transnational, “people were brought together through Sister Vision across national borders that wouldn’t have had any connection otherwise. It was prefiguring what people write about and talk about now. It was also prefiguring intersectionality.”

She said it consciously challenged class and colour binaries in many ways and even Stephanie and Makeda’s relationship embodied that, it was cross class and different social locations, it was inspiring and “they were never afraid to rupture the politically correct.”

Ayoola said some words that come to her when she thinks about the legacy and the past are joy, love, and cost. “Moving forward all of those three ingredients are always going to be present in anything truly revolutionary—love, joy and the cost.

“We don’t choose the cost; the dominant power chooses what it’s going to cost.”

Noting that she wished Makeda had attended the conference in person, Martin said: “I wish she could be here to feel the love, the respect, the admiration, and just how much people recognize her awesome strength, her courage, her militancy, her stubbornness, her renkness.”

Linzey Corridon and Ronald Cummings, organizers of 40 Years of Sister Vision: A Radical Legacy of Black Women and Women of Colour Publishing at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, on September 25, 2025.

The conference was organized by Ronald Cummings, Professor of English and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and graduate students.

“Sister Vision Press is an integral part of the story of Black feminist, women of colour and queer politics and organizing in Canada. Makeda and Stephanie were absolute visionaries and managed to assemble an important collection of transnational stories. To look at the books by the Press is to remember the deep solidarities of relation between Black and Indigenous women and working-class women of colour and the urgency of telling their stories on their own terms. The books reflected this,” said Dr. Cummings.

He said the press was based in Toronto, but the impact of Sister Vision’s work was undoubtedly transnational. 

“The conference asks us to remember this and also to honour the history and visionary legacy of the press.  Planning the conference has also involved working with a new generation of students and scholars, reminding them about the necessary political and publishing work that was made possible towards the end of the last century. It is urgent that we remember this in the crisis of the present as a new wave of fascism descends and when there is also much talk about banning books,” said the professor whose research focuses on Caribbean literatures, cultures and diasporas.

The Sister Vision fonds is at the University of Ottawa. 

 

 

 

 

Jamaica Diaspora Impact Awards Honourees Grateful for Recognition

 By Neil Armstrong

 

Photo contributed     Inez Johnson, recipient of the Jamaica Diaspora Impact Award, Education and Community Development

Inez Johnson, Rose Spencer Gibbs, Marcia Brown, Kevin A. Ormsby, and Peter David Smith are beaming with pride as they reflect on their selection as the five Jamaican-Canadian honourees of the inaugural Jamaica Diaspora Impact Awards (JDIA), an initiative of the Consulate General of Jamaica in Toronto.

When Johnson became a teacher in Jamaica in 1963, she learned to care for others and just like her role model, her grade one teacher, Mrs. Lobban, she wanted her students to achieve the best that they could.

The retired principal in the Toronto District School Board immigrated to Canada in 1971 and was employed at the then Toronto Board of Education. After 34 years of working in the TDSB, she retired in 2005, but wherever she sees a need she strategizes to fill it.

“I was in Ghana for four months and when I came back and had access to the Board’s email, I saw this email and I read it. Tears came down my eyes, tears came down and I’m not someone who cries easily. I was so touched,” says Johnson, noting that she has been working in the community with students, parents and fellow teachers from the 1970s.

Growing up in Hanover, Jamaica, it was Mrs. Lobban who made learning a joy and encouraged her students to perform to the best of their abilities. 

“I remember we would sit around her and she would be teaching us to read, and she would do poetry with us always. Through that, I developed a love for poetry and I vowed from those early days that I wanted to be just like her and so I became a teacher.”

Despite her father’s wish for her to become a medical doctor, Johnson pursued her calling and attended Mico Teachers College in Kingston, Jamaica. 

Her community involvement was modelled by one of her uncles, a parish councillor, whom she assisted in delivering gift baskets to disadvantaged members of their community at Christmas time. 

Johnson headed the Science Department at St Mary High School in Highgate, Jamaica, where she taught Biology, General Science and English before migrating to Canada.

During her years with the Toronto Board of Education, she learned to adjust to the Canadian education system and was later able to assist others in doing the same. 

“I couldn’t do any of this without the help of others and I’m grateful for that,” she says, noting that in the 1970s when there was an influx of Jamaicans migrants coming into Canada with their children, they had no idea of what the school system entailed. 

Johnson said the children were confused and doing poorly in school, “some of them became behavioural issues and I had to do something about it.”

With the help of some organizations in which she was involved, she developed the Saturday Morning Tutorial Program which lasted for 25 years. 

“When we saw the change that we were bringing about in the lives of these kids and getting them all settled in school and performing and succeeding, we knew we had to continue and that’s why it went on for all these years.”

As an alumna of Mico University College, she worked with the Mico Alumni Association and organizations such as Rusea's Past Student Association, Canadian Alliance of Black Educators (CABE), Organization of Parents of Black Children, Black Secretariat, and Black Action Defense Committee, to help her establish the program.

“When we needed space, the Organization of Parents of Black Children were the ones who approached the Board on our behalf to ask for space because at that time we had to pay to use Board facilities. We didn’t have funds; we were doing this just of our own free will and they got us space.”

The Board supported the program, said Johnson, because in a sense the tutorial was helping the Board which had students from Jamaica and did not know what to do with them.

Johnson referenced a 6-year-old boy who was deemed behavioural and always pushed out into the hallways instead of being in the classroom. His grandmother heard about the tutorial program and brought him one Saturday.

She worked with him and his teacher so that the boy could cope when back in school. “That little boy did so well, he improved and it carried over into his classroom. And these are the things that cause us to go on and on.”

She also provided workshops for the parents who learned to navigate the school system to help their children.

When she retired in 2005, she saw the need to help young teachers — many of whom were coming from Jamaica, England, the United States, African countries, in addition to locally-trained Canadian teachers — who were experiencing difficulties securing jobs.

Johnson approached a few of her retired colleagues and suggested that they form a group to mentor the teachers.

“From 2007 we started mentoring, and we’re doing it right now. We take them to sessions, we go through their resumes, cover letters, we prep them for interviews, and sometimes we connect them with Board personnel, get them interviews, and get them the jobs.

“Right now, we have mentees who are superintendents, principals, vice principals, and consultants; they’re doing very well. They have done well and the focus of the mentoring group changes according to the needs of the mentees,” says Johnson proudly.

She said once they get the jobs, there are other issues that they have to deal with and when those issues come up, they are back with the group of retired educators who offer them advice.

Johnson is currently working with staff at the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement where she is sharing her knowledge and skills with them.

“I’ve had wonderful years as a teacher, great successes, loved my students and they performed well over the years.

“You give without expecting a reward, you give unselfishly, and when I get rewarded like this by the consulate, it warms my heart because this is coming from my own people who recognized what I’ve been doing over the years,” says Johnson, noting that none of her other awards has touched her like this one.

She is the honouree in the category of education and community development.

 

Photo contributed.    Rose Spencer Gibbs, recipient of the Jamaica Diaspora Impact Award, Education and Community Service

Spencer Gibbs, a retired Department Head of Library, formerly with the York Region District School Board, has a wide range of experiences in education and community work in Jamaica, Guyana and Canada. 

 

She obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Her first teaching job was at Montego Bay High School. Subsequently, she engaged in post-graduate work at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and at Harvard University in the United States. She completed her doctorate in education at McGill University in Montreal.

 

“I’m very appreciative, very grateful for the recognition. Most of what I do I really don’t do for the recognition; I do appreciate that some people thought it was worthy of being celebrated, said the author of the memoir, Island of Plantations: A Jamaican Reflection, who will receive the award for education and community service.

 

She spent several years as an Education Officer with the Ministry of Education in Jamaica supervising rural primary schools in South Manchester. She was a school librarian and lecturer in Montreal. She has worked as the librarian and lecturer at Mico University College in Jamaica. 

 

While a teacher librarian at Markham District High School in York Region, Spencer Gibbs established a student performance group, the Markham Memory Keepers. For the performances, she wrote a script, entitled “Freedom Road,” using poetry, speeches, songs and music from the culture of people of African heritage.

 

She contributes to her community in her position on the board of the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators and as coordinator for the ONABSE/York University community experience for students in the Bachelor of Educational Studies programme. 

 

Spencer Gibbs is also Chair of the scholarship committee for Arts and Culture Jamaica. She has served on the executive of the Alliance of Educators for Black Students and continues to volunteer with the organization.

 

She is a recipient of Black History Month awards for community service from the City of Markham, Ontario. She is currently an independent researcher and writer and lives in Markham. 

 

The retired educator is also the co-author of the book, Louis Strathmore Grant: From Mitchell Town to Mona Campus Jamaica.

 

Photo contributed       Marcia Brown, recipient of the Jamaica Diaspora Impact Award, Culture and Community Service

Brown, a leading cultural ambassador in Canada, uses her platform in the arts to celebrate and preserve Jamaican and Caribbean heritage. 

When she moved to Canada in 1989, she realized there were limited opportunities for her to pursue her greatest passion—theatre—which she began pursuing in 1982 when she auditioned for the Little Theatre Movement (LTM) National Pantomime.

Since 2000, Brown has worked tirelessly to create spaces to bring Jamaican stories to life by producing culturally diverse, thought-provoking, impactful and memorable plays presented by her production company, Marcia Brown Productions.

“To think that I came out on top in an inaugural award feels so good, it makes me feel so extra special,” says Brown who is grateful to her nominator and supporters. She noted that this is her first major award in Canada and she enjoys giving back to community. She is the recipient in the category of culture and community service.

 

As an advocate for cultural preservation, her artistic contributions to promote the uniqueness of Jamaican heritage have been a driving force in ensuring that the rich Jamaican traditions are passed down to younger generations. Her commitment to this legacy is evident in her 2012 and 2013 youth-led production, “Pickney Sinting,” where all proceeds were reinvested in the community. 

Brown also plays an integral role in supporting education through her ongoing financial scholarship donations to the Jamaican Canadian Association Scholarship Program, thus empowering students from disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue higher education.

Her influence extends beyond the Greater Toronto Area and Canada as her plays have been produced in other provinces and the United States.

Brown has received several community awards in recognition of her work and was featured in the commemorative coffee table book, Jamaicans in Canada: When Ackee Meets Codfish, published in 2012 to celebrate Jamaica’s 50^th anniversary of independence. She has used theatre and philanthropy to shape the future of the Jamaican-Canadian community.

Photo contributed.       Peter David Smith, recipient of the Jamaica Diaspora Impact Award, Culture, Health and Wellbeing

Peter David Smith’s life is immersed in the arts — theatre, dance, and fitness. He has earned a black belt and a brown belt (aikido) in martial arts. 

Smith has toured Europe and performed in London at the Battersea Arts Centre, the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, and at the Stage Door Festival in Holland.

 

“This is the biggest thing that has ever happened in my life to be recognized by my own Jamaican people. It makes me feel like I’m on top of Jamaica, that what I’ve been doing all this time was being seen by somebody who decided to nominate me,” said Smith who will be awarded in the culture, health and wellbeing category. 

 

This is the first time that the health and fitness expert is receiving an award in Canada.

 

 As a member of the L.T.D. Dance Group, he toured Jamaica and the United States, and has performed at “Ring Ding” the popular television show of Louise Bennett-Coverley, affectionately known as Miss Lou; Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation's "Where It’s At” with Alphanso Walker; and has opened for the Jamaica reggae band, Chalice.

 

Smith has earned two gold medals from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission.

 

He created Reggaecise, a high-impact aerobic workout experience of dance and movement to the rhythm of Reggae music, in 1992. Smith is proud that it is being taught at GoodLife Fitness, the largest health club company in Canada.

 

He has served as a maroon chief and has also been associated with chiefs of indigenous groups. Smith was the president and associate of groups in Canada.

 

Photo contributed.      Kevin Ormsby, recipient of the Jamaica Diaspora Impact Award, Arts and Culture Leadership

Ormsby, artistic director of KasheDance, has performed in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean, featured in works by choreographers such as Garth Fagan, Patrick Parson, Ronald Taylor, Ron K. Brown, Menaka Thakkar, Lzi Lerman, Bageshree Vaze, Lemi Ponifasio, Christopher Walker, and Denise Fujiwara. 

His formative arts experience in Jamaica included performances on “Ring Ding” and “Kidstuff” with Brian Heap, Pierre, and Karlene Lamaire. He began his formal arts training at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and Calabar High School.

“It means an honouring of community, a recognition of the work put into community, and it means that I’m on my life’s path which is to make sure that I’m Jamaican and representing the many aspects of Jamaica within every space that I exist in,” says Ormsby who is being recognized for arts and culture leadership.

 

He is inspired daily by what he describes as “the cultural investment from so many people, both in Jamaica and in the diaspora, into who I’ve become as an artist, choreographer and advocate.”

 

Currently, Ormsby animates Kollective Narratives, focusing on culturally responsive art, space, placemaking, and communities. As co-director and curator of programming and engagement at Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), he delivers equity, diversity, and inclusivity (EDI) programming and training for clients such as the National Ballet of Canada, Canada's National Ballet School, and Luminato Festival. He also advocates for arts funding at all government levels in Canada.

In education, he has been a faculty member of Centennial College's Dance Performance Program and a guest artist at institutions including the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts - University of the West Indies (Mona), University of Wisconsin - Madison, Northwestern University, and the University of Texas - Austin. His research and creative practice explore Caribbean and African Diasporic cultural practices, aiming to develop a methodology of investigation in research, creation, and presentation.

Ormsby has been recipient of the Theatre Centre's Patrick Connor Award (2023), nominated for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize (2023), and was a finalist in 2021, Canada Council for the Arts' Victor Martyn Lynch - Staunton Award, a Chalmers Fellowship, and Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Fellow.

He serves on the Board of Dance Collection Danse and has previously been involved on the boards of Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, Canadian Dance Assembly, Prologue to the Performing Arts, and Nia Centre for the Arts.

An independent panel of judges selected the five honourees from over 40 nominations submitted by the public.

 

“The inaugural Jamaica Diaspora Impact Awards is a milestone occasion and an

opportunity to celebrate inspiring leaders who have made an indelible impact on the

wellbeing of the Jamaican-Canadian community,” said Consul-General Kurt Davis, noting that, “This event is about honouring legacy, inspiring the next generation, and showcasing

the strength and vibrancy of our diaspora.”

 

The JDIA gala will be held at the Toronto Botanical Garden on October 24, and feature a gourmet dining experience curated by the multi-award-winning Chef Noel Cunningham, live entertainment, and cultural performances. 

 

Established to honour the extraordinary achievements of Jamaican-Canadians who exemplify leadership, innovation, and service in their fields, the JDIA is presented by the Consulate General of Jamaica in Toronto. The gala embodies excellence and cultural pride while celebrating Jamaica’s heritage and the remarkable contributions of its diaspora community in Canada.