ByBlacks.com

An update. ⬆️

Toronto's matriarch of Eglinton West has passed, and if you came up around that corner, you already know what it meant. And what Monica meant to us.

Monica Lewis made Little Jamaica's history with her own two hands.

In the late 1960s, she and her husband George bought 1553 Eglinton West and built Monica's Beauty Supply into Little Jamaica's longest-running hair and cosmetics shop. For a minute there it was the only spot of its kind in the whole city. People drove in from all over Southern Ontario just to shop with her.

The basement is where the legend lives. George ran his reggae record shop down there, wearing that yellow "George the Record Man" sign like a crown. That's where Black and Caribbean musicians across Toronto came to dig, where the city first heard imports straight from the US, the islands, and the UK and where many Black and Caribbean musicians came to find their sound.

In 1979, Mr. Q's "Ladies Delight" got recorded in that shop. We're talking about the first known Canadian hip hop single. Right there. The records that passed through Monica's ended up in the hands of everybody from the regulars on the block to Lenny Kravitz . Artists like k-os and Kardinal Offishall put her shop in their videos because that's hallowed ground.

And when gentrification came for the block, when the construction and the developers tried to move her, she stood on business. "I am not going to let anyone push me out," she said. She never did. Monica's is still standing on Eglinton today.

There will never be another. Rest easy, Queen. 🕊️🇯🇲

Funeral details
Viewing: Friday, June 12 at York Cemetery and Funeral Centre, 160 Beecroft Rd, North York. 2-4 PM and 6-8 PM.

Service: Saturday, June 13 at Revivaltime Tabernacle, 4340 Dufferin St, Downsview. Doors at 10 AM, service at 11 AM.

The family welcomes all who loved her. Live stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/GmF7zkYWJ4g

The early signs were there before she had language for them. Growing up, her mother played classical music throughout the house constantly. On the bus, what sounded like screaming turned out to be her daughter matching pitches from songs on the radio. By two years old, she was singing in the apartment, note for note, in a genre she didn't yet know had a name.

In early 2025, Smith posted a TikTok that took off the way nobody fully plans for. Set to the operatic "Flower Duet" from Lakmé — one of classical music's most recognisable pieces — she performed it as a "royal crash out," layering the drama of high opera over the Gen Z language of completely losing it. On Instagram, her videos collectively crossed 20 million views. SZA reposted one to her story. Smith called the moment a "happy accident." Her career trajectory, though, has been anything but.

Read more here: https://byblacks.com/entertainment/music/item/3898-i-m-a-black-canadian-opera-singer-why-are-there-so-few-of-us

I am trilingual: Creole, French, English. And for most of my life, I have navigated which language was acceptable in which room, with Creole quietly left at the door.

https://byblacks.com/opinion/item/3896-a-historic-first-for-antillean-creole

UPDATE:

After this story ran, the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism confirmed that two of the three Black Youth Action Plan streams, Student and Family Advocates (SFA) and Innovative Supports for Black Parents (ISBP), have been approved for funding for 2026–27.

It also admitted the original funding notices were sent in error, which is how 22 organizations ended up blindsided on a Friday afternoon in the first place. A third stream, Economic Empowerment, including the Career Advance program, is still unresolved.

But we have heard from at least one organization Delta Family Resource Centre who has had partial funding reinstated and another organization Durham Family and Cultural Centre who has had their full funding reinstated.

Read more from Alison Copeland: https://byblacks.com/news/item/3897-ontario-defunded-22-black-organizations-overnight-the-explanation-was-a-glitch