Say Less Magazine Issue #01

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Letter From The Editor 3 Comfort in Sound 5-7 No Music, No Life 9-10 Rising Sun 13-14 Oh Canada: Our Home on Indigenous Land 15-16 12 am 17 The Rebirth of Afroism: Part I 19-20

Editor in Chief Marcus Dumoulin Writer Rana Encol Editorial Assistant Brennan Wisdom James Photography Still in Motion Studio 647-223-3179 info@saylessmag.com saylessmag.com

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For more on our stories visit saylessmag.com

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

A journey of light; through time and space.

Marcus Dumoulin Editor in Chief

“What would I see if I could ride on a beam of light?” A question posed by Einstein that sparked their Theory of Special Relativity, a question that has led me here, to this very point in spacetime. Wait, wait! You’re probably thinking to yourself, “What type of wormhole did I just fall into?!” Welcome to Say Less, the Kensington Market lifestyle magazine. A multifaceted, crossplatform, and sometimes inter-dimensional multimedia source. Covering topics that range from music, art, food, and fashion to business, community, and (counter)culture. Everything that makes Kensington, Kensington, all in one place.

The vibe in Kensington fills you with light. The music, the people, the stories, and the friendships.

The feelings of loneliness fall away, leaving you with ones of acceptance and belonging. The longer one stays in Kensington, the stronger the gravitational pull it has on you. It’s near impossible not to become entranced by its allure.

It washes over you like rainbow waves on the shore. No matter which frequency you vibrate at there’s a kindred spirit or two gliding along their own path, pulling complementary energies ever so often into their orbit.

Time seems to have no place here. Hours seem like minutes as they zoom by with friends. On the contrary, the opposite is also true. For those who haven’t seen each other in years, the passage of time evaporates into the ether like it was never there. It’s these moments I aim to capture. The fleeting moments where light converges with time. All meeting in one space; my camera.

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If you have ridden the waves of rainbow light thus far, the vision of why I love this place, created this space, begins to take form. This is a place where all the artistic and creative energies I have met, will meet, to converge together and create something beautiful. Kensington has one of the highest concentrations of raw talent within its brightly coloured rhythmic streets. This is what I want to share with you. Whether you’re a visitor or a resident of the market. I’d like to be your guide on this wild trip that is Kensington.

It all began with a bang and an explosion of light. As Say Less magazine embarks on its maiden voyage, we would like to give thanks to those who helped make this a possibility.

First and foremost a big shout out to Ozgur for believing in us and giving us our first big break in the market, and Ryan for the educational chats.

To all the artists, contributors, and entrepreneurs (Rudy, Izzy, Dakota, Sun, Elle, and Renaissance) for their time, talent and knowledge. The team: Millie, rocking the research and interviews, Rana, coming in on a unicorn last minute to lay it down, and Brennan, the right hand, enough said. Last but not least, to one of the brightest lights of all, Brandy, who started me down this path to Say Less. Taking the idea of a picture and a thousand words and vibing with it.

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Comfort in Sound By: Millie Boella

On sublime weekend nights, you can find Rudy Ray enchanting patrons of the Poetry Jazz Cafe (224 Augusta Avenue) with his jazz ensemble and trumpet. Rudy Ray is the top earner at Poetry, always packing a house full of fans. The Pied Piper of Poetry ensures devotees by leading them through an audio kaleidoscope that encompasses Jazz standards from multiple eras and even the Godfather theme song to create a unique mood.

Offstage Rudy Ray is bashful and humble, though jovial. On closer inspection, you’ll see him carrying books like the ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’, which signal there is more depth to Rudy Ray than meets the eye. Much like the big cats -: leopards, lions, jaguars - Rudy likes to keep a low profile and hide in plain sight. Rudy Ray is the official trumpeter to the Wu-Tang Clan. He wrote the trumpet opening to J.Cole’s ‘4 Your Eyez Only’; which is also the title of Cole’s 2019 album, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. Rudy Ray has worked with a long list of legendary musicians including Lee Scratch Perry, and Toronto icons like Drake. Rudy Ray also has a graduate degree in Neuroeconomics and was a clinical physician at Johns Hopkins University, which hosts one of the best medical schools in the world.

Recently, Rudy Ray has begun acting; he appears as a trumpeter on the Netflix series ‘Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J Walker’, which chronicles the life of Walker, an African-American who was America’s first female self-made millionaire. At the seat of his throne in Kensington Market, Rudy gave us a rare interview about his remarkable career.

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You began making music in 2015. What propelled you to switch from being a clinical physician to making music?

“Kensington Market is such a great cultural mosaic.

We are all here”

I’ve actually been playing the trumpet for almost 15 years. It helped me with my generalized anxiety disorder. In 2015, though, I had this sudden crisis of a sort, and I lost some patients in a hospital that I was working at. It just became more difficult for me to go back into the hospital. So I took my trumpet and went out to the streets and started playing. I found my solace in that. Somehow, I just grew more confident to do that instead of going back to my previous life. Getting into music, however, was still an extension of the exploration of neurological diseases.

For one, stuttering is an example of something that is borne from stress or anxiety, and learning to sing can help your stuttering.

Seeing people recover using music or musical tools was an interesting experience for me. It made me switch completely to just being in the band, being on the band stage, and getting a sense for what it’s like when the people are actually receiving the music.

If there’s one piece of advice you’d share for musicians struggling during this pandemic. regarding maintaining a healthy mental state what would it be?

Kensington Market is such a great cultural mosaic. There are so many eclectic musicians here. I think that I would advise every musician that comes or plays in the market to just do their due diligence of coming out more, and to support each other, and to be collaborative with other bands. We are all here.

You work with a lot with rappers. You’re the official trumpeter for the Wu-Tang Clan, you’ve worked with J.Cole, Young Money, Drake and my friend Borelson. The grandfather of hiphop is ironically also called Rudy Ray, and he began by layering sounds on recordings about Dolemite, the pimp. That way of storytelling and using rhythm eventually became hip-hop. When you’re creating sounds for rappers, what’s your approach to accentuating the stories they’re telling?

of cuts across different genres: soul music, Motown, Latin music, reggae, it has its pockets and so forth. So with different artists or different songs, I pay attention to what I think the song needs. And it’s not always playing trumpet. Some people don’t know that I ghostwrite verses for artists as well.

I just love to write. I’m a poet is how I put it.

What’s next for you in terms of projects?

I want to mirror what I sense the aura of the artist to be, or maybe what I understand the I play the trumpet in the next Guillermo del Toro movie called Nightmare Alley, which stars song to profess. I work with the guidelines of Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It’s coming out on Netflix hopefully at the end of each genre, and it’s beautiful. The trumpet kind the year. I’m also a trumpet player in Slumberland, a Netflix movie that stars Jason Momoa, which should be coming out next year. We just wrapped up a beautiful mini series called Station 11, which is coming on HBO Max, hopefully next year. And I might be going on tour. Fingers crossed.

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No Music, No Life By: Rana Encol

“Kensington… you have to help the community. You have to take care of the people.”

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Ozgur “Ozzy” Sekar of Kensington’s beloved Ozzy’s Burgers at 66 1/2 Nassau loves to garnish his stories with two small but important words: ‘peace’ and ‘love’. Especially love. It infuses everything that the boutique burger franchise artist does, from the burger itself to the details of the business.

He has never had a problem during his six years in the market.

“If you don’t have love, if you don’t have a relationship, you can’t work at Ozzy’s,” he says. His team is like family. “In the kitchen, the mentality (is) peace and love.

You have to respect, you have to love, you have to take care of the herbs and spices from all over the customers,” he adds. world and is renowned for its tea, hospitality, and food. Ozzy thinks “I love what I’m doing. That’s they have the best kunefe, a wheat it. Simple.” pastry dessert with soft cheese and sugar syrup -- not to mention the Ozzy immigrated to Canada to best doner and kebab.

Maybe learn English and started working that’s why Ozzy emphasizes peace at Top Gun Burger in Toronto in and love. The ongoing conflict in 2015. Only three months into his Syria has brought an influx of stint as a dishwasher and cleaner, refugees into Turkey and put a he had a chance to “smash” his strain on opportunities in the area. first burger in the kitchen. “I Thankfully, Kensington has the remember saying, wow, Ozzy, this culture to sustain different people is a blessing, this is a gift from the coming together to create food and gods.” enjoy life.

“Because I love my job, I am Ozzy, Ozzy’s burgers. I am burger. I am Ozzy”

For two years, he learned everything he could about the hot sandwich before he finally followed the calling bequeathed by his name, which means “freedom”.

He opened Ozzy’s in Kensington, followed by two locations in Mississauga and Vaughn.

Hailing from Antakya (Antioch), Turkey, Ozzy says that Kensington became his primary location because it reminded him of the unique blend of cultures reminiscent of his hometown.

Antakya is a small city nestled in the Mediterranean southeast shore of Turkey, bordering Syria, and home to Eastern Europeans, Kurds, Armenians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Arabs.

The 2,000-year-old city boasts

maybe 20 times, according to the energetic owner. “He liked the Kensington vibe. He liked the peace and love. He liked the respect ... Like Kensington: love, love, love. This is Kensington.”

It’s the love that makes Ozzy’s such a great institution.

“Because I love my job, I am Ozzy, Ozzy’s burgers. I am burger.

I am Ozzy! What do you want? I know what I am doing because I have a beautiful confidence about Ozzy’s burgers, about my food, because everything (is) high level quality, everything (is) cooked In “Kensington… you have to with love.” help the community. You have to take care of the people,” Ozzy That energy extends to the says. He employs Syrian refugees, neighbourhood friendship he donates food to homeless shelters, experiences at other iconic and has sent meals to frontline spots like Moonbeam Coffee, staff at Toronto Western Hospital Jimmy’s Coffee, Film Cafe, and when the pandemic began. Most the Empanadas joint on Augusta. enthusiastically, he promises to The owner at Organic Press, bless local and world musicians which serves up fresh juices and with free burgers. smoothies, is kind of like his brother, says Ozzy.

“No music, no life!” exclaims Ozzy. He reminisces about meeting “This is my life, my energy. his favourite band of artists from I found myself here. This is my Eastern Europe, North Africa, and therapy, my medicine, my coffee.

Iraq in the park one day. Vinyl For you, maybe Ozzy’s (is) just record sleeves decorate the walls a burger joint. But for me, more of his establishment, displaying than burgers… this is my home.” an eclectic taste that ranges from Grace Jones to Supertramp.

“And I’m going to do (this) all my life. No Ozzy’s, no life.”

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Rising Sun

“I started doing this 10 years ago. My first business trip was when I was 15 with my dad. We went to Bali and Thailand.

The plan was to take over my family business but I decided to go on my own path. Begining of 2020 I was in India doing all of my inventory.

March 14th was when I opened my doors, March 17th I closed my doors for the first pandemic. (After re-opening) in July the building owners asked for the space back.”

BY: CHEEKO WISDOM

“When I moved out, when I was18 I needed to get a fulltime job so I started working for my parents. I was there every single day talking to people whether I liked it or not.

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“A good friend of mine started calling me Sun as a nickname and I really liked that. SOL is Sun in Spanish.

I was like ‘ you know what?

I’m going to open a shop and call it SOL.’”

The daughter of a Market staple. A breathtaking woman (I literally had trouble interviewing her) of Guyanese descent. A true Kensington Marketeer, this story is about my friend Sandhyaa or as most people call her, Sun. Sandhyaa has been selling bohemian clothing and accessories for the past 10 years.

Tailored by her parents with the skills to choose top quality clothing and accessories, she started selling at Dancing Days as just a child. At first, as most adolescents, she didn’t want to work at her parents’ shop. What she did find that she loved was travelling, learning new cultures and understanding what quality in clothing really meant in a worldly sense. As she grew older, her love of connecting with people, and finding how to make someone feel confident in the clothing they wear, made Sandhyaa a natural saleswoman.

March 17th things immediately changed.

Covid-19 forced store owners to close their retail doors. When the first lockdown was lifted, SOL opened its doors to the public. In July they were hit with another obstacle. The building owners decided they wanted the property back and SOL would have to move. Sandhyaa negotiated to keep the store until the end of 2020. Sun, being business savvy, started SOL’s online store to help stabilize sales. But she was faced with new choices: open a new store front, sell only online or close SOL for something new.

From the moment I met Sandhyaa, I knew she was something special. I was lucky enough to witness her transition from the opening of SOL to the online store to now the pop-up. With her self-growth our friendship also grew. I’m lucky enough to say I know this angel of a person, and I look forward to watching Sun rise.

The community of Kensington had different plans. A friend of Sun who owns Crows Nest Barbershop (a minute walk from her old store and Dancing Days) offered her a space to open a pop-up for a few months. After a few months of success, she left Kensington Ave for the busier Augusta. She is now set up with a pop-up across from Bellevue Square Park.

Sun made a bold move. She always thought that she’d inherit Dancing Days from her parents Sun’s transition truly demonstrates the new but opted to start her own store. SOL opened its wave of pop-ups all along the market. Historically, door March 14th 2020, next door to Dancing Days. it always boasted affordable locations for small An easy transition and a great marketing idea to businesses to flourish. get the business off the ground.

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OH CANADA: OUR HOME ON INDIGENOUS LAND BY: RANA ENCOL Anyone passing through Kensington will instantly notice the diversity of its denizens. Asian, Caribbean, Portuguese, Jewish, and European migrants have settled and owned businesses here since the early 1900s.

But one group has been here since before any, and that’s the Mississauga people. The British signed a treaty with three chiefs to take possession of the land in 1787. However, to this day, artists with indigenous ancestry in the market pay tribute to the land, and its original guardians, through their activities and their work in the market.

Thirty-year-old Dakota Markell is one such artist. A Mohawk descendent from his grandmother’s side, the quarter-indigenous visual artist does graffiti, paintings, and tattoos. He says a lot of these art forms have indigenous roots and he has been practicing them since the age of five years old as they were passed down from his elders.

He says Kensington is his home and connects him to his roots.

“In the midst of Kensington Market, there’s a lot of people who are very accepting, which is beautiful, so you find a community. There’s actually a strong community of indigenous graffiti artists right based in the market. So it feels like home, basically,” he says.

“What it means to me to be indigenous in Kensington Market is essentially being at the root of the land … Overall, it just means that you have a direct connection to Mother Earth.”

Dakota comments that a lot of indigenous people have been going through tough times in the wake of recent discoveries of abuse resulting from the residential school system. His own grandmother lost two siblings because of it. He himself lacks status because of a governmental history of stripping people of their status. He says many people within the Catholic church think that what they were doing was helpful, and need to be enlightened.

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“You can see generations later, it’s broken down a whole mass of people,” he says. “We have to start with the churches. We have to re-educate them about what actually happened, what they actually did, as opposed to what they think they did.”

earth around you,” he says.

For him, decolonization and reconciliation looks like dismantling the capitalist system. “That’s the main oppressor that’s causing all the neglect and negative energy that’s just being poured, and all the smoke that’s just fogging up our entire Beyond relearning Canada’s very biased civilization.” history and being careful not to appropriate other Amazonians are directly affected by soy cultures, Dakota says that people can reach out to many already-established organizations in order farming, mining, rubber tapping, and burning of to help their indigenous neighbours. Miitzii, run the Amazon which has led to deforestation and by one of Dakota’s brothers who is an Anishinabe disease. Soy, which most Canadians consume graffiti artist, is one such organization. It provides through tofu and dairy-free products, is the food, clothes, and other resources for people in cheapest crop available to provide food for pigs, beef, and chickens in factory farms. need.

“We are people who come from peace. We are people who come from great knowledge of the land … The issue that we have today is that a lot of people look at indigenous people as a broken, or for lack of a better word, a savage group of people, but we come from humble beginnings. We come from great lessons,” he says.

“A lot of native issues connect to world issues,” Izzy adds. “A lot of things that indigenous people practice sacredly is a practice that a lot of us ignore in our daily lives which support Mother Earth that we live on.”

Learning about where to ethically source your “Support them as much as you can, let them know that you see them and let them know that groceries is the best way to locally combat such you feel their pain, they’ll appreciate it for that, environmental destruction. definitely,” Dakota says.

“Kensington Market is a beautiful place for Izzy plays guitar and has lived in Toronto for that,” says Izzy. “I feel that as long as we oppress ten years. He originates from Brazil, is half British any franchise, any oppressive type of corporation and half Amazonian with lineage from two tribes, or system in the market, we already do benefit and one of them being the Tapuya peoples of Brazil. support everyone who’s from all places.”

His identity seeps into his songwriting and is in As someone who loves to busk around and “his blood,” he says. in the market, play shows, and collaborate and Like Dakota, he urges people to provide a record with other artists, Izzy, who goes under the meal or offer support to indigenous people in name of Izstopia on media-sharing platforms, has the market, but to take time to learn from their released his first project earlier this year, titled Id. cultural practices. He acknowledges that he is a Dakota is currently working on transmitting settler here himself. strong morals through literature, specifically “If people can educate themselves about what children’s books inspired by his two young children, indigenous people actually do and provide for this Aurelia and Elijah. Though the books are not going earth and have been for centuries, you can start to be identity-themed, the lessons are universal. to reshape yourself and understand your presence Dakota touches back onto what it means to be and your identity and your privilege and use that appropriately in order to support the people and indigenous.

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AM Oooo ahhh Oooo ahhh Oooo ahhh

That’s the sound of the men Working on the chain gang They work so hard That’s the sound of the men Working on the chain gang Everyday I wake up Mental incarceration Clearly the fact We’re under attack How do we come back From alla that All of that hate they Ball up and make ways Make sure that they ways The only plays they make All of them they fake And we keep on playing their games Staying in their lanes S AY L E S S M A G A Z I N E

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imprettydope @imprettydope88

Yet still they blame The black body Any black body Can any black body Make it out here safe Make it to another day That’s the sound of the men Working on the chain gang My life matters My Black life matters Not more than yours And equal to the price you cost To sell out of humanity To be a person, who could be Blaming black bodies Using the folly Assuming you beauty Not a beast I am not an animal

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The Rebirth of Afroism: Part I By: Cheeko Wisdom

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The first time I met Renaissance in summer 2019, I knew he was a star. A tall, dark, handsome African-American man with such confidence and power, just posted up in front of Longboard Living. I immediately looked up to him as a leader and holder of knowledge.

I complimented him on his art and style. He commented how he looked up to my father, as a holistic leader. We both noted that we were Cancers and lived life with a weight of intense emotion and empathy. Needless to say, we connected instantly. He taught me a lesson that has and will stick with me for the rest of my life.

He said to me, “I’m not black and neither are you. Black by definition is ‘of the very darkest color owing to the absence of or complete absorption of light”. Our people are the exact opposite of that. Afro-Americans are a stunning range of brown, mocha, light, dark... a plethora of colours. We are the light of the world.”

I’m paraphrasing, but regardless, the word black has been associated with our people suppressing us subconsciously for centuries. So, I employ anyone reading this to try something new. Something beautiful. Try Afroism.

Afroism, a term coined

by Renaissance, is a play on Aphorism, but refers to what?

Aphorism - noun 1. a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”. “the old aphorism “the child is father to the man”” 2. a concise statement of a scientific principle, typically by an ancient classical author. “the opening sentence of the first aphorism of Hippocrates” Is a perfect description for African-Americans.

Renaissance’s Banksy-style art has been littered around the market throughout the pandemic and has been inspiring locals to think outside of the norm. A particular piece that stood out to me was what I like to call his ‘Jedi piece’. The seemingly fractured art spoke the words of freedom.

When speaking to Renaissance about his art, he expressed that “it’s not socially acceptable. Collectives are called collectives for a reason; you know what I mean. They only collect who they fuck wit. I’m not one of them.” So he curated his own space to create art.

“There used to be like 25 paintings on every hydro pole in Kensington… and now there’s only one. So now you can give your own judgement to the appreciation that’s given.” His art is something people want, and he made it accessible in one of the most artistic places in the city.

Renaissance lives by his words. His art, his truth. Afroism.

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