By Fred Alvarado Fred is a community journalist with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE

On Wednesday April 19th, 2023, the Regent Park community celebrated Eid Bazaar and Market 2023 at the Daniels Spectrum Centre as the Regent Park Muslim community marked the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan and celebrated Eid in the neighbourhood. The event was organized by a coalition of community groups made up of the Centre for Learning and Development, Mothers of Peace, Daniels, THCH, Artscape and the City of Toronto.

Regent Park residents and visitors came to shop and support local entrepreneurs offering women’s clothes, jewellery, crafts, cotton candy, popcorn, snacks, henna, and more.

Sureya Ibrahim who is the Supervisor of Community Connections at CL&D and the founder of Mothers of Peace, is also the organizer of the Regent Park Eid Bazaar and Market 2023.

“As you know in Regent Park there’s a huge Muslim population that resides here and this community event is one way of creating a sense of belonging and doing a bazaar related to the Holy Month. Muslim community wants to do some shopping for the Eid, henna for their kids and for themselves, buying Eid clothes and arts, buy some snacks, and all it’s here in the same building to support local vendors; all the vendors are from Regent Park and each one of them have different backgrounds. The Centre for Learning and Development is the lead organization and most of the heavy lifting is done by Mothers of Peace volunteers who are also Regent Park residents”, said Sureya Ibrahim.