Maestro Fresh Wes officially launches book inspiring kids to ‘stick to your vision’

Widely known as the godfather of Canadian hip hop, rapper, actor and host Maestro Fresh Wes recently added author to his many titles.

Wes co-wrote children’s book Stick to your vision: Young Maestro goes to School with Rhodora Meliton-Vanderpool last year, but could not hold a book launch due to COVID-19 restrictions.

On Thursday, he returned to his hometown of Scarborough from his residence in New Brunswick to officially launch the book with a special event for students, teachers and parents ahead of the upcoming school year.

The event, billed ‘Scarborough goes back to school,’ was held at Scarborough Town Centre, where Wes has a star on the mall’s Walk of Fame.

He says he wrote the book partly because he had some very inspirational school teachers and he wanted to showcase the pivotal role they play in a young child’s life.

“There’s a lot of beautiful school teachers that made an impact on my life and are making an impact on a lot of students’ lives as well. And I thought it was a great thing,” he tells CityNews.

Wes says good teachers are one of the three key elements of success he highlights in the book, which he hopes will encourage kids to stay focused on their education and goals.

“The book emphasizes the importance of family structure, the importance of mentorship, and the importance of influential elementary school teachers and on top of that, the importance of hip hop because hip hop was the foundation that brings me here, doing what I do,” he says.

At the event, Wes read some excerpts from his book for the kids in attendance and performed his classic hit “Let your Backbone Slide.” He says he wanted to inspire them to get excited and feel positive about going back to school after two very difficult years.

“It’s going to be a different school year based on the last two years – how that’s been with all the restrictions and what have you – so now it’s time to shine, let these kids get back in the right frame of mind. But not only the kids, I’m talking about the parents and I’m talking about the teachers as well,” he says.

The event included giveaways for the kids, made possible by contributions from various businesses including Best Buy and Superstore as well as local success story Black Owned Toronto.

“We’ve been collecting school supplies in our store — all month people have been coming in and giving us school supplies,” explained Black Owned Toronto founder Kerin John. “Then we had a very generous donation from a Black-owned company called The Basic Ankara. They gave us a bunch of bags, fanny packs and tote bags. So we stuffed all those bags with school supplies [to give the kids].”

Wes says the tie-in with Black Owned Toronto was a no brainer for him.

“I support my community — that’s what it’s all about. That’s the beauty of living in Toronto — we see so many different ethnicities and all these other communities, they support each other. So we have to show that we support each other too — it’s just self explanatory,” he says.

Wes also signed copies of his book at the event and took some time to chat one-on-one with the kids.

“He was talking about anxiety and what to do if you’re stressed … it made me feel inspired,” says 10-year-old Marcos.

Wes says his aim for both the event and the book in the long term is to inspire kids to find what they’re passionate about and keep at it to achieve their goals.

“I have a slogan — don’t make records, make history,” he says.