Africa in New York
Although I'm not physically in New York City anymore, I'll probably keep on writing about it a few more posts. The previous post implied that there is a niche for every possible country or culture in New York - that is the essence of that city. Being an Africanist, I 'had to' get acquainted with the African-ness of New York and found it in very different places, some by coincidence, some I was really looking after for.
African Music Night at St. Nick's Pub
773 St. Nicholas Avenue at 149th st. (subway A to 145th st.)
Review on Not-For-Tourists website; somebody's blog entry on the night with some blurry photos; on the history of the pub on their website
I spent my last night in New York, a Saturday night, in St. Nick's Pub. Mainly because I was exhausted after all the packing and going around Brooklyn, rushing through the last places I still wanted to see and didn't want to go somewhere two-hour subway-ride or an expensive cab-ride away. St. Nick's was close to Washington Heights where I was staying the last week (I walked there and took a cab back, only 8 dollars), it was recommended by a colleague and hey: it was also mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. The African Night is on every Saturday, other nights they have live jazz, and especially the Monday night jam sessions are reputedly excellent. Not to mention that this is all free - there is the usual tip jar going around and the bartenders try to persuade customers with their "two drinks a set, two drinks a set" yells, but most of the people seemed to ignore them and concentrate on dancing.
I can't believe I hadn't found this place before: they had an amazing band (or two or three bands, some of the musicians played in all of the bands, some changed) composed of musicians coming from different African countries, I would guess mostly from Mali and Guinea. The bar is tiny, it doesn't look like much from outside - and neither inside, except cozy and kitsch - they take only cash, but oh, are you going to have so much fun if you like this bluesy kind of West African music! I chatted with some of the people at the bar (from Senegal, Mali...) and the bar being so small, on my way to the restroom one guy in the band that I hadn't spoken to yet said something like "Hi, I heard you're leaving tomorrow?". A very small place. Mostly I danced, talked with another UN intern who came there to meet me on my last night, and danced some more. I returned home at 4am and felt a bit sorry I didn't know about St. Nick's before - something for the next time!
Djoniba Dance & Drum Centre
www.djoniba.com
The place to do African dance classes (or almost any non-Western dances) in New York is Djoniba. At the moment they are going through some economic troubles but are still having classes for $15, although in a different venue than before.
In the beginning I clearly over-estimated my dance skills and went for an intermediate class of West African dancing. The teacher was an excellent dancer, but so were the students. The rhythm was probably faster than I had ever danced to, and that is FAST. The class was way out of my league, unfortunately, but I still enjoyed just watching the other extremely skillful students dance. The students were just as diverse as New Yorkers are: mostly African-American, but also lots of Asian and white people enjoying the dance movements and filled with joy. Oh, and almost all the classes have live drummers - some have only one, but one class I attended had probably 8-9 drummers, earplugs were certainly needed!
After realising that the intermediate level is too high for me, but that the beginner level would be too boring for West African dances that I have been doing for years already, I decided to go for something new. I took Congolese dance a few times, with Funmilayo - again a totally different perspective for African dance, most of the dancing concentrating on in the hips and the belly.
I also wanted to try Haitian dances, somehow expecting it to be similar to Beninese vodou rhythms, the roots of many Haitians being on the West African coast, especially in Benin/Nigeria. Well, it wasn't: could be that we did dances which were less influenced by Benin and more by Congo or Europe, but in any case it was physically very demanding (I was aching for four days after my first class), and choreographically I adored it! I can highly recommend the teacher, Peniel Guerrierm (an interview; a very short video on YouTube) although I feel a bit sorry that he did not elaborate on the cultural background of the dances we were doing. Some of the movements were easy to decipher: imitating animals, such as a chicken or a snake, but most of them were not so clear to me. Again, maybe more another time...
Little Senegal
Around 116th street, Central Harlem.
Besides being the historical African-American district, Harlem is changing into an African, particularly West African, neighbourhood. A few blocks of Central Harlem are being called "Le Petit Senegal", the Little Senegal because of its garment shops, beauty parlors and restaurants offering services to the West African immigrants or African-Americans finding their roots. Since I lived nearby the first two months, I often walked along these streets and also tried some of the restaurants. Africa Kine is a bit more upscale restaurant (dishes around 10-15 dollars) with delicious Senegalese food (I had Thiebu Djen, "national dish of Senegal", rice-thing with fish and vegetables), whereas Le Baobab (review in TimeOut), another Senegalese restaurant on the 116th street had a more 'African' feeling with its blaring French channel TVs, relaxed atmosphere and more working-class customers.
Besides food, the outdoor markets on the 116th and 125th street offer other African products as well. The most common one is a plastic can of Shea Butter, often coming from Ghana. The text on the cover of the can promises that shea butter cures practically everything - something that I heard already in Benin! Supposedly, besides dry skin, it also cures bruises, rashes and sunburns. It's pure fat, made out of shea nuts (karité in French) and heavenly for dry elbows...I like it and I bought one for my mom, too.
Malian singers gathered quite a crowd in front of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office building in Harlem, 125th Street.
African Diaspora Film Festival
http://www.nyadff.org/ (screaming link, beware!)
The whole thing with African-American vs. African identities intersecting and opposing each other is endlessly intriguing. At least one film has been made of this phenomenon of two very different black identities: Little Senegal (2001, imbd.com), named after the above-mentioned community in Harlem. I would imagine the movie has been shown at some of the previous African Diaspora Film Festival screenings - another Africa-related event I participated in December. They had loads of interesting films which, unfortunately, did not find their audience. Most of the screenings were half-empty. Could be the lack of advertising or the fact that most of the films were subtitled - there is a general aversion towards foreign, subtitled films in the US. I would love to write more on the films I saw, but because this post is getting too long already, I'll just add it on my ever-growing list of things to write...
African Music Night at St. Nick's Pub
773 St. Nicholas Avenue at 149th st. (subway A to 145th st.)
Review on Not-For-Tourists website; somebody's blog entry on the night with some blurry photos; on the history of the pub on their website
I spent my last night in New York, a Saturday night, in St. Nick's Pub. Mainly because I was exhausted after all the packing and going around Brooklyn, rushing through the last places I still wanted to see and didn't want to go somewhere two-hour subway-ride or an expensive cab-ride away. St. Nick's was close to Washington Heights where I was staying the last week (I walked there and took a cab back, only 8 dollars), it was recommended by a colleague and hey: it was also mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. The African Night is on every Saturday, other nights they have live jazz, and especially the Monday night jam sessions are reputedly excellent. Not to mention that this is all free - there is the usual tip jar going around and the bartenders try to persuade customers with their "two drinks a set, two drinks a set" yells, but most of the people seemed to ignore them and concentrate on dancing.
I can't believe I hadn't found this place before: they had an amazing band (or two or three bands, some of the musicians played in all of the bands, some changed) composed of musicians coming from different African countries, I would guess mostly from Mali and Guinea. The bar is tiny, it doesn't look like much from outside - and neither inside, except cozy and kitsch - they take only cash, but oh, are you going to have so much fun if you like this bluesy kind of West African music! I chatted with some of the people at the bar (from Senegal, Mali...) and the bar being so small, on my way to the restroom one guy in the band that I hadn't spoken to yet said something like "Hi, I heard you're leaving tomorrow?". A very small place. Mostly I danced, talked with another UN intern who came there to meet me on my last night, and danced some more. I returned home at 4am and felt a bit sorry I didn't know about St. Nick's before - something for the next time!
Djoniba Dance & Drum Centre
www.djoniba.com
The place to do African dance classes (or almost any non-Western dances) in New York is Djoniba. At the moment they are going through some economic troubles but are still having classes for $15, although in a different venue than before.
In the beginning I clearly over-estimated my dance skills and went for an intermediate class of West African dancing. The teacher was an excellent dancer, but so were the students. The rhythm was probably faster than I had ever danced to, and that is FAST. The class was way out of my league, unfortunately, but I still enjoyed just watching the other extremely skillful students dance. The students were just as diverse as New Yorkers are: mostly African-American, but also lots of Asian and white people enjoying the dance movements and filled with joy. Oh, and almost all the classes have live drummers - some have only one, but one class I attended had probably 8-9 drummers, earplugs were certainly needed!
After realising that the intermediate level is too high for me, but that the beginner level would be too boring for West African dances that I have been doing for years already, I decided to go for something new. I took Congolese dance a few times, with Funmilayo - again a totally different perspective for African dance, most of the dancing concentrating on in the hips and the belly.
I also wanted to try Haitian dances, somehow expecting it to be similar to Beninese vodou rhythms, the roots of many Haitians being on the West African coast, especially in Benin/Nigeria. Well, it wasn't: could be that we did dances which were less influenced by Benin and more by Congo or Europe, but in any case it was physically very demanding (I was aching for four days after my first class), and choreographically I adored it! I can highly recommend the teacher, Peniel Guerrierm (an interview; a very short video on YouTube) although I feel a bit sorry that he did not elaborate on the cultural background of the dances we were doing. Some of the movements were easy to decipher: imitating animals, such as a chicken or a snake, but most of them were not so clear to me. Again, maybe more another time...
Little Senegal
Around 116th street, Central Harlem.
Besides being the historical African-American district, Harlem is changing into an African, particularly West African, neighbourhood. A few blocks of Central Harlem are being called "Le Petit Senegal", the Little Senegal because of its garment shops, beauty parlors and restaurants offering services to the West African immigrants or African-Americans finding their roots. Since I lived nearby the first two months, I often walked along these streets and also tried some of the restaurants. Africa Kine is a bit more upscale restaurant (dishes around 10-15 dollars) with delicious Senegalese food (I had Thiebu Djen, "national dish of Senegal", rice-thing with fish and vegetables), whereas Le Baobab (review in TimeOut), another Senegalese restaurant on the 116th street had a more 'African' feeling with its blaring French channel TVs, relaxed atmosphere and more working-class customers.
Besides food, the outdoor markets on the 116th and 125th street offer other African products as well. The most common one is a plastic can of Shea Butter, often coming from Ghana. The text on the cover of the can promises that shea butter cures practically everything - something that I heard already in Benin! Supposedly, besides dry skin, it also cures bruises, rashes and sunburns. It's pure fat, made out of shea nuts (karité in French) and heavenly for dry elbows...I like it and I bought one for my mom, too.
Malian singers gathered quite a crowd in front of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office building in Harlem, 125th Street.African Diaspora Film Festival
http://www.nyadff.org/ (screaming link, beware!)
The whole thing with African-American vs. African identities intersecting and opposing each other is endlessly intriguing. At least one film has been made of this phenomenon of two very different black identities: Little Senegal (2001, imbd.com), named after the above-mentioned community in Harlem. I would imagine the movie has been shown at some of the previous African Diaspora Film Festival screenings - another Africa-related event I participated in December. They had loads of interesting films which, unfortunately, did not find their audience. Most of the screenings were half-empty. Could be the lack of advertising or the fact that most of the films were subtitled - there is a general aversion towards foreign, subtitled films in the US. I would love to write more on the films I saw, but because this post is getting too long already, I'll just add it on my ever-growing list of things to write...
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