The Death of African Marketplace and the Birth of Leimert Park Village African Art & Music Festival

Art drawing courtesy of Aziz Diagne

The festival has been on for so many years with lots of African cultural heritage, fanfare and some good, good stuff to promote botany from motherland with the ideal the origin of man began from the African continent, from the passing of Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens, the modern man, as scientific anthropological evidence had it.

For the past 12 years or so, I have never missed any of the events, and, I have encouraged others to keep up with worthy nature by paying homage every year to the African Marketplace and Cultural Faire which ends all summer events, sort of, normally on Labor Day.

From the playgrounds and fields of Rancho La Cienega Park and Dorsey High School to the umiversity village of Exposition Park where the Los Angeles Sports Arena and Colliseum sits -- all on the academic landscape of USC; the carnival had been home to African Marketplace and Cultural Faire, moving from location to location over the years.

The talk had gone on for months coupled with the uncertainties of an economy gone bad nobody knew what the organizers of a model Orie Amigwe, the typical marketplace in motherland every commodity is bagained for. The African Marketplace had the same resemblance of Orie Amigwe in post-Nigeria-Biafra Civil War era.

But something had happened and the organizers, this year, decided to call it quits, blaming a bad economy and the city's budget shortcomings for its woes. What has a bad economy got to do with culture and especially when race is still a factor in America? Why would the organizers turn the other way when African-Americans are desperately eager to know more about the African culture and traditions which has never been part but always an entity? So what's going on, and why are the vendors and merchants who'd played a significant role in these events not asking questions? Probings like "we demand to know what's going on and what happened to the funding by the city and other big corporations to keep our cultural heritage on the shores of this land viable and intact."

"Nothing spoil," as some folks would lament in fractured English indicating "that's life" and life goes on, no matter which ever way one looks at it even as we keep losing base as a people who did come a long way.

As it happened, the death of African Marketplace and Cultural Faire ushered in the Ist Annual Leimert Park Village African Art and Music Festival sponsored in part by 8th District Council Member Bernard C. Parks, Community Build, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and KJLH 102.3 FM. KJLH is owned by Stevie Wonder.

In a move to bring Leimert Park back to life as a tourist center and a culturally-based entity, Senegalese-born artist Aziz Diagne took the humble task of putting a whole lot into perspective and in conjunction with Sika and Jackie Ryan who represents Leimert Park Village Association and advocates for the merchants causes, had African art and vibes brought back to leimert Park Village over the Labor Day weekend.

From September 5 through the 7th, Degnan Boulevard, 43rd Street and 43rd Place was turned into the Orie Amigwe hub of Black Township, stretching all along the Crenshaw thoroughfare in Los Angeles. There's the World Stage Performance Gallery, home to jam sessions, jazz lessons and scholarship. There's Kumasi Gift Shop, home to the Nana Prempehs, Komfo Anokyes, the golden stool, Frafra gears and Kente fabrics. There's African Heritage and Antique Collection Gallery, home of original African fine arts, prints, lithographs, African beads of Antiquity, old tribal arts, okwa mkpuru, masks -- Tuareg outfits, mud clothes from Mali, babariga and Igbo traditional clothings. There's Papa West Breakfast Club and casts of blues and jazzy-funk performances. There's the Zambezi Bazaar, known for its authentic African accessories, ethno-cultural books and numerous African artifacts. There's Sika and uncountable collection of jazz music and other African-related products.

On the westside of Degnan Bl. sits Fine Arts Gallery Plus, Eso Won Books, Heroik Entertainment, Africa By The Yard, New Orleans Vieux Carre Creole Cuisine where tasty sea foods and Big Easy dishes are found. Strolling down further sits Adassa's Island Cafe & Entertainment and Ackee Bamboo Jamaican Restaurant run by the energetic Marlene Beckford.

On 43rd Street sits Lucy Florence Art Gallery, Academy of Martial Arts, Gaynale Beauty Salon, Tip O Nail, Regency West, Philip's BBQ and Mary's Salon.

On 43rd Place sits Klub Kaos, the decaying and abandoned Vision Theatre, Eugene's Creative Designs, Studio 3345, O' So juicy N' Tasty Burgers, Leimert Park, New Star Beauty Supply, The Herb and Vitamin Center, 3H beauty and Universal College of beauty.

I had thought the launching of Leimert Park Village African Arts Festival might have some hiccups since I wasn't familiar with the organizers and what they had been up to. But I did talk to Diagne from time to time as the planning unfolded, and, eventually, the show was a success with an amazing turnout. Though with some hiccups due to lack of proper funding, I was able to talk to one of the organizers, Jackie Ryan, who runs Zambezi Bazaar with her brother and sister, Mary Kimbrough. Ms. Ryan who had been trading in Leimert Park the last fiteen years said the event was "culturally good, and economically could be better," insinuating an outrageous real estate and the highly overrated properties on the complex which made it difficult for people to sustain" especially the merchants who could barely meet up with a staggering high rent, suggesting rent in the community shouldn't be more than $500 and not the thousands of dollars collected by the property managers and landlords. "That would be just and fair," Ms. Ryan said and concluding, the community from her observations has sustained their businesses through its "loyal customer and cultural base."

According to Ryan, the event was independently produced with the city helping in providing "certain things like stage, chairs and tables." She applauded KJLH for its enormous contribution acknowledging "everybody helped, everybody was creative and everybody who worked on the committee was wonderful. We did it ourselves; there were no banks, no big funding -- we just had our own treasures so we don't have to borrow from anybody."

She also used the opportunity in our chat to thank the Los Angeles Sentinel for being very supportive by way of distributing over 30,000 flyers and postcards. "The volunteers were helpful for putting in their immesureable time for the event's success and there is hope there will be a commemoration of the event, come next year."

It seemed almost impossible to take the organizers seriously because of the timeframe on the sudden absence of the African Marketplace and Cultural Faire. The city had no value for cultural events and Ms. Ryan and her colleagues had no choice but to pull the bull by the horn in order to get things done. It worked and I think a 2nd annual event is very likely to hold based on the success of the opening shot.

Talk about the jam sessions. The stage at the carnival was explosive with performances by Azar Lawrence, Medusa, Wadada, Dwight Trible, Steel Fusion Musik, Walli Ali, Phil Ranelin, Andre Russell of LTD and World Stage Sextet. Lawrence, we all know had been around and had played alongside Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner in the 60s. There was also storytelling, spoken word, dancing, fashion shows, food courts and lots of people happy to see Africa come alive in Leimert Park.

Everyone I talked to seems to agree that the organizers, Leimert Park Merchant Association, took a bold step in not letting the uniqueness of African culture disappear in Los Angeles on the absence of African Marketplace and Cutural Faire. And many who came said they loved it and would come back again. Maxie Viltz who runs African Imports Village Treasures on Linden Avenue in Long Beach and who had invited me to stop by her shop and "check things out" said she enjoyed the three day show and liked what she saw, particularly the artifacts and okwa mkpuru, the masks displayed at the African Heritage & Antique Gallery owned by UC Bekerley trained criminologist turned trader, Obinne Emmanuel Onyeador. I also had spent enough time with Valeri Adams whose Help U Sell Resale program did some brisk business in front of Papa West Breakfast Club. Business was generally good and the merchants smiled all the way to the bank.

Harold Lott, who makes and fixes traditional handdrums in the community alternatively pointed out that the show was brilliantly well done, and that the community needs to keep up with working collectively towards achieving its goal of bringing everybody together, citing Community Build which helps young people in the community. Onyeador, who had earlier sold James Currey's "Africa Writes Back: The Africa Writers Series and the Launching of African Literature" to visiting University of Manchester students Laura and Josephine, said "the show wasn't bad at all," meaning brisk business was made considering the bad economy.

Enter researcher Gloria martinez who is working on a project regarding the 70s ragtag clothings told me she never expected the turnout to be that huge. She had bought some Michael Jackson t-shirts and beads down the street before bumping into me at the event. The best part of the event was the little corner between Papa West and African Heritage where my homies -- Kalu ezikpe, Obi Onyeador, Kenny Oriyomi, Ogbonna Nkelu and several other homeboys -- had gathered and discussed matters of interest related to the nasty politics of the day commonly found on the continent of Africa. Besides, the hangout was an event to remember.

Al in all, the festival was a remarkable success.

PAFF Final Beat

It had taken exactly eleven days from the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Mall on the Crenshaw thoroughfare of the “Black Township” to the nine hundred block of Washington Boulevard in Culver City which stretches to the Washington Corridor in Los Angeles in an event that has gone through mixed reviews on the side of the vendors who seems to be the ones complaining and talking about the 17th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF), which ended in Los Angeles, last night, and how the show came out bad vendors are now threatening lawsuits for being ripped off by the organizers of the festival.

I’m not sure if the recession should be blamed for the buy-sell apathy in which an estimated 10,000 people are losing their jobs daily; a record breaking account since the Great Depression. Nobody, however, is sure of the outcome since experts are predicting until the end of 2010 before things could probably be shaping up economically in what should be expected to be another cycle of economic prosperity, that is, if Wall Street is put in place.

But despite all that, a whole lot is still happening in the City of Angels, and people are still hanging out even though what use to be a livelier event on a sad note of bad economy, the 17th Annual PAFF was very obvious of economic collapse. “This is terrible,” one of the vendors who displayed his African accessories, a variety of beads, necklaces, earrings, shea butter cream and some artifacts complained of a slow, hopeless market. “How am I going to survive this environment with a $40 a day sale and all the bills that are climbing at an alarming rate.”

If recession is one thing to blame, one should be asking about all the line up of events tailored to run through May in Los Angeles alone. While PAFF and a series of its activities were going on in a two location event, some cultural stuff was also taking place all over town. The Vintage Hollywood Private Club on the Washington Corridor has taken its activities to another level. Throughout the month of February, classic black films – “Stormy Weather,” “Carmen Jones,” and “Cabin in the Sky” will be screened and admission is free. So there’s a lot of vibes going on in ones Hollywood. A full bar and lots of Los Angeles goodies at this newly rejuvenated joint is a hangout you don’t want to miss.

I think it’s quite fun when one walks around the marketplace, the 17th Annual PAFF, in a different mood this year because both patrons and merchants in what use to be a merry-crowd in the eleven days festival vanished this time around and it’s not funny. A security guard at the front entrance of the mall: “Ain’t nothing wrong with the fuckin’ economy. It’s all a set up; you know what I’m saying? And you blame George Bush. I don’t have anything with what’s going on with the fuckin’ economy and if they feel like cutting my hours I sho’ fuckin’ will quit and take unemployment…And I sho fuckin’ will sue their ass, that’s right”

The guard is not happy for being sentry, standing post on a little-bit above minimum wage and mad as hell because his relief is behind schedule and he wants to “get the fuck outta here,” cuz, it’s “ass-kicking time.”

On the other side of the mall behind Wall Mart, there is a makeshift massage parlor run by some Asians and as it happened their business boomed and patrons were trooping to relieve a nerve-wracking recession-proof tension.

It wasn’t only the cultural thing that got attention during the festival. People, not related to the festival came from all over. I ran into Carolyn J. Garner who happens to be doing some worthy stuff and we did hang out talking about a bunch of things that could lift the spirit of the African “if all hands are on deck.” She did the math – uncountable trips to Ethiopia providing medical services to the underprivileged and proud of it on many grounds – being blessed and having the opportunity to lend a helping hand in an area of the world where the government has turned the other way. Carolyn had held me for more than an hour talking about the unfortunate events of slavery and the mess it created for centuries to come.

Interestingly, though after all the tough talks about sharecroppers, slavery and all that, we shifted to the screenings at the film festival and began discussing the ones that made the headlines. Before we began, I had mentioned Sophie Okonedo and her role in “Skin:”

And her parents were white South Africans. And born of white parents in apartheid South Africa, she looked black. And she was tormented and unaccepted in a white society. And she was black. And she falls in love with a black man. And she alienates her parents. And she relocates elsewhere to a township. All of this happened because she was born black because of her genetic abnormality. And her name is Sandra Haing. And she paid a surprise visit at the screening of “Skin” on February 11 at the Culver Plaza Theaters. And there was a photo session. And PAFF founder Ayuko Babu was all smiles in that photo-op.

Another film of interest was, as part of the routine Brazilian Carnival and the PAFF, the presentation of the 50th anniversary of “Black Orpheus” which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1960.”Black Orpheus” had been widely advertised and sponsored by the Ngolo Arts Preservation Society and Amoeba Music.

A lot of fascinating films were shown during the course of the festival. There was “Scared Justice,” a film about the Orangeburg massacre where black students protested the Orangeburg bowling alley’s refusal to admit African Americans when South Carolina State Troopers and other law enforcement agents fired on them. Three were killed and twenty-seven injured.

And there’s Charles Burnett’s “Relative Strangers” starring Eriq LaSalle, Cicely Tyson, and Michael Beach about a “successful man who, fearing failure, separates himself from his family until he receives word of his father’s death.”

And there’s “Making the Rhino,” about environment, tourism and conservatism from the Maasai people of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba people point of view.

And, finally, not to forget the South African drama "Jerusalema" directed by Ralph Zinman, typical of Nollywood films about Lucky Kunene (Rapulana Seiphemo) who transformed himself to being a real estate crime boss after years of street carjacking to make a living. The film opened the festival on a red carpet at the Director's Guild of America on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Street Trading in Naija

Photo courtesy of Tunji Obasa of THE NEWS

PAFF Beats @ the Mall

(Culver Plaza) Courtesy of Aharvey
The 17th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) which kicked off on February 5, seems to be having some hiccups due to the organizers' decision to move the film venue to Culver Plaza Theater from its original schedule at the Magic Johnson Theaters in Baldwin Hill-Crenshaw Plaza Mall on the Crenshaw thoroughfare of "Black Township" in Los Angeles. Of course, we learned Magic Johnson Theaters was sold but patrons and vendors are complaining for a variety of reasons.

I did take a tour of the cultural faire, the marketplace, yesterday afternoon which had its normal schedule at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Mall. I had gone there before the showing of "Skin" starring Sophie Okonedo, premiering at the Culver Plaza Theater with much expectations of the mysterious South African girl who was born black by white parents. There's a whole lot to talk about the set, Sophie, the cast and the movie itself.

Anyways, while at the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza Mall, and walking through the booths of the vendors who had expected to kick off the year on a good start, the conclusion of most vendors did not augur well with the scheme of things notably going back to the festivals rosy years. "The move to Culver City where the films are being shown killed the festival," a vendor who sold African attires and accesories told me on the condition of anonymity. However, it was very obvious this year's marketplace at the Mall was very slow and moving the film venue added to the festival's slow turnout. Maybe, if both marketplace and the films had been at the same location, the turnout would have been different, perhaps, better according to one of the vendors I spoke with, even though Magic sold his theater to AMC Cinemas which 'jacked up" the rent.

Nonetheless, we'll see how it plays out before the closing ceremony on the 16th, and hopefully this year's event would probably be the deciding factor on how to organize future events.

Joyous Festivities and Merry-Making at the 2008 African Marketplace Festival in Los Angeles

by Ambrose Ehirim

It was a weekend of a two weeks event which climaxed the Summer and folks from all walks of life had trooped in to get a feel of motherland Africa which has been since its inception -- the stuff of life and a great stuff of African cultural heritage. It is, in fact, the stuff of great literature.

Once more, the event took me aback to the days of Orie Amigwe, the once notable marketplace for second hand clothes, produce from organics, poking around and bargains for better deals haggling for money and things like that when a plundered and demolished Igbo nation had begun to start life anew after Yakubu Gowon's-led Genocidal campaign against a desperately starved Igbo children including infants and women.

But somehow the 2008 African Marketplace and Cultural Faire was a unique event considering an economy that has gone so bad and people are still happy at a time of going through the pains of hopelessness was very obvious. Sitting on the playgrounds of Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, there were bargains and selling and trading of artifacts from all cultural backgrounds in Africa.

I took a tour and talked to several people including merchants who had paid over a thousand bucks for a booth. And some of the booths so small one will be wondering the purpose of trying to make a brisk business in these hardtimes of an economy completely destroyed by the Bush-Cheney administration.

America is still a great country and the pains of economic hardship does not stop an outgoing public from having fun and moving on to do the best out of a very bad situation never mind what the Bush administration did fighting a not relevant war in Iraq resulting to America losing its value as an empire after Ronald Reagan dismantled the Soviet bloc. I guess empires come and go. So they say.

I had thought the Bush era had destroyed this country in its entirety in terms of commerce until I walked in to the carnival which had the same resemblance of Woodstock reflecting the 60s hippies and the outfits unveiled by the legendary Jimi Hendrix when pot-smoking was seen as a normal thing in an era of rage against the establishment.

Founded twenty three years ago by James Burks, the African Marketplace and Cultural Faire has become one of the best organized forums where you can feel mother nature Africa. A whole lot was on display and whether you were just window shopping, bargaining or selling one item or the other, and you are a merchant making a brisk business and the faces of Africa all in your face, the African Marketplace is just home.

On the eastside of the facility Nigerians and their neigbors tapped leather while the tennis courts around the corner was open to all and sundry. The swimming pool on the southside was full to capacity due to the Summer heat and all that summer jams flowing from the Balkanized forums where trade by barter and complete bargains took its course.

The forum had all sorts of African related restaurants serving African traditional dishes. The ginger root beer and jollof rice coupled with fried plantain sold by one Sierra Leonean lady had customers lick their fingers, perhaps an indication the food was really tasty. I would rather recommend a Michelin Star to the owner of Stone Market and Restaurants who has served the African and Caribbean communities in Los Angeles for many years now and whose stand at the festival had a very long line noted for its cowfoot soup, a combination of seasoned curry goat, ox tail and rice. There were no Nigerian food stands for consumption of isi ewu, nri ji, amala, ngwo ngwo and things like that in a festival every culture represented.

Stone Market and Restaurants was the real deal among the restaurant chains which sat on the southwest corner. Smiling all the time and speaking with an accent that immediately reveals his Jamaican origin, Stone has shown how being consistent and persistent pays off in the long run.

Leaving the restaurant zone takes you to the arena where all kinds of music pops up. I bumped to an arena where jazz was the theme and we had formed a circle to discuss jazz and its scholarship. We talked about the days of Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter when Weather Report had created a theme that left a mark in modern jazz. We talked about the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lee Morgan, Coleman Hawkins, David "Fathead" Newman and the days of the Village Vanguard Concerts. We talked about the Kudu years when Creed Taylor had assembled jazz greats Johnny Hammond, Grover Washington Jr., Hank Crawford, Eric Gale, Billy Cobham, McCoy Tyner, George Benson which came to be known as the cross over era.

It was real fun and a fantastic way to end the Summer when reggae great Gregory Isaacs closed the show with that hell of a smash hit called "Night Nurse" which vibed from the stage and everybody sang along:

Tell her try her best to make it quick
Woman tend to the sick
Because there must be something she can do

This heart is broken in two
Tell her it's a case of emergency
There is a patient by the name of Gregory

Night nurse
Only you can quench this here thirst
My night nurse
Oh God oh the pain is getting worse...

If you missed it this year keep your head because next year is just around the corner and time flies by, remember?

PHOTO OP: Scenes at the 2008 African Marketplace Festival in Los Angeles

With an all round bad economy, this beautiful girl was smiling to the bank selling accessories --body oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, varieties of incense -- and business boomed for her at the African Marketplace.

Like a spiritual revival and despite a bad economy, these women were on their feet stomping, dancing and chanting with their hands up to the vibes of an all women drum session. It was a hell of a jam.

This aspiring model and her friend told me they breezed in to have fun and nothing but fun. Watch out for her at the next American top model.

An artifact on display set up by Obi Onyeador of African Treasures.

Security detail checking in concert goers for the Gregory Isaacs Concert which was full to capacity.

The line up at Stone African-Caribbean Cuisine noted for its fine dishes.

It's all good regardless of a bad economy.

And of course, there was a livestock trade.

Latino soccer players take a break after tapping leather on the football field of Dorsey High School.