1 Jazz Festival and 6 courses

Winter has rolled upon us, I know this because the hoodys and sweatshirts are now outselling the T shirts on the Proud to be African Clothing website and people are hinting I should up my children’s collection from just baby bodysuits and children’s T shirts to all weather onesies.

My reply as ever is buy more and I’ll see what I can do!!

A packed week beckons us with loads of events,  the first being the African Foundation for Development  (AFFORD UK) Enterprise week a series of weeklong events with topics as diverse and varied as ‘Linking Remittances to Business & Savings’ (Monday 6pm at the House of Commons) to ‘Diaspora & Creative Enterprises in Africa’(Thursday 1-5pm Reed Smith, Broadgate Tower) . AFFORD UK was founded in 1994 aiming to organize UK based Africans to contribute to Africa’s economic development. Having been to several of their events I can attest to the fact that these are the people who walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. With a series of trips back home by UK based African professionals they have contributed to capacity building in the Nigerian education sector, enterprise development in Lagos, money transfer and remittances in Sierra Leone. A group well worth watching.

On Wednesday PTBA favourite Femi Temowo teams up with fascinating percussionist  Adriano Adewale for a promising gig at the 606 Club as part of the London Jazz Festival, tickets are £12.00 and the show starts at 8.00pm. This is the last Orin Meta London show for this year so if you’ve missed the last two London gigs you need to get to this one as this promises to be a sublime fusion of Africa and Brazil. A little bit of tropical sunshine to chase away the winter! And for those of us (like myself!) who are a little tardy in their Christmas shopping the Orin Meta CD and limited edition T shirt are definite stocking fillers!

Come Friday there is another extra special event, Oneness Sankara; renowned spoken word poet, songstress, actress, director and song writer and part of the Best Kept Secret  poetry Collective is launching her new single ‘A Colon and a Bracket’ at the Tabernacle, Powis Street, Notting Hill. I had the pleasure of hearing her perform at the Mama Africa event this past Friday at the same venue her repertoire and skills are amazing as you can tell from this.

Oneness has performed on BBC Radio 4, Choice FM, BEN TV, BBC Midlands and even in Norway on Oslo TV. She’s graced the stage at Glastonbury Festival and performed with artists such as Mica Paris, Terri Walker, Swiss, Black Twang, Dead Prez to name a few. She is also the first person outside of the USA to win a prize at The Toronto International Poetry Slam in Canada.
Its not an event to be missed,  it will be hosted by Jonzi D, with special guests UK/ Nigerian hip hop artist Ty (yes Ty!!), Lyric L, Joy Joseph, Geniyo and KMT the Freedom Teacher on the decks.  The Tabernacle Friday the 18^th, doors open 7.00pm and tickets are £7.00.

On Saturday we will be attending the Black Youth Achievement Awards at the Jurys Inn Hotel, Croydon. The Black Youth Achievement Awards seeks to reverse the negative image of the nation’s youth; there will be a 3 course meal, performances and special guests and Proud to be African Clothing will be there to support the cause.

Also on Saturday the 100 Black Men of London will be holding their gala dinner on Saturday evening as well at the Cumberland Hotel Marble Arch. This 3 course gala meal (yes another 3 courses!) has the theme of Conceive, Believe, Achieve, again this is an extremely worthy organisation that is out there doing the things that need to be done rather than just talking about them. Running a highly successful mentoring programme, this unsung organisation operates purely through member’s subscriptions and purely through the efforts of its highly dedicated volunteers. Get your tickets here

We round up the week at Natural November on Sunday the 2oth at the Africa Centre, this natural cultural hair, health and beauty event aims of Natural November is to offer an alternative and to showcase the very best in natural hair and beauty products, Afrocentric fashion and accessories, cultural art and crafts, inspiring books and educational seminars. Tickets are £12.50 or 2 for £20.00