 |
| Estelle-Proud to be African |
Born in the UK Made in Africa is not just a catchy slogan but the reality for many of us of African diaspora, some of us are literally Born in the UK and then grow up in Africa whilst others just grow up in African households, a comment I get a lot is why don’t the T shirts or sweatshirts say ‘Born in Africa, made in the UK’? Well other than a load of practical stock management reasons it just doesn’t seem catchy enough. However this weekend we met the 2 people who fit both descriptions.
 |
| Ty-Born in the Uk Made in Africa |
Ty is a British Hip hop artist with 4 studio albums and collaborations with everyone from Tony Allen to De La Soul. He was born in the UK to a Nigerian family and in his own words was ‘the first to rep the N-IG-!’ on Friday at the Shrine at Rich Mix he headlined alongside Afrikan Boy also known as Olushola Ajose, who was born in Nigeria and then came to the UK rapidly building up a following on the grime scene with his tune ‘One day I went to Lidl’ followed by his collaborations with M.I.A.
Ty backed by his yellow clad DJ got the crowd swaying and dancing to tracks and was well in the swing of things when who should walk in but Estelle, he dragged her on stage to massive applause. He finished his set with a humorous tale possibly setting stall for a side career as a comedian!
 |
| Afrikan Boy- Thanking Jesus! |
Afrikan Boy followed with tracks from his new EP Lagos Town. Stand out tunes were the tribute to Da Grin and his final tune ‘Kunta Kinte’, with the immortal lines
“My name is Kunta Kinte,
I don’t drive a hummer,
but I’ve got many whips from my old slave master,
Praise be to Allah, thank Jesus for Obama,
they can never change my name to Toby or whatever....but I go dance!”
Powerful stuff abi!
For Proud to be African Clothing it was a bumper night with Estelle buying hoodys for all her crew and Ty and Afrikan Boy kitting themselves out with T shirts and hoodys.
All in all a great night for music and a great night for PTBA.
This week and the Weekend
This week sees Proud to be African Clothing at the African Caribbean Business Network 11th Annual Conference at the BT Auditorium, 81 Newgate Street, EC1A 7A on Tuesday 6th December. This will be focussed on Contacts for Contracts the Olympics, with seminars for small businesses on how to profit from the Olympics
Friday the 9th sees two excellent events, at The Tabernacle, Powis Square, WOM@TT (World Music at the Tabernacle) at 7pm presents Best of British Awards Breakthrough 2011 with Bumi Thomas and Asheber and The Afrikan Revolution in association with Carnival Village, Colourful, Afropop Live and KMT. Its £10.00 on the door or £8.00 in advance, don’t miss this chance to see these excellent musical talents!
Bumi Thomas is an inspiring singer/composer who has made large strides this past year sharing the stage with such artists as Sona Jobarteh , while Asheber is an innovative and mutil talented producer, musician, workshop leader and community activist.
On the other side of London at 9pm at the Babalou Bar St. Matthews Church Brixton Hill, SW2 1JF in Brixton, El Crisis presents the Dark Sea Scrolls, 9 artists with 9 minutes to perform, these are always excellent events with spoken word, singers, drummers, DJ’s and comedians getting up and performing in an excellent intimate setting. 9 minutes sometimes stretches to 30 but that’s all the groove! headlining is the legendary Hip Hop pioneer, Jonzi D. There is also award winning poet Kat Francois, powerful singer songwriter and poet FLOetic LARA, Lyrical comedic rhyming master Miraculous as well as Hayereyah Pure Feminien Energy, Cerebral Hyper, Ma’ankha Baast and word and drama groupSilhouettz in the Dark. All of this with KMT on the decks as well! £9.00 less in advance on the door, last one for the year so get involved.
Again on the same day the Igbo Cultural and Social network (ICSN) will be holding their ChristmasParty at 9pm at Biagio, Bankside, 32 Southwark Bridge Road, If we are looking for fine, fine Naija girls and cool Naija boys then you need to be there, apparently their going to party like its your birthday! Early bird tickets are £5.00, £10.00 on the door.
Friday is not going to be easy for me as you can see, but Saturday is worse!!!!
Saturday the 10th of December is equally jampacked between 11am and 5 pm the Hackney ChristmasMarket will be taking place at the Stoke Newington Town Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street,N16 0JR, its free entry to get in and will see a variety of stalls from fashion, food, arts, music etc, this highly popular local event is building on past reviews and extends over the Saturday and Sunday, its free entry so if you are passing through Hackney, come buy say hello and grab a hoody to keep out the cold!
In the afternoon the Akhaya Cookery School will be holding their Akhaya African Christmas Fair as well in Tottenham Green Enterprise Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, N15 4RX. In addition to the obvious food related stalls and activities there will be hampers for purchase. It starts at 2pm and finishes at 8pm and is free entry.
At 6pm AJAMU will host their 5th Year Anniversary at the Chesnuts Community Centre, 280 St Anns Road, N15 5BN, this event will be full of music, poetry, stalls, food and entertainment from Oneness Sankara, Mangaliso Asi, King 'Le Cha' Lion, Maskelah, Silas Zephania and Vibs.
Also at 6pm Eagle House Ministries will be hosting Feed the Lamb Charity Fashion Show at 24 Wandle Way, Mitcham, CR4 4NB. This show aims to raise money to rebuild a school in Ghana, entry is £5.00, please support this excellent cause
Sunday sees day 2 of the Hackney Christmas Market as well as Renessence 360 from 12-5pm at Scandals, 82-84 Norwood High Street, West Norwood, SE27 9NW an event for small businesses to showcase their goods in the pre Christmas shopping rush
All in all very busy weekend again, you have no excuse to dodge us this time! Come over to Hackney, Mitcham, Norwood or wherever and say hello.
Hopefully there's enough here to warm you up and turn your winter into Harmattan!!
No comments:
Post a Comment