A Bit of a Change

Hopefully you've found your way here, so welcome! Apparently my previous domain name, which was simply thingsblackpeopledoinhartford.com has been taken over. I'll miss that name, but this will have to do for now. I hope to have some lovely new things here, so check back soon!

Healing, Heritage, Hanky-Panky and Health in Hartford

Whether you're looking for a low-key evening with friends or a chance to have a lively discussion with your neighbors, Hartford has it this weekend.

Thursday night has two different events in Hartford with two very different vibes. First is a Healing Circle on Child and Youth Violence. This is the first of three group writing and sharing events taking place to "address our individual and collective pain resulting from the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case and similar killings of Black youth, such as Robert Lawlor, that have occured in Hartford." This event will take place in the Community Room of the Albany Avenue Branch Library. Future dates are Thursday, August 15 at the Children's Program Room of the Downtown Branch Library, and Thursday, September 10 at the Conference of Churches at 224 Farmington Avenue. This event is free and refreshments will be served.

Also on Thursday is Wadsworth Atheneum's First Thursday event, the theme for this month being Emancipation! A Caribbean themed block party to get you warmed up for the Taste of the Caribbean & Jerk Festival. If I were to compile a list of things you must do in Hartford, (which I probably should) First Thursday would be on it. For $5 on the First Thursday of each month, you can come to the museum for a wide variety of events pertaining to the theme, all the while surrounded by the Wadsworth's beautiful collection. This month will include reggae music, a poetry reading, spray-on tattoos, stilt walkers and more. Children are welcome here as well.

On Saturday, the Taste of Caribbean & Jerk Festival comes to town. The Riverfront will come alive with music, games and vendors and so.much.food! This is a yearly event that always pleases. The actual festival is free, but you're going to want to bring money for the food and vendors. Obviously you can bring your kids.

Then you can drop them off at yo mama's house and drive to Springfield for the second edition of Brighter Than Before's Earotica: An Elegant Evening of Sensual Poetry, Music and Tantalizing Tips! If you went last year, then you know that this event gets steamy! Last year was quite the time with some hot area poets (including the hosts), raffles and vendors selling things from massages to...ahem...adult novelties. Last year the place was packed, so get there early! Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. As a note, this is rescheduled from their original date back in July, which you may also have heard about. You had your chance before, but don't miss it again!

Then on Sunday morning, calm back down, center yourself and act like you weren't all hot and bothered the night before.  The first installment of Yoga in the Park starts on August 4th. From now until October, Downtown Yoga, along with the City of Hartford are putting on a free weekly yoga class in different parks in Hartford. Bring a yoga mat, a towel, a bottle of water and wear something to move in. Start your week off with some stretching and moving! Here's the schedule:
Keney Park Aug. 4 9:30 am
Pope Park Aug. 11 9:30 am
Goodwin Park Aug. 18 9:30 am
Colt Park Aug. 25 9:30 am
Bushnell Park Sept 8 11:00 am
Elizabeth Park Sept 15 11:00 am
Keney Park Sept 22 11:00 am
Pope Park Sept 29 11:00 am
Goodwin Park Oct 6 11:00 am
Bushnell Park Oct 12 11:00 am

After any and all of this, support some local businesses and get some dinner at any of the participating Taste of Hartford restaurants. Taste of Hartford ends Sunday!

So Much To Do...So Do It!

This weekend is full of fun events! First things first, you should probably just camp out at HartBeat Ensemble's Carriage House right now. It's an awesome black box theater located on Farmington Avenue and since making it their home earlier this year, HartBeat Ensemble has put on some terrific shows there.

Tonight, Sea Tea Improv is going to be putting on a hilarious and raunchy long-form improv show called Sex and the Sea Tea. This is one of their highest recommended shows. If you've never caught a Sea Tea Improv show, this is the one to start with. The talented performers will "turn tales of dates by you (the audience) into a hilarious improvised play!" Unfortunately (fortunately?) you're going to want to leave the kids at home for this one. But I promise this show won't disappoint! Tickets are $10 and available online for a few more hours here: https://sexandtheseatea.eventbrite.com/ or you can buy them tonight in person if they haven't sold out!

Then tomorrow night, Hartist Mr. Qwes is putting on "An Intimate Live Music Experience" called Confessions of a Songwriter. You may recognize Mr. Qwes as one of the hosts of the Love Jones Experience on Mondays at the Russell or from his stunning performance as The Lion in MaPeach's production of The Wiz last August. Tomorrow he'll focus on himself and bring us an intimate evening of songs and stories, also at HartBeat Ensemble's Carriage House. He and his band will give us a soulful show with his sweet-like-honey voice on center stage. Think VH1 Storytellers but you actually have the privilege of being there! I had the opportunity to work backstage at Mr. Qwes's recent benefit concert "Mr. Qwes Live". The man puts on a hell of a show! Like most of my friends, he's no slouch of a performer, putting on a show that's as professional as it is impressive. Check out his website for a video that shows a snippet of what a fantastic show this was. There's two chances to see one of Hartford's treasures perform: the 3:00pm Family show and the 8:00pm "Grown Folks Show" Mr. Qwes is performing in the second installment of HartBeat Ensemble's 360 Music Series. Admission is free but seating is limited! Get there early!

To round out the weekend with some more laughter, check out the monthly show that the Hartford Advocate called one of the top things to do in Hartford. Get another dose of Sea Tea Improv at their short-form show at City Steam Brewery. This show has free admission and is one of the funnest things to do before Monday comes creeping back into your life. Short-form improv is the style that you may be more familiar with from shows like Who's Line is it Anyway? where performers play a series of games using audience suggestions. (No food. You'd be surprised how many people think of pineapples at any given moment.) If you miss tonight's show, or you have so much fun tonight that you need more improv (as is usually the case) come on out to City Steam this Sunday and get another helping! This is an all ages show, but because of the full bar downstairs, minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Miners must be accompanied by a canary.

Curse You, Rain!

Sorry to get your hopes up, but Hartford Riverfest and accompanying fireworks have been postponed due to flooding.

I know it's sad. But we will move on. We're a strong and resilient city. We will live to fight another day.

Hartford has a sad history with flooding, so we don't really like to mess around with the angry waters of Old Man Connecticut River. If they're predicting a flood, I'm inclined to believe them. We don't want anything like this going down:

That was the Bond Hotel back in 1936.

So sorry to break the news. Tell your friends and neighbors. 

Also, tell your other friends and neighbors to calm down with the firecrackers shooting off at all times of the night during the entire month of July. It scares my cat.

Free Movies After Dark are Back! So Am I!

It was nearly a year ago that I last posted. And I make my return with a post that is eerily similar to last year's. The City of Hartford is yet again doing Free Movies in the Park and I'll apologize in advance: As you can see from the schedule, they're already well underway.

After launching TBPDIH in 2010, I received a ton of feedback, gained a lot of readers both casually and through search engines. After two years, I felt like my job was done. I wasn't going out nearly as much as I used to and since Facebook is King of the World, I figured we were all in the know now. But I've heard the "there's nothing to do in Hartford" whispers. When I heard them in 2010-2012, I easily combated them by handing out my card and instructing the person to educate themselves on this site. But last year especially was lean. And it's hard to say that there's a ton of things going on and when asked what specifically, I respond, "Um...I dunno since I'm probably just going to be hanging out in my backyard tonight."

A few weeks ago, the list of Free Movies was put up on Facebook and was quickly passed around. I saw a couple people on my timeline who balked at the fact that there were no movies starring main characters of color. I'm not here to get into a debate about whether that's important or not so save your comments. I know how it seems weird to them that though most of these movies are playing in parks that serve communities of color, "Coming to America" or other classics aren't on any of the screens. But protesting didn't occur to me because I voted. 

Back in the wintertime, when we couldn't even fathom sitting outdoors to watch a movie, the Marketing, Events and Cultural Affairs office for the City posted a poll of what should be shown. Or maybe it was Hartford.com? I can't remember. Either way, I nominated a couple. Then when they put finalists up for a vote, I voted on them. I vaguely remember trying to suggest some "black" movies off the top of my head, but I also couldn't remember many. And I didn't ask for help because in my naivety, I didn't think anyone would care. If they would, they would be voting.

So when I watched my friends complain in mild ire about the final list, I first thought, "well, don't complain; you should've voted!" Then I realized...how many of my friends knew they could vote? How many know these pages exist? How many even know that Hartford.com is different than Hartford.gov and that they are involved in bucketloads of fun stuff and really do care about the residents in the city they serve, not just the visitors? MECA and I have 30 mutual friends, Hartford.gov and I have 31. Of those 30-ish people, only about 5 were a surprise to me, meaning they're not bloggers, they don't work with these groups in a professional capacity or aren't obsessed with all things Hartford like I am.

This blog and its page on Facebook are supposed to be telling you about things like MECA, Hartford.gov, remind you about The Wadsworth and The Bushnell, the parks, the parades, the nooks and crannies of the city that you may not know about or just forgot about. I'm supposed to remind you, as the saying goes, that Hartford Has It. So when someone's asking for suggestions on how to make you come out (and as always, this is "you" everyone. Not just POC) I should be relaying that message.

The reason that this blog was started, as I always say, is because I felt that there were people being missed when it came time to advertise. For example, I'm not West Indian. I have no idea when the West Indian Parade is this year. I usually don't know until steel drums are waking me up the morning of. Everyone is welcome to go, but for people like me with a busy schedule it's nice to know when things are happening so I can plan on going, not just hope I'm free. When this blog was really cookin', I had so many people say, "I had no idea that XXX happened at YYY for the last three years! How would I have found out about that before?" The answer is typically know the right people. Whether it's eating good Puerto Rican food or taking a yoga class. Somehow we're not all finding out the right information.

Obviously I can't do this blog forever, but please still check in because for as long as I can, I will. Also read Real Hartford: an extremely good blog that posts an in depth schedule of events happening in Hartford all over Hartford. (July's list just posted yesterday!) Like the Things Black People Do In Hartford FB page. Like Hartford.com's FB page and check their website often. Like MECA's FB page too! If you go to a local bar or club and you like it, find them on the internet. If in doubt, e-mail me and I'll see what I can do.

Hartford Parks Free Movies After Dark

The drive-in movie. For years, American summers were defined by them. If you grew up in the Central Connecticut area, I'm sure you have some summer memories sitting in the backseat of a car at the Hartford Drive-In on the Berlin Turnpike. We would absolutely trash my parents' mini-van with crushed popcorn and gummy worms while watching Home Alone on the screen. But now they're nearly extinct. Going to one is seen as a niche and novelty event. A "cute idea" for a 5th date or a treat for the birthday of a 10 year old who doesn't own a television. Believe it or not, there are those of us who miss the old Drive-In. This summer, Hartford is going old school and giving us a series of outdoor movies in the parks. The good news is that you don't need your car! The bad news is that you'll probably need some mosquito repellent and getting to second base in public frowned upon!

The City of Hartford's Marketing, Events & Cultural Affairs Division and Mayor Pedro Segarra are trying out something new this summer and putting on Free Movies After Dark in various Hartford Parks. Every Friday this summer, a different Hartford Park will feature a full length film for free at sunset. The weekly event starts on July 27 in Bushnell Park with one of my favorite movies Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and will go until September 7th ending with a movie set and filmed in Hartford called Rising Star. 


My insiders have told me so far that there will be popcorn to munch on, because what's a movie without it? Break out your blanket, your bug spray and dig the stick out of your under carriage. The first installment of 2012 Monday Night Jazz in Bushnell Park had a great turnout on July 9th. Everyone had fun and mingled as the sun lowered in the sky, staying well after the sun set until the last note played. In my head, that's how I see this event going down. A bunch of us huddled on blankets with friends and family under the stars, laughing as Baxter speaks Spanish to Ron and Brick kills a guy with a Trident. It'll happen. We all know how it goes bringing new events in Hartford: 60% of the time it works every time. Don't act like you're not impressed with figures like that. Break out your jazz flute and bring your ass to the park on the 27th or you will spend Saturday the 28th in a glass case of emotion. Because as you know, "When in Rome."

If you don't know what any of that meant, you should really do yourself a favor and come to the park. 

Aja Wilson - Kaleidescope

On June 23rd, I had the pleasure of attending the showcase of a Rising Star in Hartford, Aja Wilson entitled Young, Wild and Free. Aja is a Hartford native and a 2010 graduate of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford and in the past two years since she's graduated, she's been working hard to create a name for herself in the music scene.

The showcase was held on the stage at the Polish National Home, a beautiful building on Charter Oak Avenue downtown. Aja was accompanied by a full band with a guitar and electric bass, keyboard, trumpet, saxophone and trombone players, as well as two background dancers for the upbeat numbers and an upright bass and piano to back her up on her original songs. The stage was full of light and movement when Aja entered in a sparkly pink and purple outfit. She started her show with a rousing rendition of Runaway Baby, a song originally performed by Bruno Mars, stepping in time with her dancers. She kept that momentum going and followed up with the equally high energy song Tightrope, originally performed by Janelle Monae. This was my first time hearing Aja sing live and she brought it! Her voice is as pretty in person as on the studio recordings that I'd heard on her website, with a rich tone to go along with it. Her set list took us on a musical journey of her favorite songs and artists, singing songs by Michael Jackson, Etta James to a killer version of Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know (creatively arranged by her friend Scott Packham) just to name a few.

I had the opportunity to chat with Aja after her show and we had a wonderful conversation about her career and her ambitions in the local artist scene. Last Fall, she was granted the opportunity to sing at the Langham Place Hotel in Hong Kong for 5 months as their in house musician. After that ended she followed it up performing at a week-long festival in Belize, and once home she and her mother immediately began planning for her showcase to storm onto the Hartford music scene in a big way. It was a bold move, but one that she succeeded at in spades. The place was packed and the crowd was loving the show, hooting and hollering as she belted out our favorite songs.

If you missed this show, don't fret: you'll be seeing much more of Miss Wilson around. Her debut album, Kaleidescope, is now available for purchase and she's going to be "growing the buzz" on herself even more. She has big plans for more shows and outings so stay tuned into her website (www.ajawilson.com) to hear the latest. In a city like Hartford, with such a strong artist community and people ready to support talent, I'm sure she'll have no problem getting that buzz out there.

I'd appreciate if you didn't make a liar out of me and support a local artist!

North End Farmer's Market

Get your fresh tomatoes, peppers and local honey! (Sometimes...that stuff is so elusive! They need to put out a friggin mailing list or something)

Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 27) the North End Farmer's Market will open for the season. If the North End seems a little far, then maybe you need to re-examine your life and your choices because this is Hartford and the entire city is about a block long. But maybe you're like, "Tianna, I don't have a car, it really is far for me!" To which I say, "Oh man, that really sucks. How do you get McDonald's?" And you're like, "Well, I don't really eat McDonald's because I can't just stop by there whenever I feel like it like people with cars can." And I'm like, "Oh, yeah I guess that's true *nodding my head in agreement*" And you're like, "If you think about it, I'm pretty sure most people only eat fast food in a jam because it's always in driving distance and you don't have to leave your car." And I'm like, "That's true and what a shame because I'm sure that plays a hand in our poor overall health overall. I'd love to further pick your brain about this, but we're going to have to stop talking about this now because I could really go for a snackwrap." And you shake your head because people who don't eat McDonald's think those that do are just walking anthrax. 

And that head shake makes me feel bad, because I should be treating my body like a temple. I should be eating fresh food grown by people who have to suffer the same traffic on 84W as I, and shaking the stung hands of the man who cautiously collected my honey! So I gather my cloth grocery bags, hop on my bike and head to my nearest Farmer's Market while humming "Heal the World". My nearest Farmer's Market is just so happens to be the North End Farmer's Market on 80 Coventry Street, but there's way more than that running from the summer into the fall, so no need to examine your life and choices after all. (Unless you want to and if so by all means, examine away. If you're human, there's a 99% chance you're messed up anyway. May as well try to sort that whole thing out.)

Here are the Hartford Farmer's Markets (list pulled from the CT Department of Agriculture website)

Hartford ‐ Billings Forge Farmers’ Market

Thursdays 11 a.m. ‐ 2 p.m.

May 3 ‐ December 27

539 Broad Street, Grassy Courtyard on Billings Forge Campus

FMNP Authorized WF&V SNAP

Hartford ‐ Capitol Ave Farmers’ Market

Mondays 10 a.m. ‐ 1 p.m.

July 2 ‐ October 29

First Presbyterian Church Next to Bushnell, 156 Capitol Avenue

FMNP Authorized WF&V

Hartford ‐ Homestead Farmers’ Market NEW! in 2012CT DoAG

2012 Certified Farmers’ Markets

Wednesdays 3 p.m. ‐ 6 p.m.

June 27 ‐ October 10

255 Homestead Avenue, Chrysalis Center Inc

FMNP Authorized    SNAP

Hartford ‐ North End Farmers’ Market

Wednesdays 10 a.m. ‐ 1 p.m.

June 27 ‐ October 31

80 Coventry Street, In front of North end Senior Center

FMNP Authorized WF&V SNAP

Hartford ‐ Old State House Farmers’ Market

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 11 a.m. ‐ 2 p.m.

June 26 ‐ October 26

Old State House, 800 Main Street

FMNP Authorized WF&V

Hartford ‐ Park Street Farmers’ Market

Mondays 9:30 a.m. ‐ 1 p.m.

July 9 ‐ October 29

Walgreen's Parking Lot, Corner of Park and Washington Streets

FMNP Authorized   

Hartford ‐ West End Farmers’ Market

Tuesdays & Fridays 4 p.m. ‐ 7 p.m., 3:30 p.m. ‐ 6 p.m. (Sept‐Oct)

June 4 ‐ October 30

United Methodist Church ‐ 571 Farmington Avenue @ South Whitney Street

Charter Oak Cultural Center - Juneteenth Pilgrimage & More!

Photo courtesy of Charter Oak Cultural Center's Facebook page

I'm coming to you while taking a break from sipping iced tea on my lanai to tell you about some new haps here in the Capital City. (That's not entirely true. I don't really like iced tea I don't have a lanai. I don't even really know what a lanai is but ever since my girlfriend Charmane and I have started watching Golden Girls while we fall asleep every night, we've started referring to our balcony as a lanai.)

I've been meaning to write for a while about the Charter Oak Cultural Center. I'm sure you've seen the big and beautiful former synagogue (CT's oldest) when turning on Charter Oak Avenue, but may not have known what was inside. Since the late 1970's, it has been the home of a thriving multi-cultural arts center that offers a ton of arts and educational services to the community. From their website:

Charter Oak Cultural Center harnesses the power of the arts to create positive social change. We host cutting-edge, thought-provoking visual and performing arts, including dance, theater, film, concerts, readings, gallery exhibits and much more.  Our overall goal is to give access to the arts to all who hunger for them. 

I've been to a few events here at the Cultural Center over the last few months and all of them have been fun. My main thought when coming though is, "I really wish more people had come." I'll tell my friends and coworkers about it and they all say pretty much the same thing; something along the lines of, "Oh, I've never heard of that place." Well, now I'm telling you, so put them in your mental Rolodex of places in Hartford that you must check out.

Now to get black on you, as I like to do, I'll tell you about one of the brown events coming up. As always, EVERYONE is welcome at any event I post on my blog. The greater goal here is integration and working on this whole de facto segregation thing we've got going on. But the event I'm talking about is for Juneteenth, so I'm sort of inclined to lead with that because I don't want to get haunted by the ghost of Frederick Douglass, I just don't, guys. This coming Tuesday is Juneteenth, which is the holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery. The Charter Oak Cultural Center will be holding a pilgrimage to Hartford's African Burial Ground for a ceremony of "reflection and rejoicing". The cost is free and this is a very family-friendly event, so bring the kids for something enlightening to kick off their summer vacation.

Of course, this is only one event being held at the center. Be sure to keep up with their calendar and their Facebook page for new events, but just to let you know about a couple things coming up within the next month are musicians featured for the UMOJA Music Series and Indie Fest on July 14th, a huge roster of indie bands playing in the courtyard that sounds SUPER fun!

Then later in August, you need to mark your calendars NOW because MaPeach Productions will be coming to the Charter Oak Cultural Center putting on a production of The Wiz unlike any that you've ever seen! Of course I'll be writing about this in greater detail later because as you can probably tell, that's my partner Charmagne playing the role of the Scarecrow. But in the meantime, you can buy your tickets right now! The show will run from August 9 - August 12.

Here are the details for the Juneteenth pilgrimage once again:
When: Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
Where: Meet at the Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford, CT
Time: 5:30pm
Cost: Free

Additional details: The flyer says that it will be a pilgrimage, which means walking. Not a ton of walking, but you will want to wear comfortable shoes. Bring the kids!

Judy Blume Comes to Hartford!

What's up fellow fun-seekers? Happy almost summer! I love this time of year and the city is buzzing with things to do so I'll jump right in.


Next Thursday, June 21, the one and only Judy Blume will be coming to the Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford Campus. The event is being sponsored by The Mark Twain House & Museum.

I'm sure most of the 80's babies out there are familiar with Ms. Blume's work. I remember when my school's librarian hooked me on Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing back when I was a third grade nothing. And I'm pretty sure you couldn't be a girl starting 6th grade without a copy of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret that was embarrassingly given to you by a well-meaning aunt who stage-whispered "it's about getting your period!" in front of everyone at a backyard cookout...No, just me?

But the great thing about these books is that not just us 80's babies benefited. There's a reason that most people I know have a story of being gifted a Judy Blume book at some point in their life and that's because her writing covers such a wide range of topics. Reading Are You There God? as a sixth grader meant a lot to me simply because it was a book about a teenage girl (like me!) preparing for the big to-do that is puberty (like me!). But as I got older and re-read the synopsis, I realized the book covered some very real themes that I didn't remember, or possibly didn't catch the first time around. These books weren't just about kids that were bummed about their situation, but also stories of children dealing with things that people don't normally talk to kids so frankly about. Because of her frank delivery and subject matter, many of her books have been banned, much like a famous Hartford author you may know.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Judy Blume's career. I'm sure during her evening, she'll talk about all of that and much more. Your job is to buy a ticket, get your butt in the seat and have a great night in the company of a legend!

Here's the skinny, if you don't feel like reading the poster:
Where: Lincoln Theater (on the campus of The University of Hartford)
When: 7:30pm Thursday, June 21, 2012
Cost: Tickets are $25/$40 or VIP seating with pre-event reception for $85
Buy: To buy tickets online: http://harttweb.hartford.edu/tickets.aspx
By phone: (860) 768-4228

If you feel like you need a refresher course before you get to the event, Julia Pistell has been re-reading the Judy Blume collection and blogging the experience. Be sure to check that out before you walk in the door, just in case your memory isn't what you think it is!