A Guide to African-American Culture

July 29-August 4, 1991 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Vol. I No. 10 $1.00

LISTINGS INSIDE: ART CABARETS CONCERTS DANCE RESTAURANTS FREE-FOR-ALL THEATER

VERNON’S JERK PARADISE WHERE A BAD WORD MEANS GOOD TASTE

f Noah Webster were alive today, Vernon’s Jerk Paradise would make I him eat his words–literally. Whereas Webster defines the word “jerk” as a dull, stupid person, this two-year old Jamaican restaurant, 252 West 29th Street gives it new meaning: Jamaican barbecue. And if the old lexicographer could taste just one morsel, he would gladly become a Jerk. Especially if he tastes the sauce. It can become habit forming says the 48 year old Vernon, a dead ringer for a Fitter George Foreman. Sitting at my table, he supports his claim with the following story. “A man came in here the other day, exclaiming: ‘The worse thing to have happen to me was to come into this damn restaurant. You are making me an addict! What the hell do you have in this thing, Marijuana?’ “But that’s not the worst of it,” adds Vernon, his muscular frame shaking with laughter. “The man sent a jar to his mother in Virginia, and now all he can hear is ‘Hey Joe, when are you going to send me more of that Vernon sauce?’” The jerk craze began in 1982, when Vernon and his now deceased brother opened their first restaurant in the Pelham section of Westchester. They pioneered Jerk cooking in America, and a national appetite for it has developed. “Restaurants have sprung up all over,” he says, “not only in Brooklyn. You see them in places like Montauk, Long Island and Seattle, Washington.” Chicken-giants are cashing in on the hunger too. Leaning forward over the table, Vernon asks: “Have you seen Frank Perdue’s TV commercial?” Mimicking one of Frank’s commercials, he quips: ‘How would you like to try my spicy, marinated chicken?’ “ Settling back in his chair, Vernon says “Go to Kentucky Fried Chicken, and What do you see?— Hot and spicy, marinated chicken! They don’t call it Jerk because they suspect that people will think that Jerk is jerk. But we are changing a bad word to good.” It never was a bad word in Boston Bay, Jamaica. This area, lying about 65 miles southeast of Kingston, the capital, is the home of Jerk cooking, still done in the traditional way. Pepper, spices and herbs are rubbed into meat, especially pork, chicken or fish then placed in a deep pit covered with pimento wood and smoked for several hours. The locals are split on the origin of this method. Some say it arrived with the Maroons, a small, self- governed group that descend from the Ashanti in , West Africa. Others give credit to the first inhabitants, the Arawak Indians. These south American hunters would jerk a pig for 24 hours. But a Jerk doesn’t care about the origin, only about the taste. At Jerk Paradise, Vernon has simulated the process which is enhanced by the house sauce. Chicken, meat and fish are marinated overnight in the house sauce. The meat is baked, then grilled. In the case of pork, this insures thorough cooking. Vernon brags about the hot demand for the house sauce. “Bill Cosby,” who sometimes hires him to cook for his show, “is a fan of it.” And food chains, such as Zabar’s, Balducci’s and Bloomingdales, stock it, thanks to his marketing company, Entre. “It’s going to be my money maker”. Holding up a jar, he says, “At the moment, that’s the role of the restaurant.” An elegant place with a white latticed ceiling, murals depicting tropical birds and pink tablecloths, Jerk Paradise has the perfect ambience for enjoying the Jerk experience. It can begin with either Goat Head or Cow Cod Soup ($3), followed by a selection of Jamaican hors d’oeuvres: fried plantain, beef patties, vegetable patties, codfish cakes, which could use more fish, and Festival, a tasty cornmeal dumpling normally eaten with fish.

Volume 1. Number 10. Published by OCR for Publishers, Inc. 521 W. 23rd St. New York, NY 10011. Subscription rate US$36. Send subscriptions to ROUTES, Guide to African American Culture, P.O. Box 20103, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10011. ROUTES is published 48 times per year. For advertising rates call 212 527 5241.

!2—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, July 29-August 4, 1991 Of course the entree ($10-$12) should be a Jerk dish, of pork, chicken, fish, lobster or seafood. If you have room, try a side order of Oxtail or Curry Goat. Both are as tender and juicy as the Jerk dishes. The short menu, kept that way to insure fresh food daily, also offers other Jamaican specialties, including the traditional dish-–Ackee and Salt Fish. It’s a sauté of Ackee, which resembles scrambled eggs, codfish, tomatoes and onions served with white rice or rice and peas. Absolutely delicious! And sitting on the table is a dish of the addicting house sauce. For dessert ($2.50-$3.00) try the Jamaican-flavored ice cream or a piece of Rum Raisin, Jamaican Rum or Carrot Cake. Beverage choices ($l.25-$4.50) vary widely. There is coffee; exotic drinks such as Passion, which tastes like a cocktail of flowers; tropical sodas, including homemade ginger beer. Still waiting for its liquor license, the restaurant allows patrons to bring their own “brown bag”. It offers a wine list, along with a list of “Powerful Drinks,” whose names suggest a kick. The Knock-Down, for instance, is reputed to “nice-up” your sex life. Ah! Another lexicographical twist. If so, ain’t that another one up on Webster! Vernon’s Jerk Paradise is open Monday to Friday, 11:30am to 11pm and Saturdays, 3pm to 12pm. Live Caribbean music on Fridays. Visa, American Express and Master Card are accepted. Telephone (212) 268-7020. —Estelle Whiting

CABARETS • Clarence Carter • Jan Parker, vocalist August 2 & 3 August 2 & 3 Ramsey Lewis Trio Wednesdays, open mike July 30-August 4, 9pm & 11pm • Chitlin' Circuit R&B • Musical Review for vocalists and The Blue Note 131 W. 3rd St. Saturdays, 3pm comedians 475-8592 Starring David Jennings. Sportin’ "Life”13 Greene The Bottom Line 15 W. 4th Mable Lee. Dennis Ave./Fulton St. (718) St. 228-6300 Legree, Boncella Lewis. 797-2099 Gary Bartz, sax Tunde Samuel, Jan Larry Wukkus, piano Mickens •New Jersey• Buster Williams, bass Sweetwater’s 170 July 30-August 3 Red Rodney Amsterdam Ave./68th St. August 2& 3 Bradley’s 70 University 873-4100 Place/11th St. 228-6440 Trumpets 6 Depot Square Santi Debriano Trio Montclair 201 746-6100 • Lou Donaldson Quartet July 31-August 4 July 30-August 4 Village Gate Bleecker/ RESTAURANTS Thompson Streets 475-5120 Condon’s 117 E. 15th St. Abyssinia Ethiopian •254-0960 Horace Tapscott Trio Very informal Jean Taylor July 30-August 4 • 35 Grand St/ Thompson St. August 4, 18, 25, Sep 8 Village Vanguard 178 7th 226-5959 &15, 5:30pm Ave. South 255-4037 B. Smith’s • Special guest, Mae Barnes Hilton Ruiz, piano Southern & American cuisines August 4 Jimmy Rowser, bass Don't Tell Mama 343 W.46th July 29-August 3 Trendy St. 757-0788 Zinno 126 W. 13th St. 771 Eighth Ave. 247-2222 924-5182 Lester Bowie Caribe July 30-August 4 •Brooklyn• Jamaican cuisine Sweet Basil 8 Seventh Ave./ Pleasant and informal, cash Bleecker 242-1785 • Jay McGovern, vocalist & only pianist August 1 117 Perry St/ Greenwich St.

!3—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, July 29-August 4, 1991 Copeland’s 467 Amsterdam Ave. girl’s passion for the son of Southern Cuisine 874-8500 a wealthy landowner. A Harlem institution Third World Cafe Booth Theatre W. 45th St./ 547 W. 145th St. 234-2457 Third World cuisine Broadway 239-6200 Honeysuckle Spices From West Africa—A Our Young Black Men Southern cuisine very special little cafe. AreDying And Nobody 700 W. 125th St. /West Side SeemsTo Care Trendy Highway 749-8199 Through August 31 507 Columbus Ave. Wilson's Restaurant & An original music play by 496-8095 James Chapman about the Bakery Jamaican “Hot Pot” destruction of young men Southern Cuisine by drug abuse, crime, police Small restaurant of 7-8 A Harlem institution brutality, alcoholism, poverty and AIDS. tables inside and 3 outside- 1980 Amsterdam Ave./ but has a large reputation 158th St. 923-9821 Castillo Cultural Center 500 for good food at bargain Greenwich St. 941-5800 prices. •Brooklyn• Looking For Love 2260 Adam Clayton Powell. Through August 4 Jr., Blvd/133rd St. 491-5270 McDonald’s Dining Room Country home cooking–Tues.- Written by C. Ceasar Jerk Paradise Sun. Jamaican cuisine Jackson; directed by Tunde 327 Stuyvesant Ave. (718) Samuel A joyful soul Jerk preparation of meats. 574-3728 searching musical (gospel, R 252 W. 29th St. 268-7020 & B and ) celebration. Greene Avenue Grill The story centers on two Jezebel Grilled American & Southern people, Marla and CJ, who Southern/American cuisine cuisines experienced similar Scarfs, swings and 13 Greene Ave./Fulton St. childhood traumas and how sophistication 718 797-2099 they overcome them through self realization 630 Ninth Ave./45th St. •• workshops and religion. 582-1045 The cast of 16 certainly La Famille Restaurant La Detente gives its audience reason for Southern cuisine Continental & Caribbean joyfully shouting, clapping cuisines and rocking. Roomy and informal 23-04 94th St. East Elmhurst Cloister Theatre Riverside 2017 5th Ave./125th St. (718) 458-2172 Church 490 Riverside Drive 534-9909 Manhattan Proper Cafe 864-2929 Livi’s Restaurant Southern cuisine Ms. Hazel’s House of Caribbean & Southern Heavenly Rest cuisines 217-01 Linden Blvd/ Sundays, 3pm, through Sept.1 Springfield Blvd (718) 341- Informal CAFE By Hazel Smith, featuring, 29 E. 126th St/Mad. & 5th Jimmy Hayeson, Louise Avenues 831-4931 THEATER Mike, Jerry Love, Lee Kirk, Kim Yancey, Boysie White Omjavi Once on This Island & James Smith A Comedy- Jamaican cuisine A musical, set in the full of laughter and good Primarily lunch hour Caribbean, about a poor vibes. takeout 112 Chambers St. (Bet. Church & W. Broadway) 732-1949 Sylvia's Southern cuisine Relaxed and informal 328 Lenox Ave. (126 & 127th Streets) 966-0660 The Blue Nile Ethiopian cooking 103 W. 77th St. Columbus Ave. 580-3232 The Shark Bar Southern cuisine Trendy

!4—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, July 29-August 4, 1991 Harlem School of The Arts Romare Bearden, prints, Harlem Fashion Museum 645 St. Nicholas Ave. Stringfellow, William 155 W. 120th St. Bet. Lenox 362-3681 Carter, Fred Jones & Lester and Adam Clayton Powell Six Degrees of Separation Gunther Boulevard 660-1320 Courtney B. Vance By appointment only Barbara Chase-Riboud Set in Manhattan, about a Essie Green Galleries 419A All That Rises Must Converge, mugger who seeks refuge at Convent Ave. 368-9635 painting an elegant dinner party. Robertson's African Arts Horace Pippen Vivian Beaumont Theater/ Gallery of African art Victorian Parlor I, painting Broadway/ By appointment only Martin Puryear 65th St. 239-6200 36 West 22nd Street, 4th FI Tango, sculpture The Good Times Are 675-4045 Killing Me Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Ave. & 82nd St Previews through August. 7, 535-7710 Tues.-Sat., 8pm, Mat. Sat., •Queens• 2pm, Mat., Sun., 3pm Renee Green, Multi-media Robert Colescott A play with music, follows works Emergency Room (1990) the comic coming of age of Through Sept 7 presently on display. two girls, one white and one • Mark Hassinger, sculptor Museum of Modern Art 11 black, as they explore the and installation artist mysteries of adolescence, W. 53rd St. 708-9400 music divided families and • Greg Henry, painter and The African Presence in the racism. sculptor. Americas Minetta Lane Theatre 425 Jamaica Arts Center 161-04 Through December Lafayette St. 307-4100 Jamaica Ave. (718) 658-7400 African-Americans In USEUMS Space Science CONCERTS M & Through December ULTURAL ENTERS The Indians Are Coming… C C Guided Tours by appointment only. The Indians Are Coming The Caribbean Cultural August 3, 5pm Center The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Genesis II Museum is The Center serves as a hosting a film presentation 515 Lenox Ave./135th St. meeting place for people of 491-2000 Black Indians of New all ages and backgrounds Orleans at the community who share a common • Memory and Metaphor center in Marcus Garvey interest in the cultural Romare Bearden Park. The film will be heritage of people of African Through August 11 followed by a parade and descent performance by the White • Painting Workshop Eagle Tribe. 408 W. 58th St/9th Ave. August 3 & 10, 2pm 307-7420 Marcus Garvey Park 121st • Workshops for Groups: St/Cathedral Parkway Africa Explores: 20th Block Printing Workshop 666-7222 Century African Art August & September Amateur Night Exhibit explores the Design with cardboard Wednesdays, 7:30pm continuing vitality of stamps, printing inks and traditional art which coexists colored paper. Apollo Theatre 253 W. 125th today with a modem art that St. 864-0372 A two-part workshop is uniquely African. using watercolors, acrylics ART GALLERIES The Center for African Art and tempera. $10 per 54 E. 68th (Bet Mad. & Lex. person. Reservations Multi-Cultural Expressions Avenues.) 861-1200 required. July 10 through August 18 Through December ’91, and Studio Museum of Harlem Seven artists, associated The New Museum for 144 W. 125th St. 864-4500 with the Art Students Contemporary Art League representing France, Through August. 18 American Life in American Art: Selections from the Latin America and the The New Museum for . Prints, Permanent Collection Contemporary Art 583 Through Nov 10 drawings, oil and acrylic Broadway/ Houston St. paintings and sculpture. 219-1222 Jacob Lawrence The Cinque Gallery 560 Designers to the Stars The War Series, 1946- 1947 Broadway/ Prince St. Room Whitney Museum of American 504 373-2707 Costumes from the permanent collection, Art 945 Madison Ave./75th St. Hollingsworth, Greene. including Ann Low: In 570-3600 Bearden, Lawrence. Memoriam; TV, Films, Theatre. Olugbefola, Rahman Daily 12:30pm to 8pm, By Design Masters Intergroup appointment only, adults Gallerie 301 Cathedral $1.50 children $.50 Parkway 666-8440

!5—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, July 29-August 4, 1991 •Bronx• Kimati Dinizulu & the • Dianne McIntyre with Kotoko Society (Pan James Buxton, Painted Don Pullen, & Yoshiko Wood and Sculpture Africa/USA) Chuma Through October 31 Daniel Ponce (Cuba) Aug 2, 8:30pm Buxton's work involves • Children’s Carnival Modern dancer and such personally significant Village Broadway choreographer issues as religion and Aug 3, 4pm of Mule Bone teams up motherhood. with piano virtuoso Don Carnival costume making Pullen for an exquisite The Bronx Museum of Art piñatas, face painting, performance. Satellite Gallery at Hebrew clowns. mural painting, Hospital for Chronic Sick hands-on photography • Boozoo Chavis & Johnnie 801 Co-Op City Boulevard workshops, plus a Johnson 379-5020 Children’s Carnival August 3, 3pm Parade. •Staten Island• Zydeco's founding •African Marketplace fathers. Black Photographers: Handcrafted jewelry, 1840 - 1940 clothes, instruments, •Diblo Dibala Through September 2 books, fine arts, Aug 4, 3pm Gordon Parks, James Van international foods. Zaire’s master guitarist der Zee, Austin Hansen, Diablo, accelerates and the Goodridge • Carnival Parade momentum with his Brothers—nomads who Aug 4, 7pm popular Soukous a roved in the late 1800s Dance through the streets, supercharged fusion of hundreds through New behind the Teme Brass Rhumba and African York, Pennsylvania and Band & the White Eagles beats. Mardi Gras Indians to Michigan shooting Rumsey Field in Central portraits. Damrosch Park (W. 62nd St. & Amsterdam Ave) for Park—72nd St/5th Ave. Staten island Institute of an 8pm concert of New Mid park • 529-1955 Arts and Sciences 75 Orleans Mardi Gras Jazzmobile Stuyvesant Pl. (718) music. 727-1135 • “Persipitation” led by For information: 307-7420 FREE-FOR-ALL Charli Persip Classic & Cool on the Jul 30, 7pm Al Rapone, zydeco & blues Hudson Jul 31, 5-6pm 138th St/ACP, Jr. Blvd & Women in Jazz Lenox Ave Austin J. Tobin Plaza/ • Kit Mo Clure Big Band •Jimmy Heath Quintet World Trade Center Jul 30, 12:15-1:15pm Jul 31, 7pm The Uprise & Shine 1991 • Valerie Naranjo Grants Tomb, 122nd St. & Youth Concert Tour Jul 31, 12:15-1:15pm Riverside Drive Latin Empire with special •Janet Grice Brooklyn guests Aug 1, 12:15-1:15pm •Vanessa Rubin & Quartet Aug 3, 2pm •Jeanne Lee Aug 1, 7pm Sponsored by the Aug 2, 12:15-1:15pm 2750 Linden Blvd/Drew Caribbean Cultural Center 1 Chase Plaza (Nassau & St. Liberty Sts.) Qderts Lane Walt Bolden DeWitt Clinton Park W. • 54th St. /11th Ave Sextet A Midsummer Night’s Aug 2, 7pm 7th Annual Carnival in Dream New York sponsored by The Jul 30-Aug 11, 8pm Tues-Sun McDonough St/Ralph & Caribbean Cultural Center Performed by Teatro do Patchen Avenues Aug 3 & 4,11am-8pm Ornitorrinco of Brazil in Bronx Portuguese. This A weekend extravaganza • Eunice Newkirk & celebrating African-derived production of Shakespeare's Friends Carnival traditions. comedy is infused with the Jul 29, 7pm festive and erotic spirit of DeWitt Clinton Park, W. the Brazilian Carnival. Vyse Ave/173rd St. & 54th St. /11th Ave Tickets are distributed free 174th St • Concerts beginning at 6:15pm. 1 per Fascinatión (Puerto Rico) person. Rio Funk (Brazil) Delacorte Theater (Enter Wao Talibe (Senegal) Central Park at 81st St. & CPW or 79th St. & 5th Ave) Morgan's Heritage (Jamaica) •Bizet's Carmen Jul 31, 7:30pm

!6—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, July 29-August 4, 1991