I started this My Little Brown Eye column at my beauty and fashion blog 55 Secret Street, but I think it will be a better fit here at Anovelista.com.
Although I haven't been able to blog here in ages because of pressing offline responsibilities, I have found the time to update my Facebook page and the pictures above are from my updated Flickr page. Also, I am always on Twitter (essentially microblogging and it can be done by web or text) so, if you are so inclined, feel free to follow my Twitter activity in the right column of this site. Just in case you're thinking, I still don't know what the heck you're talking about Nichelle - Here is a good, quick tutorial on Twitter
by Tony Hseih, the CEO of Zappos.com. I do not know him, but he is one
of the many interesting, always entertaining people that I "follow" on
Twitter. I also keep up with my blogging buddies like TheMakeupGirl, The Budget Fashionista, We Love Beauty and my cupcake blogging pals Nichelle and Rachel.
I had some other topics in mind for the first column here, but I'll have to save them for next time. Check this out:
Is Soul Food Too Black For SoHo? Sean Sweeney of the SoHo Alliance thinks so. From the Village Voice:
Lola, a soul-food restaurant that featured live rhythm-and-blues
acts, attracts a largely black clientele, and also went by the name
Lola Is Soul, decided in 2004, for business reasons, to move from
Chelsea to Soho. But once they got there, the owners—a biracial
couple—ran into surprisingly stiff opposition from the Soho Alliance, a
community group that has opposed Lola's liquor license and its legal
petition to have live entertainment at its new location.
Cries of racism have, not surprisingly, been leveled by Lola's
supporters. But Don Clark MacPherson, a longtime resident of the
neighborhood and a member of the Soho Alliance—as well as the publisher
of the Soho Journal—says that the accusations of racism are unfounded. Lola, he tells the Voice,
just moved to Soho at a bad time: Frustrated by the large number of
nightclubs already in the area, the alliance saw in Lola simply one
liquor license too many. "Race in this issue is a red herring," he
says. "I don't think that the type of music had anything to do with it.
The objection started before anyone heard about the type of music Lola
played."
That may be true. But MacPherson might want to compare notes with Soho Alliance director Sean Sweeney about his
reasons for opposing the restaurant. Lola is a place that appeals to a
professional African-American set, and besides dishes like "shrimp
& grits" and catfish salad, also offers "fluke en papillote,"
pineapple pork belly, and pecan-crusted rack of lamb. But Sweeney
apparently hasn't looked at the menu very closely.
"I don't think you need a martini to go with chitlins and collard
greens. What wine goes with jambalaya? I can't think of one," he says,
ridiculing Lola's need for a license. "There is a place right next to
them that sells empañadas, and they don't serve liquor. You don't
really need liquor if you are a good restaurant to stay in business.
Liquor is like cream."
It's hard to imagine an upscale restaurant trying to appeal to the
well-dressed set and getting by on water alone, but Sweeney's swipe at
traditional African-American fare appears to lend credence to
accusations by Lola's supporters that what has motivated some in the
Soho Alliance to oppose the restaurant is the combination of black
music and black customers in the deluxe shopping district.
Now, anyone that has been within ten feet of Lola's, even when they were in Chelsea, knows that they have always attracted "grown" folks. These people aren't exactly the type to go around "cussin' and fightin'" in the streets, if you know what I mean. But that hasn't stopped mysterious flyers from appearing around Soho warning that Lola's would bring "unruly crowds" and "more crime" to the neighborhood. According to the Village Voice article, the owners Tom and Gayle Patrick-Odeen (left), an interracial couple, feel the attacks on their establishment are racist, but Sweeney denies it even as he spouts off gems like this to the Village Voice reporter Chloe A. Hilliard:
"I am not racist. [Gayle Patrick-Odeen] is from Barbados. She's a British subject; she's not African-American.
She didn't suffer Jim Crow, Reconstruction, lynching. . . . For her to
exploit the true sufferings of African-Americans is disgraceful," says
Sweeney.
Did you get that? Sean "I don't think you need a martini to go with chitlins and collard greens" Sweeney is concerned that a "British subject" from Barbados is "exploiting the true sufferings of African-Americans". After all, Black people did not suffer specifically under Jim Crow, Reconstruction or lynching, so what would they know about suffering or racism? It's a good thing that Sean Sweeney is around to save us po' suffering Negroes from those dangerous Barbadians!
Incidentally, this is not the first time Sweeney has accused Patrick-Odeen of "playing the race card". No surprise there..
See also:
Digging Deep: Chitlins and Martini: No thanks by Keith Josef Adkins at The Root
Message to Soho Alliance: Let the Music Play at Lola's by Daniel Saynt at Fashion Indie.
Lola Loses Live Music Appeal (Updated) by Chris Shott at The New York Observer.
Recent Comments