National Black Arts Festival

July 29th, 2008 Stephen Satterfield

A beautiful vibe in “the A” for NBAF Weekend

What a gratifying weekend! Both of our neighbors, Omar, and Morro both drove all the way down from the Bronx for the festival. Omar, who sold beautiful garments and shea butter (as were about 70% of the vendors at Centennial) was a Muslim from Ghana. How would he respond to his American neighbor selling wine bottles? With great humor and sarcasm! He insisted on calling me “dirty man” all weekend (I think because of the wine..I hope..), then belting out in fits of laughter. Then, he would say, ” save me a drink today, we get high”. Of course I obliged with a full glass of Seven Sisters Bukketraube, only to have him shake his head and laugh hysterically when I brought him the wine. I fell for this more than once. The beautiful part about the weekend is that there are dozens more stories just like this. It rained on Friday and a bit on Saturday, but only briefly and everyone remained in good spirits throughout. Sunday was brutally hot. I think a dose of karma for me, as I foolishly remarked last weekend about how moderate the weather had been in Atlanta this summer. Stupid. From a native no less….

As a bonus, Soul Vegetarian was there all weekend, so we were spoiled! For Atlantans, if you dont know about Soul Veg, do yourself a favor..this is the spot! With due respect to Dave, Soul Vegetarian lives up to the name with greens and mac and cheese as good as ANY in Atlanta.

For ISAW, things couldn’t have gone any better. We got over 250 new friends to join our movement and had at least twice as many conversations. Once bottles were popped, our table was jumping. I am always encouraged by how enthusiastic people are about the concept, and this weekend was no exception. As Pepper Jr (DofD) can attest, I was straight giddy after the weekend. And its hard to contain it when so many people are genuinely excited about the project. Thank you all who came out to spend time with us, and took a minute to listen to our mission. We can wait to keep you all briefed on our success, and we’re definitely looking forward to next years National Black Arts Festival.

Salute!

-sAs-

ISAW Matriarch, Queen Meretaton

Im not mad…just dead tired and HOT!

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Can you blog about a blog(ger)?

July 9th, 2008 Stephen Satterfield

I hope because we’re about to. On Sunday, we had a great brunch at Dynamic Dish. I will never be able to say enough good things about Dynamic Dish, but it seems I’ve found another evangelist for the Dish. On a Sunday morning of Brunch & Bubbles, I was approached by a friendly inquirer who caught whiff of our smoked salmon and Champagne flutes. After a moment of engagement and the ensuing card exchange, I noticed Dirty ( not sure if I’m allowed to say his name?)  was a fellow wine enthusiast, running a blog called Dirty South Wine. When I first went to his site I was blown away to see the stuff he was writing on. Here’s a guy who lives in the same zip code as me, and really knows how to eat and drink. I gotta hook up with this guy, I thought. As I went to drop him a note online last night, I noticed he’d did a quick little plug for ISAW which made me like him even more. In any case, it is you should check out his site. And, Mr. Dirty, if you see this, thanks again for showing us some love.

On Sunday AM, Lady Dirty and I headed over to Dynamic Dish for brunch. While walking in, we noticed rows of champagne flutes, and two packed tables. The International Society of Africans in Wine (ISAW) was having a “Bubbles and Brunch” event. The ISAW looks like a positive organization that is worth checking out. I hope to find out more about the ISAW in the coming weeks.

Salute!

-sAs-

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