Results tagged “westafrican”

In The Brothers Size, three shirtless black men struggle for scraps of peace and prosperity under the blazing sun of some unnamed, dirt poor southern town. Ogun and Oshoosi Size are two recently reunited brothers – the older, more responsible Ogun has taken Oshoosi in after he’s released from prison. Oshoosi makes a halfhearted go at rehabilitation working at Ogun’s auto-body shop, at least until the appearance of his old jailbird buddy Elegba, who surfaces...

EVENT: The NY Horror Film Festival kicks off with a party at Don Hill's tonight. Terrifying short films and some creepy classics are promised throughout the fest, as bands M-16, Kaos From Order and more set the sonic tone tonight. Free Wychwood Brewery beer from 8 to 9pm. More details here.

The funeral of Fermin Arzu was not as much a memorial as an event to condemn his death at the hands of an off-duty police officer - we think. As a husband, father, and uncle was being remembered, community activists and the media were conducting a referendum on racial relations and police conduct. Comparisons were drawn between Arzu's shooting and that of Sean Bell, who was killed in a hail of police gunfire in November of last year. Bell's fiancée (Bell was killed the day before his wedding) actually attended Arzu's funeral yesterday and was escorted there by the Reverend Al Sharpton. Sharpton also gave the eulogy; he said, "Mr. Arzu came to this country to pursue the American dream. He ended up being the American nightmare."

Asimi Soumare, a 7-year-old girl, died today from injuries sustained in Wednesday's horrible fire in the Highbridge section of the Bronx. She is the 10th victim of the fire, which killed her three siblings and mother and five cousins Wednesday. Her father, cabdriver Mamadou Soumare who rushed to the scene when his wife called him about the fire, has now lost his whole immediate family. Imam Musa Kaba said of Soumare and Moussa Magassa, who lost five of his children, "Life is a test. New York is crying for them. All Americans are crying for them. I told them to be patient."

THEATER: A one-of-a-kind theatrical event is happening this weekend only in a clothing store and barbershop on the edge of Chinatown. Called American Standard, this solo, seven character ‘sideshow’ is the work of Canadian-American troupe bluemouth,inc., which has been building a reputation for staging innovative theater in bizarre locales. (Other productions have taken place in hotel rooms and the basement of an office building.) In their latest foray, “a preacher, a tourist, a politician, an entertainer, an immigrant, a poet and a terrorist inhabit a storefront installation, spilling onto the street and lurking within the basement.” Martin Denton praises the show as “dense, artful, absorbing, and fun. The penultimate scene is so thrillingly unexpected that to say anything about it risks spoiling American Standard's neatest surprise; suffice to say that you've almost certainly never witnessed anything like it in any theatre of any description.”

The Port Authority will face the wrath of chocoholics, as various groups are "begging" the PA to give them some more space on the pier so they can unload 36 million pounds of cocoa beans. The ship is docked at Pier 9 in Red Hook, but workers cannot unload the cargo. American Stevedoring is complaining about the PA's treatment and the fact that the post "can't handle the cargo," but the PA says that American Stevedoring made the mistake when it didn't realize it had reduced space because AS has "mismanaged" its cocoa business. Snap! And the big issue is that there are vacant ports...it's a big political hoo-ha between the PA and AS, and illustrates the changing to the city's shipping business. NYC used to be the number 1 cocoa port in the country, but now Philadelphia and Camden are ahead. And the Times supplied this fun fact: "The cocoa sitting on the ship amounts to 10 percent of all the West African cocoa that has come into the United States this harvest season, which is now at its height and is about half over."