During the first official weekend of summer, a festival celebrating the culture of the continent of Africa provided a taste of home for Africans living in New York. In Brooklyn, New York, the fourth annual African pop-up festival highlighted African music, food, and fashion.
More than a dozen merchants from various regions of New York and the neighboring state of New Jersey attended the event, which served as a preview of the African Restaurant Week, which is typically held in October in New York. The event’s primary draw was fashion.
“Since I’m from Marrakech, the foundation of my store is essentially providing customers with genuine Moroccan goods from Morocco. I have items like kimonos, bags, and handcrafted Islamic headdresses, so that’s one of our specialties. We also enjoy seeing young people dressed in urban fashion.
From the Adinkra Republic, Agyeman Prempeh Senkyire, in New York:
“I’ll claim that my company has three goals: first, to educate; second, to inspire; and third, to donate 10% of its profits to organizations that help autistic children. Just to offer you a brief overview of the company, its name is the Adinkra republic.
When Ghana earned its independence in 1957, the symbols were published and made accessible to the entire audience. Because I have to wear a suit and tie every day for my job in corporate America and I can’t wear my traditional African clothing, I took the symbols my grandmother had taught me and put them on the socks.
There were also skin care goods offered in addition to apparel and its accessories, such as jewelry.
“I basically run a wellness business. I produce organic skin care products. According to Kaleigh Zschuschner of Nautralista Care in Brooklyn, New York, “I make these care packages for my family to remind them to take care of themselves as well as take care of their babies” because I have three children with extremely sensitive skin. I first started making soaps, then I expanded, but I’m also a doula.
African Pop-up Festival organizers have a jam-packed schedule for the second half of the year beginning with the African Restaurant Week in New Jersey in July. Nearly all COVID-19 restrictions have been abolished across the United States.
The African pop-up festival’s founders say they want to take it to more states, including Atlanta in the south, now that summer is well underway nationwide. They think this would help disseminate the African culture and help African companies grow.
