Reggae Concert in Paris France.... Poverty and Culture

Kaysen, Leah, and I.  The two French women in the
 backgroud are Kaysen's homesetay sister and mom 

This Past Saturday, a friend mine invited Leah and I to a reggae concert Saturday night. So we met up at campus with him and went to the place together. 1. It took us about a half hour to find the place. 2. It was located in the 19th arrondisement. This section of Paris is where there are some people of color there, there are several ethnic groups there- Indian and people from the Carribean ( Cairabes) and Africa. We were walking through this section of Paris very quickly because there were some shady looking people and activities going on. We vowed that we will not be walking through this section at night time. There were building complexes that I considered to be the French version of projects. I would have taken a picture of them but I didn't want to take out any gadgets.  We were searching for 42 La Rue Curial. When we finally found the street we couldn't find 42, we found 40 but didn't know where 42 was. We stopped and asked the Police and they were unsure but told us to go into the building complex. Now if you are familiar with the projects back in the NYC, you know that there are several buildings on the same block and you have to walk through the complex to find the other building numbers. If you understand the projects back at home, then you understand that we had to walk between the buildings and turn left and walk through a side entrance.Before we decided to walk on the grounds, we asked another  French woman and she told us the same thing as the police officers. Before I continue, seeing the police circle the neighborhood made me think of home. I say that because I've been out at night on numerous occasions since my time in Paris and I never saw police officers. I'm not saying that they weren't there but I never saw them  We go to school in the 6th arrondisement which is one of the riches sections in Paris. The Champs Elysee is likened unto 5th and Madison Avenue in Manhattan.  These places have security but they are not obvious. However, the 19th arrondisement had police patrolling the community. I knew we were in low in come communities when there was trash on the ground and four gigantic rats running to and fro. When them rats came galloping out from the dark, I nearly lost it.  There's garbage here and there on the grounds in the rich neighborhood as well, but the mood or aura of this particular community shifted. I can't explain it. At any rate, we found the place and was plunged even more into a cultural suction cup. I knew we were going to a reggae concert but I didn't expect to be smacked in the head with so much culture, it was suffocating. I mean some of the music was ok, I grooved and what not but it was an experience  I tell you. Dread locks, head wraps, colors, traditional garb, brownies, ginger drink ( which was very strong , btw) and some shady activities. That wasn't what surprised me the most. What surprised me was how many French people of the European persuasion were there. They love this music. Our friend Kaysen was invited by his homestay mom who is in her 50's. She was getting it in.

While we were sitting there, I was listening to the music. They sung in French, English, and I think some other African languages. I listened to some of the stories- One man from Senegal sung about the forgotten history of I'm assuming black or African people. Although it was in French, I understood some of what he was singing about. However, it is very difficult for me to understand French with a heavy accent. You might as well be speaking in a different language. But anyway, many of these singers were Rastafarians with dreads down to their knee caps wearing army fatigues and some tribal garments and accessories.  In my mind I prayed and thought about all the work that Pastor Manning and the ATLAH World Missionary Church is doing in our community Harlem and the Black community in general. I saw the difficult task it is going to be to for people to give up years of culture that is ingrained in them. Yes they reverenced God as "Jah" but God is second to their culture. One man sung about Zion, but I don't think it's the same Zion that I am familiar with. Another man sung about his African Queen which was nice but his voice wasn't. Another man from Guadeloupe sung that young men need to pay attention ( this was in English) to the wisdom of authority figures. Like I said some of these songs had some meaning for today.  However, majority of the first singer that I saw was singing about things that re open old ancestral wounds. Wounds that can heal because they reopen them time and time again. When will people move on from the past? They can't hence why there is no future. You can't continue to live in the past, ignoring the present, and believe that your future will be any different. One lady was dancing and doing this screeching noises ( tribal noises) from the audiences. Many of the other audience members were high. I went to use the restroom, and when I came out to wash my hands, this guy was on the hand drying doing something. From the way his body was angled, he obviously wanted to hide what he was doing . I washed my hands, let them air dry, sat down in the audience for another 10 minutes, looked at Leah and Kaysen and said, "It's time to go". They were ready too. After we did a little dance, we were out of there- fresh air and some light. I forgot to mention earlier how dark the place was. It was just too much going on. I don't regret going. Outside of my observations, we had a great time. Afterwards, we went to Bastille which is a section in Paris where the rich live and there are strips up strips of bars.

Before I conclude this post, I wanted to talk about the poverty level here in Paris. I know there are homeless people everywhere. Being from New York, I seen people begging everyday on the train back to back. There are even homeless people on the streets or in train stations. However, in Paris, I've never seen so many homeless people grouped together. I know there are places in NYC were they stay, but again, I've never seen it. Leah and I take the metro line 12 everyday to go to and fro, and there is a stop called Pasteur. This train stop reeks with the stench of homeless men and women. There are about 5 or more sitting on the benches , in each direction. Many of them have their sleeping bags and set up home there.  Furthermore, our friend lives in Bastille , so he showed us the area and the night life; we've never been there before. We walked up and down a strip and there were many drunk people; you could smell the alcohol seeping through their skin. But worse of all , there were so many homeless people on the streets. We even walked but a group of them sleeping on old mattresses. Bastille is where some of the rich live witch fancy security codes to get into the building complexes, yet there are so much poverty in that quartier- neighborhood. It is very interesting and eye opening at the same time. Well that's it for this post. I've been meaning to share my observations for a while now.

Please don't forget to comment and share your thoughts with me and others. Particularly for this post, I'd be interested to hear your feedback. Stay tuned!

Here are some images from that night

Tried to take a picture of them two.. this is what came out 

This is the singer that I mentioned earlier. He's from Senegal.
He was telling a story because for each song he sang,
 clothes kept coming off. 

Tried to take a picture of gramp's. This old dude was killing it on the guitar 

Man who sung about his African queen. I think he was from Martinique 

This lady just jumped on the stage and started doing some African two step.
 Looked like a dance from her homeland. It was so random

Kaysen's homestay mom thought I was from Ghana. She was suprised
 when he told her I wan't  lol. She said my skin tone is so rich...
 Yeah it's the chocolate! 

Semester Crew in it's finest! 

A Good Night!