On February 28th, The Pan African Arts Society’s Café Nuba (It’s Hot and It’s Black!) poetry event celebrated its 10 year anniversary. Café Nuba was born in February 1999 of the energy created by Theodore Witcher’s 1997 flick “Love Jones,” Denver’s own So What! dance party, and the will of Ashara Ekundayo (pictured in photo by Bernard Grant) and Matema Hadi. Just before the movie came out, Ashara and Matema found themselves wishing Denver had a venue for artistically inclined black people to interact with one another on a regular basis (black history month was no longer enough). At the same time, Ashara was looking to increase community support for her Pan African Film Festival. After seeing “Love Jones,” Ashara and Matema “literally walked out of the theatre saying ‘that’s what we want.’” Shortly after, Ashara just happened to notice a new business being constructed near the Five Points corner of 29th and Welton. She went inside and found out that the Gemini Tea Emporium would soon be opening. Ashara asked one of Gemini’s owners, Abdul Kadir Omar, about showing films and possibly doing poetry at Gemini and a month later, Café Nuba was born. In the beginning, Café Nuba consisted of a film, an open mic, and the reading of poetry written by well known poets such as Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and Sonya Sanchez. DJ K-Nee (who’s keeping the So What! energy alive every Friday night on KUVO) contributed music to the event and it was complete.
After a few months, poets across the U.S. caught wind of Café Nuba and, before anyone knew it, poets from across the country were travelling to Denver to perform. Tom Evans, Taalam Acey, Amiri Baraka, Amir Sulaiman, and Melvin and Mario Van Peebles have all graced the Nuba stage. The introduction of nationally recognized poets was just one step of many in the venue’s evolution. In Nuba’s 10 year history, it has played host to a Denver Community Television (DCTV) show, it has acted as one of the first homes for Denver’s popular Future Jazz Project, and it has been the catalyst for the creation of other organizations like Denver’s nationally ranked SlamNuba (We Cut Headz!) poetry slam team. Today, Nuba continues to evolve. After its 10 year anniversary, Nuba will make Denver’s beautiful, black-owned, Shadow Theatre home. As much as it hurts Ashara to leave Five Points (which has been called the Harlem of the West), she believes that the move will increase Nuba’s exposure by making it easier for Aurora’s poetry fans to attend. After the move, live music will also play a larger part in the Nuba experience. I, for one, can not wait to see what Nuba has in store.
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