Crensaw

So in a bizarre twist for a Saturday evening, my buddy calls me and informs me that he has a) joined a reggae band and b) has a concert tonight in Crensaw. I thought it was going to be some type of party with predominantly African American partiers kicking it to dance-hall style music.

I was wrong. We show up to a banquet room with a roomful of black folks, young and old, listening to a spoken word artist. Surely the only hapa film student in the crowd, I stood out like a sore thumb, feeling like....well, maybe a black kid from Crensaw at a small liberal arts college.

I talked to the strict boss man who let us sit down and watch the festivities when we explained our friend was in the band. A stand up comedian performed - he was pretty good. His best bit was about the rising cost of gas was going to lead to "gas-dealers" replacing drug dealers.

Next there was a BBQ dinner, followed by a fairly intense dancer, and then followed by story-time by the preacher leader of the event.

Finally Anuj's band played a couple of tunes - they were quite good, but a bunch of folks had left. They were old, what can I say? It was the church crowd. Anuj's younger sister led the remaining people in a dance and chu-chu train while the band played "hot, hot, hot."

It was totally dorky, but awesome at the same time.

This sounds really stupid and PC and lame, but I was a bit scared going down to Crenshaw to hang out, fairly sure the ghetto would feel unsafe. But it felt much safer than I expected. The only issue was a drunk homeless guy yelling at our group, but that's nothing really new. I actually felt safer than in parts of Hollywood. But then again, I was hanging around a church crowd with no alcohol...