AfriKin

Nothing Thrown Away Is Finished

Betye Saar passed four days before her hundredth birthday. Srnan Dey turned fifty in Queens. Iris van Herpen redefined a museum in Brooklyn. And the countdown to Taste of AfriKin enters its final stretch.

Alfonso D. Brooks | August 3, 2026

Betye Saar passed in her sleep on July 26, at home in Los Angeles, four days short of turning one hundred. This past week in Santa Monica, a small circle of her people, artists, admirers, family in spirit if not always in blood, gathered to send her off properly. They called the evening Blues for Betye. What had been planned as a hundredth birthday tribute became something larger: a room full of people who understood exactly what this country loses when a woman like this one leaves it.

That was not the only current running through Global Africa this past week. An invitation to New York put me inside the fiftieth anniversary of Srnan Dey, the Surinamese diaspora's flagship celebration in Queens. A quick detour through Brooklyn put me face to face with a Dutch designer building garments that look like they escaped a coral reef. And back home, the countdown to Taste of AfriKin has entered the stretch where every week matters. All of it below.

The Woman Who Turned Salvage Into Scripture
Betye Irene Saar was born July 30, 1926, in the Watts section of Los Angeles. As a girl visiting her grandmother nearby, she watched Simon Rodia assemble the Watts Towers piece by scavenged piece, steel and cement pressed with shards of plate and tile, corn cobs, whatever the neighborhood had discarded. She would later call that her first real encounter with art, and the lesson never left her: nothing thrown away is actually finished.

She studied at Pasadena City College and continued at UCLA, then worked for years as a social worker before turning fully to her own practice. A Joseph Cornell retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1967 pushed her toward assemblage, and by 1969 she had produced Black Girl's Window, a self-portrait framed inside a salvaged window sash and layered with mystical symbols, the piece now considered her breakout work. Three years later came The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, an assemblage that took the mammy caricature sold to generations of American households and turned it into a woman armed and unbothered. It remains one of the defining works of the Black Arts Movement, a movement Saar helped build from the inside.

Blues for Betye
Blues for Betye: Yrneh Gabon and CCH Pounder in front of the installation they built in her honor. Photo by Lee Tonks.

Recognition came late in life but arrived in full. At 93, Saar held simultaneous solo exhibitions at LACMA and MoMA, and that same year received the Wolfgang Hahn Prize from the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. Her work had already anchored Tate Modern's landmark 2017 exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. Across seven decades of flea market finds, clocks, dolls, ships, masks, mirrors, she built a body of work that carried African diasporic cosmology inside ordinary American materials, and she raised two daughters, Alison Saar and Lezley Saar, who carry that same instinct into their own celebrated careers.

A Woman Who Recycled Everything, Including Grief
Betye Saar spent seventy years proving that nothing this country throws away is actually finished, not objects, not stories, not the women it tried hardest to erase. That conviction outlives her by design.

AfriKin's own relationship to her work runs through a screening room, not a gallery wall. At the 2024 AfriKin Art Fair, we had the honor of presenting Ready to Be a Warrior, a documentary portrait of Saar directed by Angela Robinson Witherspoon. Witherspoon built the film from a place of genuine reverence, and it showed. Audiences left that screening with a fuller sense of a woman most people had only ever met through a museum wall label, and it gave this Chairman an education in a life he thought he already understood. Spearheaded by CCH Pounder, Yrneh Gabon, and Angela Robinson Witherspoon, Blues for Betye carried that same spirit into a living room in Santa Monica: soup, libations, conversation, and love filling every corner for a woman whose creativity and generosity defined an era. She was never only an artist, and never only an activist. She was one of the real ones, and the culture owes her the retelling.

Srnan Dey Turns Fifty in Queens
An invitation to New York put me inside the fiftieth edition of Srnan Dey, the three-day gathering the Surinamese diaspora has built into one of the largest of its kind in the United States, running July 31 through August 2 in Queens. This was not a routine year. Suriname sent an official delegation, representatives from government ministries, entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural organizations, on a mission that was as much economic as it was cultural, organized by the Suriname Family Day Committee alongside Benjamin Jansen Business Support. Fifty years of a diaspora keeping a homeland present in its bones does not happen by accident, and this milestone edition made that intention explicit, with a cultural evening, a football tournament, a pre-party, and the grand Srnan Dey Celebration itself, headlined by the Surinamese formations Showtime and OpMaat, who both flew in for the occasion.

Srnan Dey, Queens
Srnan Dey, Queens: With the Surinamese delegation at the fiftieth anniversary celebration. Photo by Barry Holness.

The music carried the weekend, but the real education for me sat underneath it, in Winti. Winti is the Afro-Surinamese spiritual tradition carried by enslaved Africans brought to Suriname and kept alive across centuries of Dutch colonial rule, syncretized the way Vodou, Santería, and Candomblé were built elsewhere across this hemisphere. Watching it explained through traditional dance rather than through a textbook changed how I understood a country I thought I already knew. And then there was the eating, and the shopping. Pepper sauce, marinades, spices, the kind of goods that do not fully translate outside Paramaribo, went straight into my suitcase, because a country's Africanness lives in its pantry as much as its ceremony.

Suriname is one of fifteen confirmed nations at Taste of AfriKin this September. Watching this diaspora hold its culture this tightly, this publicly, in Queens is exactly the energy Maison AfriKin is built to host on Labor Day.

Sculpting the Senses: Iris van Herpen at the Brooklyn Museum
A quick detour before I left New York took me to the Brooklyn Museum for Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, her first major New York exhibition and the North American debut of a show that has already traveled from Paris to Brisbane to Singapore to Rotterdam. More than one hundred forty pieces of haute couture sit alongside coral, fossils, and natural history specimens, on view now through December 6.

Sculpting the Senses
Sculpting the Senses: Inside the Iris van Herpen retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. Collage by Alfonso D. Brooks.

My friend Alessandra has a theory that if aliens are walking among us, Van Herpen is one of them, and an afternoon inside this show makes the case hard to argue with. Garments built to move like water, structures that reference coral reefs and neural tissue, a level of craftsmanship that treats fabric like it owes her an explanation. I could have spent days in that museum and still left with more ideas than I arrived with. Van Herpen is Dutch, and the Netherlands should claim this career loudly. As someone who carries Dutch citizenship alongside American, watching a fellow countrywoman command this level of global attention for a craft built entirely on her own terms is its own kind of pride. Kudos to her for a career well earned.

AfriKin Supports: A Souptealious Summer to Remember
Yrneh Gabon opens his Santa Monica studio for a summer studio opening running August 7 through 31, by appointment only, at the 18th Street Arts Center Campus. Come for the art and performance, stay for what Yrneh calls the Souptealious experience, soup and tea served the way only he serves it. A list of works available for acquisition is ready on request, and friends outside the state or the country should stay tuned for virtual pop-ups.

Yrneh Gabon's Studio, 1653 18th Street, Suite 5, Santa Monica, California 90404. Email [email protected] or send a DM to schedule your visit.

Visit Yrnehgabon.com →

A Souptealious Summer to Remember
A Souptealious Summer to Remember: Courtesy of Yrneh Gabon.

The Call Has Closed
One submission window closes as another season opens. As of August 1, the Call to Artists for the 12th Annual AfriKin Art Fair, GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times, curated by Dr. Joseph L. Underwood, is officially closed. Portfolios, proposals, and artist statements came in from across dozens of countries, and our team is now moving through that pool with the same care this fair has built its reputation on. Every artist who submitted will hear from us. Miami Art Week runs November 29 through December 6, and what gets selected from this cycle will define GRIOT's twelfth year.

Thank you to every artist who trusted GRIOT with their work this cycle. If you submitted and have not heard from our team within the coming weeks, reach out to [email protected].

The Countdown to Taste of AfriKin
September 6 is closer than it feels. Fifteen confirmed nations, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cabo Verde, Eritrea, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States, will bring their tables to Maison AfriKin this Labor Day, and the tiers are moving the way they move every year at this point on the calendar: steadily, then suddenly. Every ticket tier at Taste of AfriKin is capped. Once a tier sells out, the next one opens at a higher price for the same seat at the same table. The move that costs nothing right now is buying today instead of in three weeks.

Fifteen Nations. One Table. The Clock Is Running. • Labor Day, September 6, 2026

Get Tickets →

General Admission:
55
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55•VIP:125 • Tables: $440. Doors open at 5:30 PM, program runs 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Free parking on site, all ages welcome. All ticket sales are final, and prices rise as each tier sells through.

Taste of AfriKin 2026
Taste of AfriKin 2026: Fifteen nations, one table. September 6, Maison AfriKin.

The room will move to sound from four corners of Global Africa. Rozz Parker Band returns after last year's performance, bringing soul and Motown built to move a room full of plates straight onto its feet. Saxophonist Connis Vanterpool carries the sound of Sint Maarten onto brass. Jerilyn Davis represents Nigeria on a stage built around the same diaspora pride driving the Jollof Cook-Off happening a few feet away. And Binghi Blaze closes the night with Jamaica's sound, a lineup that spans the Continent, the Caribbean, and the diaspora in between, one set at a time.

Celebrate at the Table: If someone in your party is celebrating their birthday on Labor Day weekend, we want to celebrate with you. Purchase a VIP table and that guest receives a free bottle of champagne on us, on ice, ready when you arrive.

Get Your Tickets → | See the Full Lineup →

Upcoming AfriKin Events
Art and the Beautiful Game: Africa on the World Stage: Through October 2, 2026 · Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
Taste of AfriKin: September 6, 2026 (Labor Day Sunday) · Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
AfriKin Vernissage: All White VIP Opening: November 29, 2026 · Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
Rhythm and Soul: Mosaic Workshop with JoKeeta: December 1, 2026 · Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
AfriKin Art Fair 2026: GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times: November 29–December 6, 2026 · Miami Art Week
CHANGÁ: Griot Moves, Documentary Screening & Keynote: December 3, 2026 · Miami Art Week · Maison AfriKin
African Fashion Week Miami: REGENESIS: December 5–6, 2026 · Miami Art Week
Build the Permanent Home
Every ticket sold this fall funds a single evening. AfriKin's capital campaign funds the institution that makes every evening possible. We are raising $300,000 to convert a decade of proven cultural relevance, exhibitions, press, and civic recognition, into a permanent home at Maison AfriKin: secured infrastructure, a funded season, and the staffing to operate as a lasting institution rather than a reconstituted event series each year.

Donate to the Campaign →: A one-time or monthly gift toward the $300,000 campaign funding Maison AfriKin's transition to a permanent institution. Tax-deductible, EIN 85-2592611.

Sponsor Taste of AfriKin →: Title, Culinary Partner, Beverage, and Community sponsorship tiers are open for this year's Taste of AfriKin, placing your brand inside Miami's leading African and Caribbean culinary platform.

The AfriKin Ecosystem
AfriKin does not live on one website, and it was never meant to. Five properties carry different parts of the same mandate, each one built from the start to point back toward the others.

afrikin.org: The Institution. Programs, exhibitions, press, and the record of everything we build.
afrikin.store: The Commerce. Apparel, coffee, and design that fund the mission and carry it into daily life.
alfonsobrooks.com: The Founder. Sixty countries of institutional research, framed as one person's ongoing case for what culture can build.
rockersmovement.com: The Beginning. Where it started in 1998, building music and art festivals across the world to celebrate Global African culture.
rockersmovementradio.com: The Broadcast. Carrying that same culture forward on air, every day.
Can't make it to Maison AfriKin tonight? Tune in to Rockers Movement Radio and get the same spirit through your speakers: Roots, Rock, Reggae, and everything between, pulled from the Continent to the Caribbean and back again. It is the sound Taste of AfriKin is built on, playing around the clock.

In diplomacy and sovereignty of culture,

Alfonso D. Brooks
Founder & Chairman, AfriKin Foundation, Inc.

afrikin.org • alfonsobrooks.com • afrikin.store • rockersmovement.com • rockersmovementradio.com
305-760-5515

Asé

We are AfriKin

The Rice Wars: One Grain, Many Crowns
Jollof, Thieboudienne, Djon Djon, Rice and Peas, Peas n' Rice, Rice and Beans, and Nasi Goreng are all landing on one table September 6. Suriname just threw its hat into the Jollof ring. Who walks away with the crown?

Every diaspora table eventually comes back to rice. It shows up boiled, fried, browned, blackened, and simmered in tomato until the grain itself turns the color of the pot. It travels on ships and through empires, gets renamed in every port it lands in, and somehow still tastes like home no matter which home is cooking it. At Taste of AfriKin this Labor Day, fifteen nations bring fifteen tables to Maison AfriKin, and at the center of nearly every one of them sits a pot of rice that its cooks would defend with their life.

This year, that defense gets formal. The Jollof Cook-Off returns as the signature program of the evening, and for the first time, a country outside West Africa has entered the arena. Suriname has announced its own take on jollof, built from a table that already blends African, Javanese, Dutch, and Indigenous influence into one plate, and the word from that camp is confident: this version is coming for the crown. Whether it can take it from Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal, the three nations whose rivalry built the Jollof Wars in the first place, is exactly the argument Taste of AfriKin was built to host.

The Original Rivalry: Jollof Rice
Jollof did not start as a competition. It started in the Wolof Empire, a confederation that rose in the 12th century across what is now Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, in a region where rice cultivation was already centuries old. Food historians trace the dish back to thieboudienne, prepared with rice, fish, shellfish, and vegetables in the fishing communities of Saint-Louis. As Wolof traders and migrants moved across West Africa, the dish moved with them, and every region that adopted it also adapted it, swapping in the tomatoes, peppers, and rice varieties that suited local taste and local trade routes.

By the time jollof reached Nigeria and Ghana, it had become something closer to a national identity than a side dish. Ghanaian cooks lean on basmati and a lighter hand with spice. Nigerian cooks favor long grain rice, a heavier tomato base, and a smoky crust at the bottom of the pot that some cooks consider the entire point of the dish. The rivalry between the two countries picked up a name in the 2010s, the Jollof Wars, and it has since spread into music, social media, and international cook-offs, all in defense of a pot of rice that both countries insist only they know how to finish properly.

Nigerian and Ghanaian style jollof rice, smoky tomato rice dish central to West Africa's Jollof Wars
Jollof Rice, West Africa's most argued-over pot

Thieboudienne: The Rice Jollof Came From
Before there was a war to fight, there was Senegal, the country where the whole tradition begins. Thieboudienne, sometimes written ceebu jën, is widely credited as the root dish behind every jollof variation served today, and it carries a distinction none of its descendants can claim: UNESCO has recognized it as an intangible cultural heritage dish. Fish, rice, and vegetables simmer together in tomato and tamarind until the rice takes on the color and depth of everything that cooked before it. Senegal is confirmed for Taste of AfriKin this year, which means the dish that started the entire argument will be sitting at the same table as the countries still fighting over it.

Thieboudienne, Senegal's national dish of fish, rice, and vegetables simmered in tomato and tamarind
Thieboudienne, the dish every jollof variation traces back to

Every nation at this table believes its version came first. Most of them are arguing about a dish that started in the same kitchen.

Rice and Peas, Peas n' Rice, and Rice and Beans: A Caribbean Family Argument
Travel from West Africa to the Caribbean and the rivalry does not disappear, it just changes shape. Jamaica's rice and peas is built on coconut milk, red kidney beans, scallion, thyme, and a whole Scotch bonnet pepper left in the pot for heat without breaking it open. The Bahamas' peas n' rice takes a different road entirely: pigeon peas, browned sugar, salted pork, tomato, and thyme, cooked into a darker, heartier pot with none of the coconut sweetness Jamaica leans on. Ask a Jamaican cook and a Bahamian cook to settle which one is correct, and be prepared to referee.

Jamaican rice and peas made with coconut milk, red kidney beans, scallion, and Scotch bonnet pepper
Rice and Peas, Jamaica

Bahamian peas n rice made with pigeon peas, browned sugar, salted pork, and tomato
Peas n' Rice, the Bahamas

Belize brings a third answer into the same argument. Its national dish pairs coconut rice and red kidney beans, cooked together in one pot, with stewed chicken marinated in recado, the achiote-based paste shared across Belize and the Yucatán. Where Jamaica leans sweet and the Bahamas leans smoky, Belize leans toward that deep red recado color and a citrus brightness from lime worked into the marinade. Three countries, three rice-and-legume traditions, three chefs who will each tell you theirs is the one worth defending.

Belizean coconut rice and beans served with recado-marinated stewed chicken
Rice and Beans, Belize

Djon Djon: Haiti's Black Gold
Haiti brings a different kind of rice entirely, one that does not compete for the same crown so much as claim its own category. Diri ak djon djon takes its name and its color from a rare black mushroom that grows only in the mountains around the Artibonite River valley during rainy season. The mushrooms are boiled, then discarded, and what remains is a near-black broth that turns the rice a deep charcoal and gives it an earthy, almost truffle-like flavor found nowhere else on this list. Because the mushrooms are seasonal and prized, this dish is reserved for weddings, holidays, and the kind of company a Haitian household wants to honor. It carries roots in both African and Taíno culinary tradition, a rice dish that is less a side and more an heirloom.

Haitian diri ak djon djon, black mushroom rice, a delicacy served at celebrations
Djon Djon, Haiti's black mushroom rice, reserved for the occasions that matter

The Newest Challenger: Suriname Enters the Ring
Every rivalry needs a wildcard, and this year, Suriname is it. Surinamese cuisine already carries one of the most layered rice traditions on the continent, built when Javanese migrants arrived under Dutch colonial rule and brought nasi goreng with them, a fried rice dish that took on new life once it met Suriname's African, Indigenous, Chinese, and Creole influences already at the table. The result, sometimes called moksi alesi, is a fried rice built from whatever the pot holds that day, seasoned with trassi, ginger, and kecap, finished with plantain and pickled cucumber on the side.

Now Suriname's chefs are bringing that same layered instinct straight into the Jollof Cook-Off, announcing a jollof-inspired dish built to rival, and by their own account beat, the West African nations that have owned this competition for years. It is a bold claim from a country not traditionally in the jollof conversation at all. Whether Suriname's melting-pot approach to rice can out-cook three nations that have been perfecting this exact dish for generations is precisely the kind of argument Labor Day was made for.

Surinamese nasi goreng, fried rice shaped by Javanese, Dutch, African, and Indigenous influence
Nasi Goreng, Suriname's entry into a fight nobody expected it to join

The Jollof Cook-Off: Judged Live at Maison AfriKin
All of it converges at the center of the evening, where chefs representing West African and Caribbean traditions bring their definitive version of jollof rice to Maison AfriKin, prepared live and judged before a panel of culinary tastemakers and a room full of guests who are not shy about their own opinions. With Suriname now in the field alongside Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal, this year's cook-off is not a rerun. It is a genuinely open contest, decided one spoonful at a time.

Taste of AfriKin is built for every guest at the table. Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options will be available throughout the evening, alongside the rice traditions above. Reach out to [email protected] for specific dietary needs.

The Soundtrack: Four Nations, One Stage
The judging happens at the table, but the room moves to a different rhythm entirely. This year's lineup pulls performers from four corners of Global Africa:

Rozz Parker Band (United States), returning for a second year of soul and Motown, built to move a room full of plates straight onto its feet.

Connis Vanterpool (Sint Maarten), saxophonist, carrying the island's rhythm on brass into a room built to honor homegrown talent.

Jerilyn Davis (Nigeria), representing Nigeria on a stage built around the same diaspora pride driving the Jollof Cook-Off a few feet away.

Binghi Blaze (Jamaica), closing out a lineup that spans the Continent, the Caribbean, and the diaspora in between.
Celebrate at the Table

If someone in your group is celebrating their birthday on Labor Day weekend, we want to celebrate with you. Purchase a VIP table and that guest receives a free bottle of champagne on us, on ice, ready when you arrive. Good food, good people, unmatched vibes, and now a toast to go with it.

Fifteen nations. One table. One crown still up for grabs. Labor Day, September 6, 2026.

General Admission $55

VIP125

Tables $440.

Doors open 5:30 PM, program runs 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Free parking on site, all ages welcome.

Get Your Tickets → https://taste-of-afrikin-2026.eventbrite.com

Come hungry, come with opinions, and come ready to cast your own unofficial vote. Food, music, art, and community, this Labor Day weekend, in Downtown North Miami.

Building Toward GRIOT
Taste of AfriKin is not the only clock running right now. The 12th Annual AfriKin Art Fair, GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times, curated by Dr. Joseph L. Underwood, is still accepting artist submissions through August 1, 2026. If you have not yet submitted your work, you have a few days left. Get it done.

Submit Your Proposal → https://afrikin.org/afrikin-artfair.html

Upcoming AfriKin Events:

Art and the Beautiful Game: Africa on the World Stage: exhibition open now through October 2, 2026, Maison AfriKin

Taste of AfriKin: The Rice Wars: September 6, 2026 (Labor Day Sunday), Maison AfriKin

AfriKin Vernissage: All White VIP Opening: November 29, 2026, Maison AfriKin

Rhythm and Soul: Mosaic Workshop with JoKeeta: December 1, 2026, Maison AfriKin

AfriKin Art Fair 2026: GRIOT: November 29 to December 6, 2026, Miami Art Week

CHANGÁ: Griot Moves: December 3, 2026, Miami Art Week, Maison AfriKin

African Fashion Week Miami: REGENESIS: December 5 to 6, 2026, Miami Art Week

Build the Permanent Home
Every ticket sold this fall funds a single evening. AfriKin's capital campaign funds the institution that makes every evening possible. We are raising $300,000 to convert a decade of proven cultural relevance, exhibitions, press, and civic recognition, into a permanent home at Maison AfriKin: secured infrastructure, a funded season, and the staffing to operate as a lasting institution rather than a reconstituted event series each year.

Donate to the Campaign → · Become a Sponsor →

In diplomacy and sovereignty of culture,

Alfonso D. Brooks
Founder & Chairman, AfriKin Foundation, Inc.

afrikin.org · alfonsobrooks.com · afrikin.store · rockersmovement.com · rockersmovementradio.com

305-760-5515

Asé
We are AfriKin

FIVE ARTISTS. THREE COUNTRIES. ONE STAGE.

This is not a lineup announcement. This is a warning.

🎤 Jerilyn Davis (Nigeria) — soulful, powerful, unapologetically African Jerilyn🏺

🎶 Rozz Parker Band (United States) — the sound that closes out every set Roslyn Parker

💃 Nadia Sol (Jamaica) — fire dancer, literally leah_nadia_sol

🎷 Connis Vanterpool (Sint Maarten) — sax that will move you before the first plate hits your table Connis Vanterpool

🎙️ Binghi Blaze — roots, rhythm, revolution

Every one of these performing artists brings a different corner of the diaspora to Maison AfriKin. Miami’s number 1 African and Caribbean food festival for Miami Spice pairs this talent with plates from across the continent and the islands. You are not just buying a ticket. You are buying a seat at the table for the best night of culture Labor Day weekend has to offer.

Who is ready to dance and vibe? Tickets are moving fast and this event sells out every year. Do not wait until September to realize your friends already went without you.

🎟️ GET YOUR TICKETS NOW — https://taste-of-afrikin-2026.eventbrite.com or link in bio

📅 Labor Day, Sunday, September 6

🕕 6PM to 9PM

📍 Maison AfriKin, 1600 NE 126th Street, Downtown North Miami, FL

| afrikin.org | In partnership with Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) and City of North Miami


—

It’s your birthday? Say less. 🍾🥂

This Labor Day Sunday, celebrate with us at Taste of AfriKin and we’ll pop a free bottle of champagne on the house with your VIP table.

Sunday, September 6th, 6PM to 9PM at Maison AfriKin. Miami’s Number 1 African and Caribbean food festival returns for Miami Spice 2026. Global African fine dining. The renowned Jollof Cook-Off. Live music all night by Rozz Parker Band, Binghi Blaze, Connis Vanterpool and more. Art on display and food from over 15 countries.

Got a birthday in your crew this Labor Day weekend? Grab a VIP table and celebrate with a free bottle of champagne on us.

Good food. Good people. Unmatched vibes.

📍 Maison AfriKin, 1600 NE 126th Street, Downtown North Miami 🎟️ Tickets and details at link in bio or AfriKin.org

Some never start.

Some give up.

We just do the work and figure it out.

Choose well...

You wanna walk with them or you wanna walk with God?

We are

Fifteen Plates, One Table: The Taste of AfriKin Field Guide

The World Cup just crowned a champion. Six weeks from Labor Day, we crown fifteen nations at one table instead, dish by dish, with the Rozz Parker Band providing the soundtrack.

Congratulations to Spain, world champions once again. Sunday night at MetLife Stadium, Ferran Torres settled a scoreless final in extra time, and Rodri lifted the trophy for a country that has now won the tournament twice. It closed the book on a World Cup that filled AfriKin's summer with sport diplomacy, from the Cabo Verde Welcome Reception to Art and the Beautiful Game, the exhibition still open on our own walls through October 2. With the tournament decided, that exhibition has turned its own page. The gallery now centers Togolese-born artist Bamazi Talle and his 48-piece Flying Calabash collection, a body of work that outlasts a single tournament and bridges forward to everything AfriKin builds next: Taste of AfriKin in September, GRIOT in November. The World Cup chapter is finished. This one is just getting started.

Six weeks from Labor Day, the table is where our attention turns next. Fifteen nations. Fifteen dishes. One room in Downtown North Miami where the same argument this whole summer has been making, that culture converts into commerce and commerce strengthens community, gets proven again, one plate at a time.

The Final List Is Set
This year's Taste of AfriKin brings together food and beverage traditions from fifteen countries, confirmed as of this week: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cabo Verde, Eritrea, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and the United States.

Taste of AfriKin 2026 official flyer listing fifteen participating countries, Labor Day Sunday September 6th at Maison AfriKin

Labor Day, Sunday, September 6, 2026, 6 to 9 PM, Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami

Taste of AfriKin has grown into what Miami Spice organizers and press now call Miami's leading African and Caribbean food festival, the annual Labor Day gathering that anchors AfriKin's culinary programming. The growth is not accidental. It is the same institutional pattern behind every AfriKin program: build something real, prove it works, then build the next room on top of it.

Fifteen Nations, Fifteen Dishes
The menu is not final and we are not giving it away yet. But here is what else can possibly be on the table this year, signature dishes from each of the fifteen nations represented, offered as a taste of what to expect.

Bahamas: Conch Salad
Conch pulled straight from Bahamian waters, diced raw and tossed with citrus, peppers, and onion. A dish built on the sea, still the backbone of the island's table today.

Barbados: Cou-Cou & Flying Fish
Barbados' national dish. Cornmeal and okra folded into cou-cou, served alongside flying fish in a light Creole sauce. Simple ingredients, generations of technique.

Belize: Rice and Beans with Stewed Chicken
Coconut rice and beans beside chicken stewed low in recado spice. Belize's everyday table, brought to Maison AfriKin for the evening.

Cabo Verde: Cachupa
Corn, beans, and whatever the season provides, simmered for hours into Cabo Verde's national dish. It is patience, cooked.

Eritrea: Tsebhi over Injera
A berbere-spiced stew, scooped by hand with injera, the sourdough flatbread that doubles as plate and utensil.

Ghana: Waakye
Rice and beans cooked together with dried millet leaves for their signature color, served with sh*to, gari, and boiled egg.

Haiti: Griot
Pork shoulder marinated in citrus and epis, braised, then fried crisp, served with pikliz. Some food historians trace the name to the West African griot storyteller, others to a French word for grilling. Either way, it makes a fitting companion to this fall's Art Fair theme.

Jamaica: Jerk Chicken
Scotch bonnet and pimento wood smoke, a marinade refined over centuries by Maroon communities in the hills. Jamaica's most famous export, still its most guarded technique.

Martinique: Colombo
A curried stew carrying the imprint of Martinique's Indian indentured laborers onto a French Caribbean plate. Three continents, one pot.

Nigeria: Suya
Skewered beef rubbed in ground peanut and dry pepper spice, grilled over open flame. Nigeria's street food, holding its own just outside the Jollof spotlight.

Senegal: Thieboudienne
Fish, rice, and vegetables simmered in tomato and tamarind, widely regarded as Senegal's national dish and one of West Africa's most influential exports.

Sint Maarten: Guavaberry-Glazed Specialties
Guavaberry, the island's signature wild fruit, finds its way into glazes and cocktails alike. A flavor that belongs almost entirely to this one small island.

Suriname: Pom
Chicken and grated tayer root baked into a casserole tracing Suriname's layered history: African, Javanese, Dutch, and Indigenous, folded into a single dish.

Trinidad & Tobago: Doubles
Fried bara bread wrapped around curried channa, sold from carts across the islands for generations. Breakfast, lunch, and an ongoing argument about the right amount of pepper sauce.

United States: Gumbo
Okra, rice, and whatever the Gulf provides, built by West African, French, and Indigenous hands working the same pot in Louisiana. Proof that Global Africa's table never stopped at the coastline.

Taste of AfriKin is built for every guest at the table. Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options will be available throughout the evening. If you have a specific dietary need, reach out to [email protected] and our team will take care of you.

And at the center of it all sits the Jollof Cook-Off, staged as both culinary competition and cultural celebration. Chefs representing West African and Caribbean traditions bring their own definitive version of jollof rice to Maison AfriKin, prepared live and judged before a panel of culinary tastemakers and a room full of guests with strong opinions of their own.

The Signature Program
To taste Global Africa is to taste memory, migration, and mastery, all on one plate.

Fifteen Nations. One Table. Labor Day, September 6, 2026.
Get Tickets →

General Admission:
55
•
V
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P
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55•VIP:125 • Tables: $440. Doors open at 5:30 PM, program runs 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Free parking on site, all ages welcome. All ticket sales are final.

Live Music: The Rozz Parker Band Returns
Rozz Parker

Vocalist, speaker, and founder of the Wellness Through Music Experience, Rozz Parker built her career on the idea that a room changes the moment live music enters it. She returns to Maison AfriKin after performing at last year's Taste of AfriKin, bringing her full band back for Global Africa's table a second time.

Her sets pull from soul, Motown, and themed live experiences she has carried into corporate stages and community gatherings across South Florida. Expect a set built to move a room full of plates and glasses straight onto its feet.

Visit Rozz Parker →

Rozz Parker Band performing live at Taste of AfriKin, Sunday September 6th, Downtown North Miami

Music, art, and community round out the rest of the evening: original visual art on display throughout Maison AfriKin's gallery walls, a curated vendor village, and a full room built for total immersion, not a single course served and forgotten.

Building Toward GRIOT
Taste of AfriKin is not the only clock running right now. The 12th Annual AfriKin Art Fair, GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times, curated by Dr. Joseph L. Underwood, is still accepting artist submissions through August 1, 2026, extended from the original July 7 deadline due to overwhelming demand.

New this week: Rhythm and Soul, a Mosaic Workshop with artist JoKeeta has joined the GRIOT lineup. A beginner-friendly, hands-on session for six to twelve participants, held Tuesday, December 1, 2026, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at Maison AfriKin. Every guest leaves with a finished piece of their own, no experience required.

GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times
The 12th Annual AfriKin Art Fair, curated by Dr. Joseph L. Underwood. We are accepting artist submissions: portfolio, proposal, and artist statement. Miami Art Week, November 29 through December 6, 2026.

Submission deadline: August 1, 2026.

Submit Your Proposal →

Two tables, one calendar. Taste of AfriKin proves the model in September. GRIOT builds on it in November. Neither one waits for the other to finish before the next room opens.

Get Your Tickets → RSVP: Mosaic Workshop →

Upcoming AfriKin Events
Art and the Beautiful Game: Africa on the World Stage · Exhibition Open Now
Through October 2, 2026 • Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
Plan Your Visit →

Taste of AfriKin · Fifteen Nations, One Table
September 6, 2026 (Labor Day Sunday) • Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
Get Tickets →

AfriKin Vernissage · All White VIP Opening
November 29, 2026 • Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
Reserve VIP Access →

Rhythm and Soul · Mosaic Workshop with JoKeeta
December 1, 2026 • Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
RSVP Now →

AfriKin Art Fair 2026 · GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times
November 29 – December 6, 2026 • Miami Art Week
Submit Your Work →

CHANGÁ: Griot Moves · Documentary Screening & Keynote
December 3, 2026 • Miami Art Week • Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
Reserve Your Seat →

African Fashion Week Miami · REGENESIS
December 5 – 6, 2026 • Miami Art Week
Get Tickets →

Build the Permanent Home
Every ticket sold this fall funds a single evening. AfriKin's capital campaign funds the institution that makes every evening possible. We are raising $300,000 to convert a decade of proven cultural relevance, exhibitions, press, and civic recognition, into a permanent home at Maison AfriKin: secured infrastructure, a funded season, and the staffing to operate as a lasting institution rather than a reconstituted event series each year.

Give to the Campaign: From Relevance to Permanence
A one-time or monthly gift toward the $300,000 campaign funding Maison AfriKin's transition to a permanent institution. Tax-deductible, EIN 85-2592611.
Donate Now →

Partner With Us: Sponsor Taste of AfriKin
Title, Gold, Silver, and Bronze sponsorship tiers, from
7
,
500
t
o
7,500to25,000, are open for this year's Taste of AfriKin, placing your brand inside Miami's leading African and Caribbean culinary platform.
Become a Sponsor →

The AfriKin Ecosystem
AfriKin does not live on one website, and it was never meant to. Five properties carry different parts of the same mandate, each one built from the start to point back toward the others.

The Institution: afrikin.org. Programs, exhibitions, press, and the record of everything we build.
The Commerce: afrikin.store. Apparel, coffee, and design that fund the mission and carry it into daily life.
The Founder: alfonsobrooks.com. Sixty countries of institutional research, framed as one person's ongoing case for what culture can build.
The Beginning: rockersmovement.com. Where it started in 1998, building music and art festivals across the world to celebrate Global African culture.
The Broadcast: rockersmovementradio.com. Carrying that same culture forward on air, every day.
Can't make it to Maison AfriKin tonight? Tune in to Rockers Movement Radio and get the same spirit through your speakers: Roots, Rock, Reggae, and everything between, pulled from the Continent to the Caribbean and back again. It is the sound Taste of AfriKin is built on, playing around the clock.

In diplomacy and sovereignty of culture,

Alfonso D. Brooks
Founder & Chairman, AfriKin Foundation, Inc.

afrikin.org • alfonsobrooks.com • afrikin.store • rockersmovement.com • rockersmovementradio.com
305-760-5515

Asé
We are AfriKin

AfriKin Foundation, Inc. • Maison AfriKin • 1600 NE 126th Street, North Miami, Florida • EIN: 85-2592611