Much better!

 The 4th July Independence celebration was well organized as usual.

 In other words, things are back to normal in Tamarac, after the confusion that reigned 6 days before with the Caribbean Heritage celebrations at the same venue. (https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2025/06/such-confusion.html).

Bravo Tamarac City👏.

So, as usual, we enjoyed the music provided by VAM Band, food from the trucks and camaraderie.

I was ready for the rain😊

And the little rain that came was welcomed by those who came prepared, as it cooled down the place. 

The Mayor got soaked but didn't miss a beat😁

Carol, Mayor Gomez, Joan 

Donna, our Trini friend dropped in too😊

VAM band worked up the crowd

Then it was time for fireworks.

Last year, they had a drone show and it was good, but the child in me prefers good, old-fashioned fireworks!

Thank you Tamarac, we love and appreciate these regular music sessions at the Sports Complex, when the organization is seamless.

Evening time/Panfest

 It's almost the eve of the Tallawah Mento Band and the Jamaican Folk Review's  historic trip to Ghana to compete in Panafest 2025. 

The taste they gave attendees at the Lauderdale Performing Arts Center was more like a bellyful.

A bellyful of music, laughs, dance,  kumina and happinesses!

Panafest (the Pan African Festival of Arts and Culture), is a biennial event established in Ghana in 1992 to unite Africans in the diaspora and on the continent and celebrate their resilience and African identity. 

Colin Smith, founder of Tallawah Mento Band and a cultural icon in his own right, explains the concept.

Kumina time

The talented cast

Panafest was the brainchild of the late, great Pan Africanist play right/author,  Efua Sutherland.

It has become a landmark festival in Ghana that gives Africans an opportunity to learn from each other wherever they are .

 This years theme is "Ensuring the African Kinship: Our Essence, Our Well-being, Our Prosperity."

Significantly, this is the first time a folkloric Jamaican entry will be involved in this auspicious,  two weeks event. 

 It took the Louise Bennett Coverly Heritage Council to make it happen.

If the taste we in Florida got is anything to go by, our entry will make a huge impact on the minds of Africans at home and abroad. It traces our progress through music and dance, from emancipation to victory.

 The performance also highlighted the contribution of world renowned artists such as Peter Tosh. Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and the foot stomping energy of kumina music and dance, in uplifting the souls of the once downtrodden people. 

We look forward to our particants  returning home with many medals for this creative, entertaining and educational performance.

Although the crowd of attendees was enthusiastic and participated in song and dance, in my book the numbers fell short of expectation for this important fund-raising event, especially in Florida where so many Jamaicans reside.

Ps. Follow the link below for an excellent review of their performance in Ghana.

https://wiredja.com/index.php/categories/newsberg/culture/africa-the-jamaican-folk-revue-and-tallawah-mento-band-performs-at-cape-coast-castle-ghana-the-heritage-preserved

Juneteenth

Juneteenth is a holiday celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, enslaved people were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.

Every year we have an event at a Tamarac park to mark the day and 2025 wasn't any different.

This year the celebration took place on the 14th June at the Tamarac sports complex.

 There was a big difference this year though. 

It was in terms of the attendees.

I have never seen so few at this event and can only assume that this is as a result of how much ICE is harassing non-white people.😡

For their modus operandi is to harass, arrest and even assault anyone that is not white under the guise that they are " criminal undocumented immigrants". 

That's totally disgusting.

Despite the clear dangers, those of us who ignored the possibility of an ICE raid and the ensuing inconvenience, turned out and had a good time.

Music, poetry, dance and a nice variety of food trucks.

MSC entertainment

The MSC entertainment has been really enjoyable on this Mediterranean cruise.

Most have been cabaret but there have also been some outstanding individual performances.

I give them overall a 4.5 star rating as I did not find the pianist all that entertaining.

 But the others, definitely 5 plus, Especially the tenor Giovanni Sacca. 

What a voice.

And the African acrobats were absolutely perfect.

Great performances MSC.

Culture

 Tamarac's annual multi-cultural event was held yesterday and as usual, Carol and I had to be there.

I also saw many other familiar faces from the Senior Center in attendance, yet somehow the crowd still looked a lot sparser than usual!

 I think it's the ICE effect, as Tamarac is a city of immigrants, yet even when people are in the USA legally, many seem to be nervous about going out. 

Maybe they are scared of harassment, since racial profile is the in thing now😡.

As usual, before going over to the big stage, there were cultural performances showcasing the countries represented in Tamarac.

Venezuelans

Thai

Mariachi band (Mexico)

Irish dancers

Then it was time for great music and the Lionel Richie band really delivered.

The Lionel Richie band

Their lead singer was really good and had us on our feet as he belted out Lionel's greatest hits.

These young people were however my all time favorites. 

They are super skilled.👏.

We had shuttle buses from convenient locations to the Tamarac Sports Complex where the show was held and they ran regularly.

Another well organized event.👏

Congrats to Mayor Michelle Gomez and her culture-loving team.

Celebrating in Tamarac

It was 90 degrees in the 6 pm sun, but we found good shade in between some food trucks, as we got ready to enjoy the 4th July celebrations at the Sports Complex in Tamarac.

Since Tamarac is the nifty city, Sonja and Camille came up from boring Miramar to groove with us😁.

 And they had a great time.

And guess who was working non-stop on the holiday? Yup our venerable, ever-present Community Center manager Michelle Sendik 😊.

Those who weren't able to walk too easily from the shuttle bus stop to the field, had her ride service waiting to help out! (Our shuttles were brand new dreamliner buses to boot too!).😊

Driver Michelle

I also saw the other Michelle, the energetic Mayor Michelle J. Gomez, appropriately decked out in stars and stripes, actively engaging with constituents and visitors as usual.

 The music was fantastic. 

That band, 'The Jam Band,' really knows him to put on a great show. And it's lead singer, a young lady, was versatile and unstoppable.

 Her repertoire was drawn from popular songs from every genre of music and she delivered with amazing pitch, intensity and energy.

 Unbelievably, they kept us rocking  for an hour and a half hour,  before taking a short break and resumed for another hour, up to when the fireworks begun! 

An absolutely amazing and flawless performance.

Where we sought sanctuary from the sun was far from the band stand, but excellent for the fireworks which were a fitting finale to what was another entertaining event, put on by my favorite city.

There was lots for the kids, young and young at heart to do too.

Our 91 year old friend Phyllis doesn't stay long at these events, but she never misses any❤️.

Good music, lots of good food choices from the trucks, first class entertainment, camaraderie and lots of fun all the way.

Another enjoyable celebration at 'the 'city of our dreams.'

Mother's day 2024

I am happy we gave up scrabble this Sunday and attended the Kiwanis Club Mothers Day luncheon held at Nob Hill Soccer Club in Sunrise.

Camille's brother Dave is a big wig in Kiwanis.

Everything went well.

The decorations were nice, we had a five-course Chinese meal, and really outstanding entertainment, some of which is shared below.

My scrabble partner Camille and I😊

.

Anbesa is a fantastic violinist

                          Amari entertains.

Colorful table decorations 

This 8 year old classical pianist Amari is a genius!

The Mayor chipped in to help serving

So did Dave

The main entertainment was supplied by Kool Kasual Entertainment, a one man band. He was really versatile. Here he is joined by Anbesa.

Really talented musicians.

An outstanding performance

 If Ron DeSantist ever saw the Musical Memphis, now showing at Lauderhill Performance Center in Florida, he would have a heart attack and ban it immediately!

I ran into leading man Samuel Cadieux on the way out.

For according to him, performances like that which highlight the racist past in the USA should never see the light of day. 

I am sure, given the chance he would even ban Black History Month! 

That musical is very appropriate for this period though.

'Scrabble' Camille and I got there early

It's a story partly about forbidden love, set in Memphis, Tennessee during the 'jim crow' period.

The main setting is this bar on Beale Street 

The leading man is Samuel (above) and the leading lady, the super-talented Sydney Archibald, an African American actress, who is also a fantastic singer.

Because of the period in which it is set, it is full of white rage and violence against the couple, so there is no-make believe happy ending to that affair.

However it is a marvelous production with non-stop energy, fantastic music, dance, love, comedy, hope and passion.

Really an outstanding performance, even worth seeing more than once!😊