26
/ KESTA HAPPENING MAGAZINE
/ FEBRUARY
2013
VENUE
By: Juan Leon
Tropicalia is a relatively new DC dancehall focusing on global music. Latin and folk rhythms are well represented for all of us Latin folk. Cumbia (in striking and varied iterations), kuduro, dancehall, a splash of moombahton here and there: are all possible on a night at Tropicalia.
KM: DWhat were some of your personal favorite acts at Tropicalia? JT: Well, I have a few people that I like to work there. The Maracuyeah Collective, not only are they just lovely people, but they have a real sense of community spirit and all inclusiveness.
Kesta Happening talked to Jim Thomson, in charge of bookings for Tropicalia, about what makes Tropicalia unique and why it’s such a good time.
I don’t like feeling that I’m excluded, for one thing. I like being able to walk into an environment and feel like, “come on in man”. We got something going on and you’re more than welcome rather than walking into a saloon and it gets quiet and everybody looks at you.
KM: Could you tell us a little bit about Tropicalia? JT: The venue was designed to be a combination of a globally leaning music venue, combining live music and DJs but with a bend towards global music. And I don’t mean world music specifically, and I don’t want to say fusion either but something that reflects the kind of greater international community of DC: a sort of swelling international population that’s growing here, that’s been here. KM: What kinds of crowds do you get? JT: Yeah. Well, we can have a show where there’s DJs that are playing a lot of Latin, playing a lot of cumbia remixes, or nucumbia, digital cumbia, something like that. And you have a lot of Latinos there but you have a lot of different cultures there, people just sort of getting into it. I think the idea is that we want people to come there specifically for an event they know about, they know what kind of music’s going to be playing. But we also want the person who walks in off the street to go, wow, I don’t know what this is, but it’s amazing. It’s sort of like getting people to eat something that they normally wouldn’t have picked off the menu. And they like it. How do you choose who’s going to perform? I think it’s a combination of following up on some solicitations and considering what other venues are doing and sort of narrowing it down. Like, nobody is really going to do this, or seeing something that doesn’t have a home in DC. And it’s like a combination of local stuff. I’ll sort of see what’s happening at the Kennedy Center. I think we’ve had two or three groups that have played the Millennium stage and then come over and played at Tropicalia later that night because I know they try to do real diverse programming over there. I mean, you kind of have to be diverse if you’re booking live music 365 days a year.
So Maracuyeah, they have a real spirit. They do a lot of Latin-oriented music, but it’s pretty much about all expansive, all inclusiveness. And they’re really wonderful to work with. I love our Brazilian night, the Okayafrica party, and Urban Artistry. I love our Brazilian night. On Sunday nights, we have a free samba lesson at 7:00. And we have rotating bands that all work together to make the night work. They all plug the other group when they’re not playing one Sunday. And that’s a really nice feeling when that happens. And I think the woman, Zezeh Brazil that teaches the class has a very inviting, warm, and infectious joy that she exudes. First thing we do at 7 o’clock on Sunday, she’s kind of the gatekeeper of good vibes. For example, she says when you dance samba the first thing you do is tomorrow. That’s part of the dance. Yeah, everybody’s here and you want to dance and have a good time. You might have problems but just forget about it for a little while and you’ll feel better. And she really has the quality of that and it sets the tone for the rest of the night. People stick around and dance to live music. I love that a lot. We’re doing an Okayafrica party. Okayafrica is umbrella’d under the Okayplayer, and Okayplayer is a blog that Questlove from the Roots started. It used to serve as the Roots blog. But it’s a big intersection of hip-hop and popular culture with an emphasis on hip-hop. But then they started one called Okayafrica, which is more of a blog that’s focused more on music of the African Diaspora. Like, where is kuduro culture coming from? Angola via Lisbon. It’s this sort of new African music. It’s got roots in the action but is completely
modern in that it combines technology, fashion, artwork. And they kind of focus on looking at Africa as almost like a planet. Where does it show up in western culture, in modern culture? It obviously shows up in hip-hop. Obviously it shows up in jazz. The blog focuses on that. It’s quite informative. They wanted to have a presence in DC and so we are doing like an Okayafrica party. And so there’s this DJ, DJ Underdog, who throws a lot of parties around town. He’s a real tastemaker and just an awesome DJ. Kind of another gatekeeper. He knows how to pick a DJ team, get dancers involved. Urban Artistry is another one of my favorite artists to work with lately. We had them come and actually do cyphers and battled with these kuduro dancers from Angola a couple weeks ago. It’s just a real cross cultural exchange we’re doing, and what I want to happen more than anything is that exchange happens, real cultural exchange, meaningful. And not just stuff that you read about. It’s something that you actually feel. That’s part of the experience I want you to have when you come here.
And I’m not saying it like this is a concept. But it’s just something that’s real. KM: What’s in store for Tropicalia in 2013? JT: I want people to feel like it’s home. I want anybody that’s visiting DC or that lives here to feel that it represents all of us at our best. Where we work it out on the dance floor. Regardless of fiscal cliffs, drone strikes, cultures come together here in a meaningful way and make it a better world. I see that. I want us to continue that and I want it to continue being a really fun spot. I want it to do well for the owners, that it sustains itself, that everybody that works there has a great job, that loves to work there and that people have a great experience when they’re there, that it’s the safe zone to dance where creeps won’t come up and grind on you, that we can all get together and feel joyous together like a human community. Let’s do this. Let’s really believe in this and let’s make it happen. And I want you to internalize that. I want people to feel that in an energetic way, rather than just like, it’s cool. Tropicalia is located at 2001 14th St NW (between N V St & N U St).