Malvin said that the goal for their meals this night would be “to share the Black experience through food.”
Art, Food, and Wine, YaYa’s Kitchen
By Harris BeemanArt, Food, and Wine by Asma Yaro and Yaya’s Kitchen on Oct. 23rd at the London Food Incubator brought eight attendees the experience of African food, art, and fine wine.
Bringing a twist to a seven-course meal known as the Supper Club that Yaya’s kitchen has offered throughout past years, the opening night of Yaya’s Art, Food, and Wine included a collage art tutorial by artist Yaro. Yaro is from Nigeria and has been an artist her whole life. She made a career in multi-media art five years ago here in London. She now curates The Black visual Arts Exhibition, also located in the London Food Incubator.
For the art experience this night, Yaro would be providing a canvas, a cup of glue, paint, paintbrushes and newspaper as the materials for the attendees this night. She planned to walk participants through a multi-media collage-style art project that they would participate in throughout their meal.
The end goal for the art project is based on two samples Yaro brought from previous work she had done as an artist years prior. They were colorful works of art infused with streaks of newspaper that were used as lines to pull the eye towards what she described as “a form” intended to represent the human body. Her intention with this project was “to show people that art does not need to be expensive, using household things like newspaper, anyone can make something beautiful.”
Founders of Yaya’s kitchen, Maryam and Malvin Wright, cooked the food for this event. Maryam is the head chef of Yaya’s kitchen and is known as Yaya herself, an honorary title given to older siblings in Hausa, her first language. She is originally from Nigeria, where she first learned to cook at the age of eight. When asked how long she has worked professionally, she laughed, saying that she was cooking for a family of 12 and that it has been ‘professional’ ever since. Malvin is her husband, Toronto raised, and has supported her as the sue-chef at Yaya’s Kitchen since they opened three years ago.
Malvin said that the goal for their meals this night would be “to share the Black experience through food.” He said that each of the five courses would bring participants' taste buds through a different part of Africa. These meals were done in a tapas style, a Spanish word for appetizers, and each included a wine pairing with the meal.
The first course was Funio Salad made with funio (a kind of millet), mango, pickled carrots, cucumber, tomatoes radish, along with Koose Slider made with a black-eyed bean fritter, Yaji mayo and malted bread. Funio is a popular West African food. Koose is a type of street food popular in Ghana.
The second course was Cassava Mash, crispy fried chicken and sautéed greens and raisins. Cassava is a woody shrub that is a staple in most African countries.
The third course was Gurasa (a traditional Hausa bread), with Kuli Kuli salad and Kafanchan beans. Gurasa can take three days to make to let the rice bread properly ferment. Kuli Kuli is a popular vegetable in Nigeria. Kafanchan Beans is a special dish of beans made in Kafanchan, Nigeria.
The final and fifth course was dessert. It was Salara, two ways, with Dunbulan. Salara is a Guyanese coconut roll.
Yaro and Yaya’s Kitchen hoped to have a successful night. If this event were a hit, they would plan to bring it back sometime in November.
As Krause left, his dad yelled out to him, “You’re dead!”
Otto Krause Interview Story
By Harris BeemanOtto Krause is a man who has worn many faces, from sports star to bartender, alcoholic, to cocaine addict, abuser of women, father, actor, and now painter.
“I’m 67, and I’m trying to retire,” said Krause as he discussed his new painting career. “I never felt proud of anything before this.”
He explains how painting is therapeutic for him, and others, such as war veterans he’s worked with to open gallery shows all around Los Angeles for the last six years. He says it’s been a way for him to deal with his past.
Krause shares how his father abused him and his family so often that he and his siblings now have PTSD, just like a war veteran might. He still wakes up in the middle of the night “feeling like a scared little boy.”
His dad used to scream an inch away from his face and beat him, his siblings and his mother. Krause’s father was an alcoholic, as was his grandfather. Krause says he doesn’t know if he even blames his dad because “he learned all that shit from his dad.” Krause says he, too, learned that same behaviour.
He talks about his struggle with alcoholism, violent tendencies, and abusing women, saying he felt like he was becoming like his father and “It was hard to look in the mirror.”
“I used to choke my girlfriends,” said Krause. “I’d spit on them, kick them, hit them in public, just like my dad did to my mom.”
He talks about his long nights bartending in New York, how he would be drunk every day on the job and do cocaine in the bathroom to keep the nights going. He says he’s practically tried every drug in the book: heroin, meth, crack and quaaludes. But, after getting sober 27 years ago, all of that has stopped for Krause.
He says the reason he got sober was his father’s suicide. “After my dad killed himself… I didn’t want to die like him”. Krause says he can’t remember the year or anything else, except that he killed himself on Christmas. Krause says he was so embarrassed about how his father died that he would lie to people who’d ask him about it, claiming that his father didn’t kill himself.
Krause recounts the last time he saw his father; it was Thanksgiving that same year and they’d gotten into a fistfight.
“I remember he had a white shirt on because after I hit him, he had blood all over it,” Krause said.
His dad then walked out to his car. He kept a .38 handgun under his car seat for protection. Krause believed his dad was going to use the gun on him. He decided to leave before his father returned, passing his dad in the driveway.
As Krause left, his dad yelled out to him, “You’re dead!” He was holding the gun, the same one he’d later use to take his own life.
Krause now has two kids, a wife and sobriety. He says people call him a nice guy, though it’s hard to hear that sometimes. When he talks to his kids, they say he’s a great dad. He’s been with his wife for 20 years, and it’s the first time he’s not been in an abusive relationship. He says he’s never hit his kids or his wife, and he’s stayed sober. He is confident he’s broken the cycle of abuse started by his grandfather.
Now, to help himself come to terms with his past, he paints.