Bedford-Stuyvesant

Can #TheBlackHour save black-owned bars from gentrification?

As black-owned bars in gentrifying areas face threats to business, one Bed-Stuy resident has a plan: black happy hour.

July 2, 2019 Noah Goldberg
Addy Salau founded Party Blackly in 2018 to grow audiences for black artists in Brooklyn. Eagle photo by Noah Goldberg
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After a black-owned Prospect Heights bar nearly lost its liquor license in May amid a fierce debate over gentrification, a Brooklyn group hosted a black happy hour event there to promote black-owned and friendly bars throughout the borough.

The event, dubbed the #TheBlackHour, was conceived of by Addy Salau, an artist who founded Party Blackly, a Brooklyn-based media and event platform that seeks to grow audiences for up-and-coming black artists. Salau created her organization in 2018, and its inaugural event brought more than 700 black New Yorkers across the city together to watch a screening of Marvel’s “Black Panther.”

Salau said she loved bringing people out to watch the film, and realized she could use the same model and network to support local artists in Brooklyn, the borough in which she was born and raised.

“I know so many dope black people at the grassroots level doing amazing things, making amazing projects, whether it’s music, art or creating their own content. I was like, ‘It would be really cool to get this database of people who support black creators and use that for their own projects,’” Salau told the Brooklyn Eagle at Ode To Babel on Thursday, where she hosted the first installation of #TheBlackHour.

Ode to Babel is open every night of the week, apart from Monday. Photo courtesy of Ode to Babel

More than 75 people RSVP’d to the event, and Salau had to cut off the list so the bar didn’t overflow its capacity, she said. Bartenders mixed a special drink, “Black Joy,” served with tequila and blackberries, and a DJ played music by local black artists. Attendees were issued wristbands that said “artist,” “activist” or “entrepreneur.”

Aundreus Patterson, who frequents Ode to Babel most weekends, saw right away the event’s potential as a support system. “Any organization that has the mission to save black-owned establishments, I have no choice but to support,” said Patterson, a public school teacher.

Patterson’s affection for the bar goes beyond its drinks and music. The one-time Mississippi resident described the ambiance of Ode to Babel very specifically — to him it feels like the living room of a favorite great-aunt who was the black sheep of her family. He loves it there.

“I want to make sure Party Blackly becomes a staple for establishments like this. Establishments like this need some sort of bracing, like a scaffold to help hold it up, because it goes far and beyond making money,” he told the Eagle.

The bar was not chosen at random. In May, Ode to Babel, a Dean Street food and drink spot owned by two black sisters, came under fire after a neighbor called for community members not to support its liquor license renewal via the controversial NextDoor app. The complaint was based on allegations of “assault, noise, disrespectful patrons and management, a run-in with the owners, and even a domestic assault incident between a couple outside the bar,” according to a Grub Street article.

Days later, more than 180 letters in support of renewing the bar’s liquor license had been sent to Community Board 8, according to Grub Street. The renewal was approved.

Patterson was among those who showed up in person to attend the board meeting. “I felt a personal responsibility,” he said. “I took off work that day to make sure I was at the meeting on time, because I wanted to stand in defense of this place.”

One of the owners of Ode to Babel testified at a City Council hearing in February that noise complaints are weaponized by gentrifiers to try to “literally and figuratively” silence the bar.

Photo courtesy of Ode to Babel
In May, the bar faced the threat of having its liquor license revoked. Photo courtesy of Ode to Babel

“These bars are being targeted to have their liquor licenses revoked — because that’s the sure way to get a bar closed down is you take their liquor license away,” Salau said.

Ode to Babel was also the site of a city raid in late 2018. The raid happened under the MARCH program (an acronym that stands for multi-agency response to community hotspots), which was founded under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to seek out violations at city bars and clubs.

Brooklyn City Councilmembers Stephen Levin and Rafael Espinal introduced a bill in 2018 that would require the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to issue quarterly reports on MARCH raids that would include which establishments were targeted, what complaints led to the raids, and any resulting closures or summonses — an effort to ramp up transparency.

“The crux of the bill is bringing to light what the MARCH task force does and kind of bringing it out of the shadows,” said Levin’s legislative director, Elizabeth Adams. The council is currently workshopping the language of the bill, but Adams said they hope to get it passed this summer.

Meanwhile, Salau plans to keep #TheBlackHour going, with more events slated for this fall. Her goal is to raise the visibility of black-owned bars — and to have a good time.

New bars cropping up in Brooklyn, she said, are “catering to a very specific crowd. They want to rebrand Brooklyn.” That crowd, she adds, is usually white — and its not a crowd in which she feels comfortable.

“This agency called MARCH, led by the NYPD, they raid businesses unannounced and they issue fines and violations and they don’t say why they come into these venues. They don’t give a warning. And that’s what happened here,” said Salau, sitting on the back patio at Ode to Babel.

“I don’t want to be chilling and somebody in SWAT gear comes in and takes my drink out of my hand.”

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