zuhura
Google
Honestly the worst experience I’ve had going out in NYC in a long time. We went to both venues as a party of 6 on a Tuesday night. We went to the club location first, and got extremely dirty looks from both staff and other guests. There was no sitting room, and we felt like we were blocking people’s view, so we went to the cafe location. The person at the door told us that we could either have two tables put together or sit in front of the bar. No one moved to put the tables together or seat us, so we sat ourselves in front of the band. Honestly speaking, the band was not good but that is not where my most of my disappointment lies. Our party of 6 was the ONLY group of Black people in this establishment, a jazz venue with an entire gallery wall dedicated to Black jazz artists as well as African and Black art. A member of the staff approached us, told us that we “need to hush because other people cannot hear the band”, and walked off before anyone could even blink. When our waiter came by to check on us, I asked why we were the only group asked to hush, when the cafe was full of at least 5 other groups of 2-4 people, and no one else was asked to hush. In response, the waiter did not apologize or even acknowledge what was said, they simply stood up and told the entire room to tone it down. We were made extremely uncomfortable by this, and left shortly after. It is important to recognize when you are a guest in a genre and culture, and should probably not be discriminatory to the natives of this culture. All 6 of us paid a $20 cover and ordered off the menu, so be told to shut up when this cafe made ample money off of us was beyond insulting. If you are Black or POC, find a different jazz bar and save yourself the micro aggressions and disappointment.
