.....If Wall Street, NYC is the financial heartbeat of the world, then Harlem 125th Street, NYC is the rhythmic pulse that vitalizes the status of world trade....(split screen...and rewind...) So mycomrade, Steal Will, and I (less the rest of our traveling party) hopped into the BM(W) for a slightly planned, yet spontaneous trip to Martha's Vineyard to check out the 7th Annual African American Film Festival, which sounds like a "Big to Do"....but the crazy low keyness, and lack of obvious promotion had me thinkin' the organizers were pseudo-elitely foo fooing themselves and the very talented film makers out of what could be......a nice event.
Anywho...between beach bummin...sight seeing...skating at the island's new skate park...sippin cold Guinness (from the blue cooler) and herbal scavenging...we found time for a few screenings. Most of the films on deck were dope, independent, crafty, funny (big up "SHEROES"), inspiring glimpses of new Black Cinema. However, (split screen...forward) while viewing "Harlem's Mart 125: The American Dream" (produced and directed by the "Magnetic" Rachelle Gardner)...I realized that...yes....I too have been gentrified!!! Not only did this story hit home with my kinship to the street merchant brother/sisterhood...but the peeling back of such complex political, financial, bureaucratic layers that led to the demise of (specifically) Mart 125, and the current gentrification of Harlem as a whole, will leave any viewer wishing for the days of pre-Giuliani, gestapo-type policing of street vending all together.
Without giving it all away, I say seek and support this film...and the many up and coming independent Film Makers, Artists, Writters, Musicians, Thinkers....Whateverers!......We are "The American Dream".
www.harlemmart125.com
