Afrodesia Tuesday

Tuesday (Nov 24) night started like any other regular, boring DEAD night in Boston, MA. But I already knew the night would be resuscitated soon. At about 9p.m, I decided to make my way to the neighboring city of Cambridge to cover the Afrodesia Open Mic event being held at the chic and trendy OM Restaurant & Bar in the heart of Harvard Square.

Arriving at the venue, I was greeted by the brains behind the operation of Afrodesia, Wumi (Olasco Boston) Akinwumi. The event, hosted by Boston’s own Mr. Harvey, started with the extremely talented spoken-word artist Ayo “ReaSon” Yayo, who performed his piece, “Misunderstood” and later with an encore of his second piece”Lustful Acts” which had the ladies in the house gasping for air and water. The exposition had the crowd roaring for an encore. The mood was set by the masterful spinning of DJ Bradford James, playing the hottest neo-soul and RnB tracks. As he worked on the 1s and 2s, the live band was setting up as everyone mingled and made their way to the bar (The bartenders were cute , even I bought a drink).

Up next was the lyrically gifted ‘Baba Dudu’ spitting a hot 16 bars (boy blessed the mic). Next up was ‘Jeff’ who, to everyone’s surprise….WAS a surprise. All I remember is he must have really loved having demons around or is possessed by them. The duo of Brett and Keyon showed their freestyling (dunno if that’s a word) genius and had the whole crowd bumping to their melodious words. Even Mr. Harvey showed us he had what it took to ‘rock the mic right’.

Other acts included Brother Bambuu, T Holmes, Alistair, and Jodi who swept the ladies off their feet with his song. But the effect of the live band and the various talents tonight was definitely the highlight of my week leading up to me devouring some turkey and jollof rice with suya, YES I’m having Suya.

Afrodesia Open Mic is held every Tuesday at the beautiful OM Restaurant and Bar, located at 92 Winthrop Street, Cambridge MA. So if you ever need a chill spot, or a place to hear great talent and mingle with new people, THIS is the spot. Special AMEBOR birthday shout-out to Chibuzo Ibeabuchi who marked his bday @ Afrodesia.

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Tagged as: Afrodesia, Boston, Open Mic