By Naeisha Rose
Greg Mays, the founder of A Better Jamaica arts and culture organization, is presenting Bangladeshi Delights Saturday at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, which is the third out of eight installation within the Delightful Festival series so far this year
For Mays, a pillar of the Jamaica community, the latest event in The Delightful Festival is a way for people all over the area and with different backgrounds to mix. mingle and get to know each other.
The Delightful series are “evenings of music, food, and a movie all tied to a immigration population here in Jamaica. They are meant to appeal to everyone. They are a cross-cultural experience if you will,” Mays said.
“We are giving folks that aren’t in that immigration population a taste of what Bangladeshi food tastes like, and the music sounds like, and the movie experience itself.”
During the free event attendees will get to hear music from the Bengali-American star Wahid Azad, dine on cuisine from Jamaica’s very own Ghoroa Restaurant and watch “The Clay Bird,” a family drama about Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.
Mays’ dream for the event is that the attendees grow closer as a community.
“I hope that they learn from each of these evenings,” Mays said. “We live in a fantastically diverse community and we shouldn’t be afraid. Not only should we not be afraid of each other, we should be excited by the fact the community is diverse, which means that we have fantastic food offerings, movie offerings and music offerings. We should take advantage of the fact the community is as diverse as it is. As you know, Queens is probably the most diverse county in the United States and even right here in Jamaica it is fantastically diverse and changing.”
When it comes to selecting the country that gets represented during these weekly installations, Mays looks at the statistics of the ever changing and growing demographics of the south Queens area.
In terms of the South Asian population in Queens “there are presently more Indians in Community Boards 12 and 13, but the Bangladeshi community is growing faster than the Indian community,” Mays said.
According to PUMA (Public Use Mircodata Areas)statistics, which provides statistical geographic information, in 2013 there were 7,150 Bangladeshi Americans in Community Boards 12 and 13, who made up 13 percent of the Asian population in the area.
Like all non-profits, A Better Jamaica had to receive funding from somewhere. With the help of City Councilmen Rory Lancman (D-Hillcrest) and Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans) through the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Initiatives funding Mays was able to present this program. With the National Endowment of the Arts facing cuts from the Trump administration, however, he is not sure if he will be able to grow the organization or if he will have the opportunity to expand the Delightful Festival to 16 countries so that he can represent more people from the area.
“I absolutely have concerns. Last year we received $10,000 from the NEA. They have a grant called the Challenge America grant and the advice is that you do the Challenge America grant for a couple of years and then you apply to an Arts Work grants [once you have an established organization] for larger sums of money,” Mays said. “I am hoping that it doesn’t go away because I am hoping to grow the business. I don’t want cut backs.”
Bangladeshi Delights runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at JCAL, which is located at 161-04 Jamaica Ave. To learn more about the event go to thede
Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose
