... if you keep your eyes open and aren't afraid to talk.I ran into my belly-dancer friend Adira - and along with discussions about the dance scene she mentioned dancing at the 10th anniversary celebration for the Museum of African Culture in their new digs on Maple Street.
Maine has the reputation of being lilly-white - and I think only Vermont has smaller percentage of citizens of color.
From working in Litchfield and Lewiston both - as well as just tooling around the state in the time I've lived here - all of this feels accurate. This is not a judgement - it's simply the way it's turned out.
However - maybe it's just me, but I've also experienced a vibrant "ethnic" community - strong tastes of international (non-redneck, God help me) cultures.
There are powwows to go to, Greek festivals, Italian festivals, tango dances, lot's of salsa, the Abby museum ... and the Museum of African Culture.
It's run by Oscar Mokeme - a tall man known for his amazing appearances at events in a full shaman's costume - full head mask, straw hair and body, carrying a horsetail scepter, walking gracefully about, blessing all lucky enough to come within his reach.
AS it turns out, Oscar is also an honest-to-God prince in his homeland - one of several and they'd all have to pass away before he'd have to go back.
Still, he brings a living experience of African culture to the city - and his museum.
So it was easy to bookmark the date and show up. Seeing Adira dance was just another motivating factor.
Several tango pals were there. It took a while to get to Adira - like most of these things it ran late and Oscar had a very specific pattern he was working, that couldn't be varied for any reason.
Understandable - and it gave us a chance to share the talents of the two guys you see at right.
Adira came on after them, dancing effective and evocative belly dance, both on the stage and through the crowd.
It's easy - and wrong - to simply see belly dance merely in a sexucal way. The dancing - at least as Adira does it - is intense, emotionally consuming work and I'm very impressed with it.
So was the crowd. The afternoon pretty much showed how interesting such nooks and crannies are in the dominant cultural (top 40) state of Maine.
Lime most dancers she was in oxygen debt but before going out for a tea we had to stay to watch a Somali group from Lewiston share a women's dance. The music was a couple drummers and most of the women singing and waving simple fans.
The dance was so simple that we - Adira, me, some of the tango crew - got invited to join in and we did.
I suppose all of us are ethnic - it just remains to be seen what we're going to do with it.
