Soul Food Sundays at Amy Ruth's

Kamau's "Soul Food Sundays!" On the weekends my daughter and I are dedicated to seeking out and supporting Black owned restaurants in the tri-state area.

We can pray to God but since God works thru people only we can economically save ourselves. So we will continue to support our businesses on Soul Food Sundays.

We can't keep financing others who don't care about us and letting our communities go lacking economically. A strong, vibrant, and viable business sector will help our property values go up and hire more people in our communities!

Today's Black restaurant I want to suggest you supporting is Amy Ruth's in Harlem. This legendary and Iconic soul food restaurant has a Black celebrity and luminary theme.

It has dishes named after National and local celebrities like Barack Obama, Jennifer Holiday, Reggie Harris, Al Roker, and Rev. Al Sharpton. The ambience has murals of historic top sports figures and celebrities from our communities.

Peach Cobbler at Amy Ruth's

You have to get to Amy Ruth's early because they typically have a line with a 30 minute wait.  In our experience when they say 30 minutes if you have a party of two that means there is about a 15 minute wait.

Although Amy Ruth's interior theme is rather artsy the soul food keeps it real.  It is tasty down home southern cooking with healthy portions.  In other words it isn't artisan soul food but it is delicious traditional southern cooking.  I work on eating pretty healthy during the week so I can indulge at places like Amy Ruth's.

I've tried the Chicken and waffles (The Rev. Al Sharpton dish) and my daughter tried the Honey glazed fried chicken (the Reggie Harris dish).  Both dishes came pretty timely (we didn't wait too long) and were very good.  It was really southern cooked dishes aplomb with rich culinary flourishes.

The have drinks like half tea and half lemonade (called half and half in some soul food restaurants). They also have wine and spirits.  I also tried their smothered turkey wings (the Assemblyman Keith Wright) and they were absolutely delish.

The crowd is international and trendy African American and tend to be nice people.  The service is good and there are plenty of clean restrooms to accommodate the large crowds.

Amy Ruth's is a great place to go if you want no nonsense healthy portions of soul food.  What better way to spend a Soul Food Sunday than Amy Ruth's?!!!!

Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Austin is a popular Blogger with over 11,000 connections in social media.  Austin is an author, writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online.

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Pray and Work to Make Our Communities Great Again

OK I'm tired of the nonsense! For all you deep Christian folks who are now Bible brow beating with the nonsense that we should capitulate to Trump because he's in authority over us I'm not going out like that - hell naw! Usually people of God especially prophets spoke truth to power.

Remember Moses, Amos, and other prophets spoke strong messages of social justice to those in power. You cherry pick some scriptures from Paul to tell us to acquiescence to those in authority.

Well I don't subscribe to the Euro-western mainstream interpretation and narrative of letting the powers that be crap all over me and my community. You can keep that nonsense! Unfriend me I don't give a crap.

Good bye and freakin good riddance! Let's get this in perspective.

Technically in a democracy we are the authorities. We don't have kings or lords in the US. And elected officials work for us. Trump is a public servant.

So I may pray for Trump because quite frankly I think he is mentally unstable and could do us and the world great harm.  However, I will be praying for economic development in our communities. Yesterday, I supported nothing but our own businesses all day. That's what I will be doing.

I'll be working and praying for the people of this country and especially our communities to build economic opportunity. Our Presidents are a reflection of a good deal of our people.

We get what we voted for and I could get into a Bible exegesis and historical context for the scripture theological and otherwise but I won't. I'd rather spend my focus and energy on economic development in my community.

The fact that we put Trump in office is a reflection of us. So I will pray for the people in this country. Trump is a mirror image of a large slice of the people in this nation.


Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Austin is a popular Blogger with over 11,000 connections in social media.  Austin is an author, writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online.

If you need web design, blogging, search engine or social media promotion contact him at Search Engine Plan

Let's Make Our Communities Great Again

So many people are trying to sound so states person like saying they support President Elect Trump. You know who I'm supporting?

I'm going to support some of our businesses in our community today. That's the folks whom I'm going to support. I'm getting ready to go right now.

Make our communities great again! That's my mantra.

Trumped up support is the GOP and 50 million Americans who voted for him. Trumped Up support is the Tea Party, Alt Right, KKK, the GOP lead Congress, 2 million people in the military that he will be commanding.

Trumped up support is the billions of dollars he has amassed. Trumped up support is the tax codes helping him to avoid paying taxes in his businesses.

You get the dayum picture? Trump got plenty of support.

But you know who truly needs our support? How about supporting Farmer's Markets in our community?

How about starting and supporting credit unions and microfinance organizations in our community? How about supporting nonprofits and youth organizations?

How about supporting neighborhood businesses and not spending all your money in the mall outside your community? How about that?




Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Austin is a popular Blogger with over 11,000 connections in social media.  Austin is an author, writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online.

If you need web design, blogging, search engine or social media promotion contact him at Search Engine Plan

If You think Voting Doesn't Matter You're Missing the Political Power Re-Mix!

Often in these last few days leading up to the election I see people lamenting that they are disillusioned and tired of voting in US electoral politics because the two party system is flawed or corrupt.  They feel the two party system isn't benefitting Blacks and people of color any way.  And they also feel little for the common person changes.

I can certainly relate to these feelings.  It is easy to become demoralized.  But did you ever stop to think that if voting is meaningless in our society why are people fighting so hard to disenfranchise us from our right to vote?  Why is the GOP working so hard to demoralize us from voting?

It is pretty obvious to me the GOP, conservatives, the Tea Party, and many alt right persons want us demoralized and not voting.  Isn't it obvious to you that not voting is part of the plan to help keep the status quo in place?   Think about it why did the GOP stonewall Obama for 8 years to marginalize his programs in an attempt to demoralize us?

Consequently, many of us didn't vote enough in the mid-term elections and the GOP took over Congress. Now we got a lot of people saying they don't wanna vote.

Well that's the plan the GOP thought out 8 years ago and we're failing for too much of their strategy.  The GOP, because of their decreasing numbers due to demographic shifts in the country towards younger people and people of color, can only win: by demoralizing these burgeoning social groups.

For people who think your vote won't count based on past political inertia and "politics as usual' pleaee consider that tomorrow is a new day and things are changing.  Things will change if we are vigilant and plan strategically because the country, in couple of decades, will be one where people of color and younger progressive people will be the new clear majority.

This scares the crap out of some traditional conservatives who want to "make America great again" like Donald Trump's tagline or slogan thingy.  In their policies people in the Tea Party driven GOP would like to see things they way they were 25+ years ago.

The problem is 25+ years ago the US wasn't such a great place for Blacks and people of color.  This anxiousness about the new rising demographics and their political and economic leverage in US society is causing xenophobia, sexism, sexual preference, and class issues to become highly volatile in this campaign.  

However, increasingly with our growing demographic numbers, we can and will vote in candidates with our interest especially in local areas and recycle our tax money back in our neighborhoods to help bring about economic development. I've seen this happen in areas like Southeast Queens and East Flatbush Brooklyn.

They voted in progressive candidates who used tax dollars to fund community economic and education programs. This is a start. It will take time and a lot of work however some communities have started the process.

People of color will have increasing power as the demographics shift. This was not the situation 50 years ago. Times are changing.

This is making the Tea Party and GOP very uncomfortable. When they say "Make America Great Again" they obviously like things the way it was 25+ years ago when we had very little economic power and political clout.

So when you think politics doesn't make a difference to Blacks, people of color, or common people in the present remember we are becoming the new majority and that bodes well increasingly with us having more political, economic, and social power.  We're Stronger Together as Hillary Clinton's slogan States.  Now lets be the change and work together to get the change we want to see.



Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Austin is a popular Blogger with over 11,000 connections in social media.  Austin is an author, writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online.

If you need web design, blogging, search engine or social media promotion contact him at Search Engine Plan