NICE Festival returns
NORWALK — Kwame Henry Carlton Jones of Norwalk still remembers the first NICE Festival two years ago.
“It feels like you just stepped into another country,” he said with a laugh. “There are people nodding and smiling, there’s curiosity, it’s loud, it’s chaotic, but at the core of it are just great performances.”
NICE stands for Norwalk International Cultural Exchange; the nonprofit founded by Janet G. Evelyn aims to promote and increase awareness of the diversity of peoples from around the world through arts and culture.
The NICE Festival, its main showcase, is just around the corner. It kicked off Saturday with a Carnival Soca and Reggae Fete at the Wall Street Theater. The main festival, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on July 7, is free and takes place at Oyster Shell Park.
Jones, a painter, drummer and dancer, is looking forward to performing at the festival for the third year in a row.
“We’re going to turn our time into a village,” he said. “We’re just going to get it going.”
To Jones, drumming is about community. He witnessed the power of drumming to bring people together in Nigeria and hopes to bring that to this year’s performance.
“I don’t like distances, so I’m opening it up,” he said.
By doing so, he has created connections that resurface in unexpected ways — just this past week, he taught at Roxbury Elementary School in Stamford and recognized one of the children who had joined him on stage during a NICE festival performance.
For Tava Naiyan, a belly dancer who has also been part of the festival since its inaugural year, NICE encapsulates the strengths of the community.
“I remember thinking how proud I was to live in a town that would do a festival like this,” she said. “Norwalk is a town that has a lot of diversity. And to see this festival reflect it back to them — I think that’s really special. It’s kind of holding a mirror back to the town.”
Naiyan was originally drawn to belly dancing by the music, which she found mesmerizing, but said she quickly began to realize the dance had endless cultural variations. Even within one country, there can be a dozen regional styles. So she takes great care in the details. “I feel like part of my job is to have people come to me with tears in their eyes and say thank you for taking me home,” she said. “I feel in many ways that I’m part cultural ambassador, part dancer.”
While many performers have been part of NICE Festival since the beginning, Evelyn has also recruited new talent.
“This is my first time,” said Riki Stevens, of Norwalk, winner of Connecticut’s Got Talent, whose music combines acoustic guitar with powerful, poetic lyrics. “I’m excited to be a part of it,” she said of the festival.
For Stevens, the notion of heritage is a complicated one. “Growing up in America as a black African American, it’s really hard sometimes,” she said. While many performers are bringing artistic traditions from other countries, she has turned inward to find her voice.
“It is an expression of me and those who come before me,” she said of her music. “I’m still finding that out actually in this process.”