MotherSister Brooklyn

A week ago, The Hub arrived home with a CD in his hands. This was interesting for two reasons: (1) The Hub, bleeding edge guy that he is, almost never handles CDs anymore; and (2) the recording, New Voice, was the debut release of our songbird neighbor, Kendra Ross. We’ve seen Kendra around, and she is — as one of our building guards puts it — always “friendly, quiet, [and] keeps it movin’.” Which is why the same guard was shocked to see how Kendra turned out the Highline Ballroom last week during her CD release party — “L’il Kendra was up there shakin’ her hips!” — and we were totally impressed with her pipes. The Hub’s favorite track seems to be “New Voice,” while I’ve been groovin’ on “I’m So OK” (she takes it to church for a minute), “Can I Keep It?” (featuring Talib Kweli), and “Man You Love Blues,” three tracks that really show off her range. She is understandably busy in the flurry of her record’s release, but I caught up with Kendra for a MotherSister Minute.

LIVING HERE SINCE: I moved to Clinton Hill the summer of 1994, right before my sophomore year at NYU. I started out on Clinton and Gates then moved to [our building] in August 1995.

WHY FORT GREENE/CLINTON HILL: My roommate at the time and I chose Clinton Hill because it had a little bit of everything. It was homey and residential yet edgy and artsy, and overall it was a nice mix of ghetto and bourgeois…what we call “boughetto”!

FAVORITE PLACE IN THE AREA: That’s hard….I love Joloff (the West African restaurant at St. James Place and Fulton Street) because that family has been feeding me forever…and always with a smile on their faces! Mike’s [Coffee Shop] is of course a weekend breakfast staple for me, but I love the new spot Soule — the shrimp roti is to die for! I also love my church, Brown Memorial. Oh! and this place isn’t technically considered Clinton Hill — more like Prospect Heights — but you’ve got to try Cheryl’s [Global Soul] at Underhill and St. John’s Place. Very cool!

MIKE’S COFFEE SHOP OR PRATT COFFEE SHOP: A resounding MIKE’S!

TIPS OR SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Once you are blessed enough to get a nice place here, don’t let anyone displace you! I really hate that a lot of my friends have had to move further into Brooklyn because of the crazy rent hikes and landlord pressure. It’s such a beautiful community. No matter where I am in life, I want to have a place in this ‘hood.

Kendra Ross’s New Voice is available now via her website. You can also find cuts enhanced by her voice (quite unforgettably on “Won’t You Stay” with Talib Kweli, as well as the ROOFTOP compilation) on iTunes.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 10:23 pm and is filed under the locals, brown-skinned ladies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.