In Second Year, Rhythm Exchange Keeps The Beat

DJ Dooley-O Jackson and Ch'Varda. Lucy Gellman Photos.

Charles Brown wasn’t expecting to hear music on his daily visit to the New Haven Green, where he picks up lunch on his way through the city, and sometimes takes a moment to sit and catch up with friends and colleagues. But when KC and the Sunshine Band faded into Kool & The Gang, he was intrigued—and decided to stay a while. 

Last Thursday, Brown was one of two dozen attendees who sang, danced, and simply vibed through the launch of the second annual Rhythm Exchange, a weekly fall series from the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and artists across the city. Hosted in partnership with Town Green Special Services District, the City of New Haven, and the Proprietors of the New Haven Green, it is currently scheduled to run Thursdays from noon to 1:30 p.m. though Sept. 21. A final event on September 28th may be announced in the next several weeks. 

Last week, it began with DJs Dooley-O Jackson and Ch’Varda, doubling as an impromptu celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip hop and the sheer art of DJing. Both have been busy this summer, they said, a sign that New Haven is still bouncing back after years of pandemic pivots. 

“We’re excited to be back!” said Shelley Quiala, executive director at the festival. “This year, it [the series] didn’t need so much explaining—I feel like there’s this ability to activate the Green, and we are just providing the container. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be trusted.”

Guadalupe Celo Qualteca (front) with members of Culturas del Pasado, Voces del Presente at a celebration of Día de Muertos during Rhythm Exchange last year. Lucy Gellman File Photo.

Born last year as a biweekly experiment, Rhythm Exchange grew out of an interest in using arts and culture as a catalyst and an activator on the Green, the latest attempt from the Proprietors to do so (read more about past attempts, which followed a wave of overdoses on the Green in 2018, here, here, here, and here).  

In its first iterations, it included celebrations of diasporic dance, jazz, funk, tap and bachata, and an observance of Day of the Dead with Unidad Latina en Acción and Culturas del Pasado, Voces del Presente. This year, Quiala said, she connected directly with artists across the community, and asked them a simple question: “What do you want to see?” The festival had the resources, she said, but she wanted artists to set the agenda.  

From there, a weekly season emerged that included Caribbean funk, Afrofuturistic fashion, Puerto Rican bomba, jazz, and Italian folk music. A full lineup is available here.    

Thursday, attendees opened lawn chairs and took their lunch breaks on the grass, savoring the last weeks of summer. On stage, Dooley-O (a.k.a. Allen Jackson) and Ch’Varda (a.k.a. painter and crochet artist Jazlyn Council) kicked it off with a dance party, bobbing to the music as they eased into their sets. In the grass, a small crowd gathered, a few people dancing on the Green’s walkways as others sank into their seats and let the music surround them. 

On stage, the two figured out how to vibe off of each other, a balancing act that made it nearly impossible not to dance. A veteran of the city’s music and artistic scene, Dooley-O offered up the 1972 standard “It’s Just Begun,” and Ch’Varda responded with The Whispers’ “And The Beat Goes On,” recorded just seven years later. To the sound, Dooley-O pumped his arms approvingly, his smile easy in the summer breeze. 

Arden "Fire" Santana, who will return to the Green on August 31st as part of "Afro Future, Afro Chic." 

It was a win for Ch’Varda, who turned back the clock, then mixed in contemporary voices from Beyoncé to Cumbiafrica as the audience began to respond. Her day -oh - wouldn't be right - With - out her make up, belted Crystal Waters from the sound system moments later, and she worked her hips and shoulders with the beat.    

In a trio of chairs set up by the Green’s walkways, Push To Start founder Steve Roberts let himself lean back and listen, still for what seemed like the first time all summer. The sunflower yellow of his shirt set his shoulders aglow as they bobbed. A few yards away, educator and artist Arden “Fire” Santana found a spot where she could groove along to the music and keep an eye on her daughters as they pedaled their bikes through the grass. 

The founder of Sāghe Academy and a member of the Elements of Abundance, Santana said she’s excited to be returning to Rhythm Exchange in just a few weeks as an organizer. Earlier this summer, she and Quiala were catching up when Quiala asked if she might be interested in participating in the series. For Santana, who helped organize a fashion show at Arts & Ideas in June, the answer was an instant yes. 

On the 31st, she and fellow Elements members Shayla “Earth” Streater and Hafeeza “Wind” Turé will host “Afro Future, Afro Chic,” a competitive fashion show with a DJ, panel of judges who are professional designers, and a pop-up arm of the upcoming 6th Dimension exhibition, Afrofuturism festival and summit scheduled to begin this month. 

“We’re excited!” she said, holding up a green-and-blue card for the series as she spoke. Beyond “having fun with it,” she sees it as part of a wider reclamation of the Green itself. Into the nineteenth century, the space wasn’t particularly safe for people who looked like her, she noted—it was a site where enslaved Black people were displayed and sold as property. 

The Elements’ ability to flip that script—and the resources to do it—is long overdue. She’s hopeful that among the people who come out to watch, several young Black artists will be in the audience.  

“It’s an exciting time and it feels like we’re being recognized, being acknowledged and given the space,” she said.   

Charles Brown: "Music is the key to the soul!" 

Back beneath a festival tent, Brown perused pink-splashed copies of the city’s cultural equity plan and a fleet of red-rimmed sunglasses with his great granddaughter, Lamayah, in mind. Born and raised in Bridgeport, Brown moved to New Haven in 2012, where he’s lived ever since. After getting injured while on a construction job a few years ago, he stopped working because it was too painful. 

The Green, and especially its churches, have become an important gathering spot for him (“Pastor Luk is a good guy!” he said of Rev. Luk De Volder, who preaches at Trinity Church on the Green); he comes during lunchtime almost every day. He said he’d love to see a program like Rhythm Exchange run all year long, let alone weekly. 

Every so often, he paused to listen to the newest selection coming from the stage, then would finish a thought.     

“Music is the key to the soul!” he said. “You play music and you got people gathering without trouble. They need to do this more often because it brings people out of the house.” 

That is, in fact, the dream of Rhythm Exchange, Quiala said. Ultimately—and with adequate funding and resources—she’d like to see year-round activation of the Green, in which Arts & Ideas is simply the point of connection between artists and the space. This year, one of her favorite moments of Arts & Ideas was watching the New Haven Caribbean Heritage Festival fold right into a concert with musician Mical Teja on the Green. 

“I think there’s the opportunity to experiment with all of that,” she said. “Good relationships should happen more than once a year.” 

As they packed up their equipment onstage, both DJs said they are trying to enjoy what’s left of summer, from outdoor music festivals and fashion shows to bumping backroom parties that go into the wee hours of the morning—and excited to be doing their thing as the craft itself turns 50. For Ch’Varda, who has been DJing consistently for five years and making and producing music for 11, it’s a chance to remind listeners and fellow DJs of the long history they come from. 

“It’s so exciting just to be witness to seeing how music is changing, to pay homage to the artists who came before,” she said.  

This summer, Dooley-O said, he hasn’t taken the time to “really suck it all in”' that hip hop—a movement that jumpstarted his early career as a rapper, DJ and graffiti artist—has been around for five decades. Moments like Thursday’s give him a chance to pause, and pay homage to the forefathers whose shoulders he still stands on. As he teased out a set soaked in rhythm, his enthusiasm was often contagious, the dance moves floating from the stage to the grass, and back towards Church Street. 

“I wish we had more hours to do this,” he said, praising the festival for looping in New Haven talent before heading out. “And I wish that this platform could be here for the whole summer.”