- In this episode of Fly Brother, we do the hustle in Brick City, Newark, New Jersey.
We start off at breakfast with budgetnista Tiffany Aliche at Miss Vonda's Kitchen, roam Military Park in downtown Newark with travel maven Evita Robinson, grab dessert, then lunch in the Ironbound with historian and guide Emily Manz, go green at Brook Branch Park with Glambassador Lauren Lebeaux, and artist Gabe Ribeiro tells us why Newark truly is for hustlers.
Let's get fly.
I'm Ernest White II, a storyteller, explorer.
I feel like Indiana Jones.
I believe in connecting across backgrounds and boundaries.
Join me and my friends, (upbeat music) and discover that no matter the background, no matter the history, the whole world is our tribe.
Come with me.
Fly Brother.
- [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided by.
- This is Mayor Ras J. Baraka.
Welcome to Newark.
(upbeat music) We are Newark, one family, Brick City.
- [Announcer] Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, promoting racial justice, interracial understanding and human healing.
Additional funding provided by the following.
(upbeat music) - [Ernest] Newark.
In the northeast corner of the country and the northeast corner of New Jersey, Newark's got history, culture and a lot of heart.
The people who call Newark home have mad love for the place, for good reason, and they'll let you know it.
My good friend, author and financial planner Tiffany Aliche, also known as the budgetnista, takes me to world famous Vonda's Kitchen for breakfast and an introduction to her hometown.
- What I love about Newark, one is that it has this amazing artist culture.
They have living spaces for artists.
There's art all around town.
If you look here in Vonda's, she showcases Black artists here.
I think she rotates every month.
They have an amazing artist culture, but it also really flows into the food, you know?
We're at Vonda's.
This is everyone's favorite soul food restaurant.
- All right, unanimous.
This is a unanimous, we did an informal poll and everybody was like, Vonda's, Vonda's, Vonda's.
- Yes, everybody.
- They say Newark is for hustlers.
What does that mean to you?
- Well, because there are so many hardworking people here who have big dreams and big ideas, and because we're so close to the big city, some of that energy really spills over here.
What I love about Newark is that you get that city energy, but then you also get this suburban energy as well.
So you're allowed to hustle, but also have this reprieve.
Newark the city is art in itself.
Just walking downtown.
- New art.
- Yes, so honestly, I just think that Newark is a place for hustlers and artists and teachers and really people who want to experience what it feels like to be in a city but also kind of the softness of a suburban background.
- All right.
So it's got everything, is really what you're saying.
- Yes, it does have everything.
- Welcome to Vonda's.
Hi, Tiffany.
- Hey.
- How you doing, Miss Chef Vonda?
- And how about breakfast, did you think about it, or do you need more time?
- No, I'm definitely going to get the shrimp and grits.
- Okay, shrimp and grits, one of my favorites, original.
- All right, all right now.
I'm going with the spicy chicken hash.
- Oh, you're going to like that a lot.
- Did you all see that face?
- All right, you get home fries and you get all that with it.
- Okay.
Maybe without the home fries.
- Please give the home fries to me.
- Okay, you're going to have to eat a little bit.
- Okay, I'll have a grit.
- Okay.
- With a cheese on it.
A grit with a cheese.
Nothing's more American than cheese on everything, with avocado on the side.
Before we dig into this, why is Vonda's so special for you?
- Well one, Vonda is like visiting your favorite auntie, your favorite cousin, sister.
She just makes food from the heart and the soul, and you can taste it.
You can taste the love for you, for Newark, and for what she does inside her food.
- Just checking back in, how was everything?
- It's wonderful, amazing.
I'm trying to get it in, limited space here.
- But we did the lighter version.
- The lighter version.
- I'm like, this is the lighter version?
- That's the lighter version.
- You are from Newark, is that correct?
- I am, I was born in Newark and grew up in Plainfield, but my family actually is from Florida, Tallahassee.
- Okay, well I'm from Jacksonville right down the road.
I'm sure we know the same.
- Now you're family.
You're four people away, who was it?
- You know I've done everything here but be born here.
- But you've been reborn with every meal.
- Pretty much.
- Thank you Vonda, thank you.
- Move on.
- I love her, she is a character.
- I'm loving this food.
- I'm telling you.
When Shaq comes to town, Halle Berry taped something here.
Whenever someone's coming here of note, they bring them to Vonda's.
There are fancier restaurants, but it's just a down home feeling.
Vonda's always Vonda.
- That's that Tallahassee up here in Newark, but I love it.
That's globalization.
Tallahassee in Newark is globalization.
- I love that.
Yeah, just like that friendliness, that deliciousness.
- My people, Florida.
In 1666, English Puritans bought land on the Passaic River from the indigenous Lenni Lenape tribe and paid for it with weapons, blankets, lead bars and beer.
By the 19th century, savvy businessman had grown Newark, New Jersey into a manufacturing center for leather and ironwork and a hub for shipping and insurance companies.
New money and energy have sparked another Renaissance here with revitalized neighborhoods, new cultural attractions, splendid parks and a facelift for Penn Station, but it's the city's people for which it's best known.
Singers Whitney Houston and Paul Simon, actors MJ Rodriguez and Michael B. Jordan and writers Allen Ginsberg and Amiri Baraka all hail from Newark.
In close proximity to the largest cities in the northeastern United States, Newark has always drawn, attracted and grown talented entertainers, artists, athletes, politicians, writers, activists, and other notable people.
Here in Military Park, I'm meeting my good friend Evita Robinson, changemaker and founder of Nomadness, an award-winning lifestyle brand and community for Black and Brown travelers around the world.
Ah, Evita Robinson is what I'm talking about, in the house.
- How are you, my love?
- Wonderful, thank you.
- So good to see you.
- Same, you are looking like Earth goddess.
- Thank you.
- Evita chose to make her home in Newark.
So you live here in Newark, New Jersey.
- I do, I'm a transplant.
- Now you have been to how many countries around the world?
- Oh, almost 40, just under 40.
- That's incredible.
- Thank you.
- And you've been an inspiration to people to go to even one, right?
- [Evita] Yeah, yeah.
- [Ernest] And yet you've settled here in Newark.
- [Evita] Yes.
- Why?
- Why?
Hmm, that's a good question.
Listen, Newark has swag.
- Newark has swag.
- It has swag.
It has hustle, but it has swag, and what I love about it is coming from a massive, massive city and coming here to a city that is more community-like, and you know me, everything in my life is wrapped around community, what I do, what I build, everything.
And so being able to be in a city, have all those amenities, be able to walk in an actual downtown, go out, see things that pop up, parties that happen in Military Park randomly.
To be able to have access to all of that, but still have a network that is community-like that I can hit up, whether it's local entrepreneurs, local artists, you know, people that want to just kind of go out and hang out.
I just think that there's something so beautiful about the community of folks that make Newark what it is.
- You talk about it so passionately, and I've felt it.
We've been around a little bit and engaged with people, and I really see that spirit of community and of pride.
- But you know what it is, it's because Newark has had a bad rap for a long time.
Newark is like, they're coming up, phoenix rising out of the ashes from a history that was before.
Yes, gentrification is a part of the story, it just is.
However, what is really dope about it is that you're not seeing everybody from the community just be like mass exodus out.
- Right, brain drain.
- No, you're not.
You're seeing them be able to invest in businesses, invest in real estate, being able to still live downtown and make it work.
And so that is one of the things that I really love about the story of Newark and one of the reasons why I looked at moving here almost five years ago.
- Nice, all right.
There's always time for caffeine with friends.
- I'm excited for us to be at Black Swan.
This is like the quaint spot that all the artists and everybody shows up in.
My friend Adam owns this place, so it's really awesome.
Let's get in.
(upbeat music) - Hey, coffee is life, and you're here serving up life by the cupful.
- In my case, it's chai is life.
- Chai is life, that sounds just as good, yes it is all of those things.
When someone comes here to visit, what is it that makes Newark special to you?
- I definitely think it's the vibe.
You can kind of feel it the second you walk in from the people you meet, and I'll speak to what's happening inside the coffee shop, which is just a really nice melting pot of businessmen, artists, students, entrepreneurs.
We all kind of come here and find a place and sit down and have conversation, which is great, and so many things bloom and blossom out of this.
Being that they have the airport here, you're getting international flights.
- Word.
- Everyone is just here and it's just a great melting pot for things to spark and start being the catalyst.
- Yeah, I think people look at Newark as kind of like a feeder city to other cities that are around here, but the truth is it's got its own swag, its own ethos, its own DNA.
The community that is built here, like I said, coming in here, I consider myself a transplant.
To be able to go on art walks and photography walks, it's just, there's so many things where people are taking what they love the most and literally being able to flip it into experiences for visitors to come and take part in, and also for locals that live here to take part in.
- So it's about transformation, not only for the people who are living here, but the people who are passing through who actually see Newark as a destination in itself.
- Absolutely.
I mean, I had my eye on Newark about two years before I moved here, which was like, as quiet as it kept, I was like, you know what, there's a resiliency to this place.
There's also a change that's happening here, and I want to be a part of that, and lucky enough, I live downtown so I'm able to literally see it on a day to day basis because it's moving and it's changing, but like I said, it's not running the people that make it dope out.
It's actually creating opportunities for them to be able to flourish.
- [Ernest] So that's a good balance then.
- A great balance.
- What's the one thing you want people to take away after having visited Newark?
- I want them to have a positive experience.
I want the experience when they leave here to be like, I can't wait to come back, you know?
They can get that experience through the activities we were talking about today, but also as simply as just picking up a cup of coffee and seeing a smiling face to just keep them throughout their day, to keep whatever it is that they're doing moving.
I think that's really important, especially in this area, just to make sure that people understand that this is a place just as cool as any other spot in New Jersey or New York.
- All right, I love it.
Thank you.
All right, cheers.
Infused with youthful energy and abuzz with a cosmopolitan vibe, Newark pulses with a spirit at once local and global.
Long a place of opportunity for folks from around the country and the world, Newark's neighborhoods reflect that cultural mosaic, particularly here in the Ironbound District, named for the historic metalworking industry nearby.
And it's in the Ironbound where I connect with local historian Emily Manz for a few sweet treats at Brazilian bakery Gio Docinhos.
- This place is one of my favorites in the Ironbound.
It's called Gio Docinhos, and it's run by just two awesome entrepreneurs, Marcello and Giovanna.
- I love it, Gio Docinhos.
- Yes, and they offer all different kinds of brigadeiros, and I thought it was a good one for us to visit today because it really tells the immigrant story of the Ironbound.
This neighborhood is an active immigrant neighborhood.
It's not part of the history, it's part of the present.
Portuguese folks, Spanish, Brazilian and Ecuadorian more recently.
- [Ernest] All right, so we've got all kinds of mixes from Latin America, we've cultural influences.
- Well, you have to try some of these.
They did prepare some for us.
- Okay, all right.
I don't know if it's on my diet, but okay.
- You still have to try it.
- All right, so is everybody watching this going in my mouth?
Oh my God, so I just pop it in.
This is how you do your pop it in.
- All at once.
- Mmm.
- Is it good?
Right?
- I can't even talk.
- [Emily] We always bring people here because if it's their first brigadeiro they're like, wow.
And even if it's not.
- It's not my first, but probably my best.
- Oh, that's good, that's good.
- And for dessert we actually have, but wait, there's more.
(speaking foreign language) - With love and care, we love that.
For lunch, Emily takes me to one of the city's best known Portuguese eateries, Seabra's, for some scrumdiddlyumptious seafood.
(upbeat music) How long have you been living here in Newark?
- Sure.
So I moved to Newark in 2012, and the first neighborhood I lived in was here in the Ironbound.
- Okay.
And what brought you to this neighborhood?
What's special about it?
- You know, I was working in the downtown area and after work sometimes we'd go for drinks or food.
I would walk down Ferry Street and there was so much fresh food that was available to buy, the bakeries, the fish stores.
It was just very interesting and attractive for me, yeah.
- So Emily, you're not from Newark originally, but what makes it special for you?
- I'm from a very small town actually, so some people think that's kind of funny 'cause now I live in a big city, but it's a big city, but people really know each other here, and I think that feels good for me.
I think the city's just really full of energy and people that want to make the world better.
They want to make the city better.
- We keep saying that Newark is for hustlers, and I think one of the things that really typifies that idea of hustling is all these different waves of people who've come here from different places, immigrants from around the world, migrants from the places like the south and other parts of the United States.
What do you think that means in terms of the cultural offerings here?
- I think that Newark is very welcoming.
If you come in and you want to contribute and become part of something, not replace or substitute or anything like that, like there's already this existing community to plug into, and I love that.
Coming out of grad school, you're looking to fly into community.
You're looking to make a difference, and I think that the people that I met that were here in Newark, lifelong residents and also transplants were just so active and doing things that I wanted to be involved in, and I think that's a beautiful thing in Newark.
- Newark is known for many things, including business and industry, but its long established art scene serves up surprises around every corner.
Breathtaking murals along Treat Place, Beaver Street and all around the city stand as testament to the creative spirit that thrives in Newark, and a new generation of artists has taken up the mantle as guardians of that spirit.
In his downtown studio space, hometown artist Gabe Ribeiro tells us what the hustle is all about.
(upbeat music) So Gabe, you came up with the concept Newark is for hustlers, is that right?
- Yeah.
I was interning in a tech startup, kind of coworking space, and my father had had a lunch truck for over 25 years, so I had both sides of this entrepreneurship, like in the streets, but then in an office trying to make it in the startup world.
- All the hustles.
- It was very inspiring to have a foot in both worlds.
I wanted to make something for my town 'cause I was so inspired by the people.
The courage is contagious, and I wanted to share that.
- So when someone visits Newark, what do you want them to take away?
- I want them to understand that Newark is just not, like a middle place or a third place, 'cause many people's experience of Newark is Newark Penn Station or the airport.
- [Ernest] A gateway to someplace else.
- Yeah, I'd like them to realize that there is so much history here.
I mean, the third oldest city in America, and so many immigrant populations in all five wards, that there's just so much culture just flowing through these streets.
It's incredible.
(upbeat music) - The art here in Newark surely isn't limited to murals and graphic designs.
The incredible variety of architecture from gothic and neoclassical to art deco and mid-century modern speak to the city's legacy as a prosperous forward thinking place.
Native son and creative director Isaiah Little talks to us about changing narratives and what makes Newark unique.
So, you are native to Newark, New Jersey.
What about this place do you feel is most appealing to visitors?
- I think it's definitely the people.
You might hear that with other people, the people is the most valuable thing.
I think with most other places you've already established or you have this jaded notion of what that place is and what the kind of identity is.
I think in Newark there's a lot more to be uncovered.
There's a lot of well-known secrets, especially if you're in the fold or inside the walls.
So there's a lot of love here.
You have a lot of immigrants, you have a lot of second, first generation citizens, residents, and then you have folks who recently come up from the south, et cetera, so you have a very familiar vibe here, whether it's Portuguese is your first language or Spanish or Haitian Creole, I think that regardless of the differences in the community, there's a lot of shared values ironically as well.
- No, I think that's amazing.
- If you're into music, if you visit Jersey, you have to find somewhere where you can listen to house.
You have to find somewhere where you can listen to some Jersey club, depending on where you are, where your knees are.
- Where your knees are.
- Where your knees are.
There's a party for you.
- Mine are about at the 90 minute mark on the dance floor.
- I'm at the adult house Afro beat.
- Is that just the two step basically?
- It's nice and easy.
When the young people come with the Jersey club, it's like, I don't even know if I used to do those moves.
The folks from Jersey, especially the greater area, are doers.
We don't have all of the amenities on first sight that some other cities may, but I think that spurs a certain level of creativity and a certain level of innovation and bootstrapping, entrepreneurialism.
Not everyone's a builder, not everyone's an entrepreneur, but in order to thrive, in order to obtain certain things that you want, especially if you don't just see it right there, you got to go for it, and I feel like Newarkers, folks from the greater Newark area, definitely have that, we share that, and we are going to make it happen, and if not, we're going to go find it and go seek it out.
- I love it, I love it, man.
With all its urbanity and classic architecture, Newark is often called Brick City, but Newark is also a place studded with verdant commons, golf courses and manicured parks.
The grandest gemstone in Newark's emerald necklace is the vast Branch Brook Park.
Designed in the late 1800s by the famous Olmsted Brothers and other firms, with over 360 acres of gently rolling gardens and greens and dotted by the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the United States.
Naturally, Branch Brook Park is where I connect with my florid friend, Lauren Lebeaux, author, entrepreneur, and official Glambassador of Newark.
So Lauren, thank you so much for bringing us here to this beautiful park.
Branch Brook Park is huge, and right now it is just incredibly verdant.
What makes it so special to you?
- For me, it's the feeling that I get when I'm here.
When I'm around things that are alive and growing, it just makes feel alive, and I also just get a really spiritual feeling when I'm here.
I can just calm the voices in my head and center myself and get away.
Like, I live downtown Newark, so not a lot of green around in my immediate area.
So when I just want to get grounded, feel some grass under my feet, this is where I come.
- Okay, and we talk about Newark being for hustlers.
What does that mean to you?
- Yeah, wow.
You know, I think because we are such a dynamic place for all sorts of industry, but also arts and culture I think is huge here.
And so I think it's a different kind of hustling.
It's almost like a creative hustling.
It's like finding what you do best and going 5000% at that.
- [Ernest] And making it happen.
- That's right.
We're in this area of the northeast where it's hustle bustle all the time, so I think Newark gives us the duality of work, work hard, but also play hard.
- I love it, I love it.
I love it, and you need that balance in life.
- I need that.
I need that balance in my life, absolutely.
- Now you are called the Glambassador of Newark, and it is obvious by this beautiful ensemble that you are wearing right now.
Why is it so important for you to embody that?
- Thank you for that question.
Especially in a city like Newark, there is such a poor reputation in a lot of people's minds when they hear Newark, New Jersey.
They just have this idea of what that looks like.
So I wanted to say hey, no, there's glamor in Newark.
Hello, there's beauty, there's joy, there's bliss.
I wanted to be that entryway for people to say wow, okay.
I can find fashion and all the things there.
You can find the same things here you would find it any other city.
So when I was writing the book 100 Things to do In Newark, I said I will have to crown myself official Glambassador of the city so people know where I'm coming from.
- But you are owning it, you are claiming it and you are living it, and that is the beauty of it, to see you show up fully and like, I'm going to the park, I'm going to look like a butterfly and you all going to recognize.
And I mean, it's beautiful.
- That's what people need to know about Newark.
Newark is for hustlers, but it's also for artists, it's for lovers, it's for fashion mavens, it's for exercise lovers, it's for everybody.
- Restaurant lovers.
- Restaurant lovers.
I mean, it's for families, it's for everyone.
- [Ernest] Surprising, inspiring, exciting, enticing.
Newark, it's a pleasure to meet you.
(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided by: - This is Mayor Ras J. Baraka.
Welcome to Newark.
(upbeat music) We are Newark, one family, Brick City.
- [Announcer] Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, promoting racial justice, interracial understanding and human healing.
Additional funding provided by the following.
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(upbeat music)