On Saturday, May 1, 2021, the Rosa Caleta Jamaican restaurant in Kreuzberg, Germany, will celebrate May Day with a live-streamed event broadcast from its premises and from the Paloma Bar. May Day has been celebrated in Berlin for more than 20 years and in the past has been marked by street parties, open-air raves, and leftist political protests. Kreuzberg is particularly well-known for its enthusiastic participation in the yearly celebration, which is designed to launch the beginning of summer. The 2021 celebration is especially notable for Rosa Caleta as it recognizes its 12th anniversary.
The distinctive stream from Rosa Caleta and the “notorious” Paloma Bar in Kreuzberg will feature several artists, including Boris, E. D. Clark, Function, Jamaica Suk, Krizzi With The K, Lakuti & Tama Sumo, Mandel Turner, Mike Starr (Official), Patrick Mason, Radio Slave (Official), and That Fg Sara.
Rosa Caleta is co-owned by Jamaicans Kirk Henry, who runs the everyday operations, and Troy Lopez, who is the creative force behind every recipe. They started the popular Jamaican-fusion eatery in 2009. Located in a trendy area of Kreuzberg, the restaurant was designed to serve as a meeting place for people from all different communities. For Henry, Rosa Caleta, which is named for each of the owners’ grandmothers, is special because of its community aspect. He chose to create his restaurant in Berlin because this is a place “where you can be yourself, do what you want to do, and be who you want without any social pressure to conform so much,” he said. Rosa Caleta is more than a restaurant, he noted. Food, drinks, and art are all part of its concept. It is a meeting place where expatriates and foreigners can fell comfortable and gain information about the city. It is a refuge, especially for people of color who move to Berlin. And, of course, the Jamaican-fusion menu developed by Lopez, is excellent.
In 2017, Rosa Caleta celebrated the 20th anniversary of the popular Jamaican website Jamaicans.com, a media entity that covers Jamaica and the Caribbean and offers news, cultural articles, historical information about Jamaica. It was the first Jamaican company to launch a mobile app for the iPhone.
The 2021 May Day event will be hosted by Kirk Henry and Lindi Delight and is made available through a partnership with United We Stream. Launched in response to COVID-19 and the global lockdown on club culture, United We Stream has evolved from a successful fundraising initiative into an international cultural platform that offers cross-genre and interdisciplinary streams that link-local cultural spaces, artists, cultural workers, companies, and institutions with audiences around the world. United We Stream supports the preservation of diverse club culture and values.
Photo – Rosa Caleta
