Fine Art Sales Online atNorthwestLouisiana Art
Gallery,
featuring Contemporary music
by Ron Hardy AKA Tarumbae.
All images of
the artists work found on this site are Copyright (c) Protected. For
information on how to purchase a work of art, please contact the
artist through the "e-mail" link, or contact the gallery
at info@nwlaartgallery.com.
For information
on how to purchase a work of art, please contact the artist through
the "e-mail" link, or contact the gallery at info@nwlaartgallery.com.
"Running
Outta Time"
Featuring Lee Lee
4:05 1.99
MB mp3
If you do not see
the "Play" button above you
may download the MP3 here:
"Wake Up!"
Featuring Young Budd,
Jakie Lewis & Rocko
3:56 2.34
MB mp3
If you do not see
the "Play" button above you
may download the MP3 here:
"Brothers of
the War"
Featuring Young Budd
4:15 2.92
MB mp3
If you do not see
the "Play" button above you
may download the MP3 here:
Hawaii Underwater
If you do not see
the "Play" button above you
may download the MP3 here:
"Love Letter"
3:59 3.65
MB
mp3
Album Art and layout
by De Anna Michelle
Reaching for the Stars
Tree of Life
Moving Train
Sixth Sence
If you do not see
the "Play" button above you
may download the MP3 here:
"Boom By Yah"
3:05 2.83
MB
mp3
Album Art and layout
by De Anna Michelle
Feelings
Eyes
Smell
Sound
If you do not see
the "Play" button above you
may download the MP3 here:
"Reggae Got Soul"
3:56 3.63
MB
wma
Album Art and layout
by De Anna Michelle
Taste
Be Aware
"The Return"
4:03 3.71
MB
mp3
"God Son of Funk"
3:13 2.95
MB mp3
Artist Statement
February 25, 2004
To use my natural talents and
trained skills in sustaining my life needs and uplifting my community are my
goals.I found a leash on life through
the world of percussions.Sharing this
beautiful relationship with others is a blessing and brings me joy.Percussions though simple in nature seem to
intrigue even the most complicated minds.
Realizing that people are as
different as we are in number; I encourage young and old to find their place in
the music circle.I believe that music
is a right and not a privilege.A family
that sings and plays together, stays together.Through Playaz and Playettes, Inc. I have used a large amount of my time,
resources, and talent to expose the joy of music to my community.
In conversation with Clarence
“Gate-Mouth” Brown, I asked him did he play the blues?He quickly replied, ”Man, I play music.”This led me to an understanding of myself;
because my musical repertoire is also wide open without definition.Performing, song writing, arranging,
producing, teaching, consulting, and promoting music is my life.
Ledbetter Heights bar reopens as performing arts
venue
January 17, 2006
Ron Hardy, director of Playaz and Playettes, stands in front of
H&H Lounge, which he now will manage under his nonprofit group. The lounge
is now an alcohol-free, family-oriented environment and will begin programming
on a weekly basis soon. (Jim Hudelson/The Times)
H&H Lounge's new hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 10
p.m. Monday through Saturday. Playaz and Playettes is seeking ideas for
programming as well as membership support for $15 per month. Membership includes
access to H&H Lounge, as well as to private parties and events. For more
information, call (318) 424-9297 or visit playazandplayettes.org.
The
tired sign of H&H Lounge, worn by decades of sun, wind and rain, welcomes
its patrons with a motto: "Where the Party People Play."
Bacchanalian
gatherings undoubtedly have left their mark inside the dim lounge. Deep crevices
in seats not fortunate enough to have been repaired by green carpet squares look
like gashes in the crimson vinyl. The smell of cigarette smoke has attached
itself stubbornly onto every inch of wall, floor and fabric, including the
ripped felt on a water-stained pool table and a dingy zebra-print sofa. A string
of flashing lights snake around the walls and vie for attention with bright
streamers hanging from the ceiling, while cracked mirrors on a small stage
reflect the interior with a foggy haze.
"This is our pride and joy," said Ron Hardy, H&H
Lounge's operator. "It's a product of the environment of the people. We have a
lot of love in here."
Like many old holes in the wall, the Ledbetter
Heights lounge at 717 Hope St. is no pretty sight. But its value to the
community for more than 40 years is part of what kept its doors open for so
long.
The lounge that closed in August has reopened as an alcohol-free
performing arts venue under the management of Playaz and Playettes, whose
director, Hardy, has helped manage the venue over the past nine years. A stone's
throw away from the Shreveport City Jail and next-door neighbors with the
legendary Pete Harris Café, the decades-old watering hole has a reputation that
has been marred by violent crime and delinquency. But it also is a
long-established social scene for many members of the neighborhood who want to
see its doors open again.
A new vision
Many who frequented
the bar were particularly fond of the fact that they could get an entire pint of
gin for $10. But the lounge's liquor license was not renewed when H&H Lounge
reopened, and Hardy has no plans to pursue one. This makes the venue more
accessible to youths in his nonprofit arts group, which was built from the
profits of H&H Lounge and uses the performing arts to develop the decaying
low-income district. Young people studying music production under the Playaz and
Playettes' Urban Music Workshop, for example, can showcase their work on the
20-x-10-foot stage area, which contains an updated PA system and can accommodate
100 people.
Steve Morgan, a Ledbetter Heights rapper also known as Big
Poppa, has been learning music production at the Playaz and Playettes since he
was 16. Now that H&H Lounge is back open, it is one of the only neighborhood
venues where he can showcase his music.
"It's a place where I can always
go to and do something for my people, and so they can see me in action," Morgan,
22, said.
H&H's transformation into a performing arts venue is part
of a neighborhood revitalization initiative called the Ledbetter Heights
Historical Entertainment District. The idea began with Playaz and Playettes
about a year and a half ago to revitalize the area by becoming an incubator that
would help bring in businesses and culture with private funds encouraged by
federal tax incentives.
Wayne Cameron, a Ledbetter Heights resident, sat
with a friend outside a house near 717 Hope St. on a crisp January day before
the bar opened last week. Had the H&H Lounge been open at that moment, he
guessed he would be in there instead. For years, Cameron used the venue to catch
up and talk politics with old friends while watching western films
together.
Though Cameron enjoys the company of a drink along with his
friends and the tube, he feels the alcohol-free policy might deter
troublemakers. "It would keep down confusion," said the 51-year-old former
bartender at H&H. "People drink and misunderstandings usually erupt when
they drink. I drink and I'm not about trouble. But if that's going to be the
policy, it's going to be great. Just don't put your hand on the TV and change it
from the westerns."
A dark past
Many Shreveporters know the
H&H Lounge as the site of past shootings, stabbings and fights. On one night
in April 2004 it was raided and shut down by the Shreveport Fire Department
because of fire code violations. It reopened soon after. On the Thursday night
that it was raided, police cited 37 people for various reasons including
inadequate identification, under-age drinking and possession of narcotics. One
among those cited was a felon in possession of a firearm.
The H&H
Lounge's new focus would invite less trouble, said Craig Trammell, kitchen
manager of Pete Harris Café for the past 10 years. The Highland resident recalls
the venue did not have a working telephone, which meant that when trouble was
brewing at H&H, Pete Harris Café's phone line was used to call the
police.
"It was pretty wild," Trammell said. "Someone was always getting
shot or stabbed. It brought in a lot of customers because it was always packed
and it stayed open late, but it was a dangerous spot. We look forward to it
opening again as a different kind of business, a much more positive kind of a
business."
Police reports connected to the lounge reflect neighborhood
concern. Just after 2 a.m. on a February morning in 2000, a 22-year-old woman
was shot in the head in front of the lounge in what the police said was a
gang-related skirmish. Another shooting occurred at about the same time a year
later. A 26-year-old Houston resident named Jonathan Bellamy was fatally shot by
a man named Brion Woodward at the club in March 2004.
The former H&H
Lounge had a reputation for causing problems in the inner city neighborhood,
according to Kacee Hargrave, spokeswoman for the Shreveport Police Department.
"With the old H&H Lounge being gone, I anticipate crime in that area to drop
because you don't have a business like that causing the majority of the
problem," Hargrave said. "I don't know what effect this new business is going to
have. It's not going to be serving alcohol, but that doesn't mean you're not
going to have potential for criminal activity there. It depends on the owner,
and who he allows in his establishment."
Hardy ascribes the violence and
drugs that have found their way to H&H Lounge to the neighborhood where it
is located. The bullet holes that have bored their way through the dashboard of
his green GMC truck are a somber reminder of the high crime rate in the
neighborhood's Allendale and Lakeside police district, whose seven killings in
2005 ranked it among the highest homicide rates in the city.
But young
musicians like Morgan and his 15-year-old cousin, Ledarius Morgan, who grew up
there, say the high incidence of crime is just a part of everyday life in their
neighborhood. "H&H has never been a dangerous place to me," said Morgan, who
called the area by its derogatory nickname, the Bottoms. "I fit in with the vibe
because everybody I'm around was raised up the same way, rough, ghetto, all
kinds of stuff."
Rebuilding a reputation
The lounge is
named after two of its operators, cousins John Hardy and Emmanuel Hardy, Ron
Hardy's late father. Ron Hardy returned home to Shreveport in 1996 to help his
second cousin operate the lounge. When Hardy first appeared on the scene, he
brought in a younger crowd with music programming. After four years, his various
music projects and his Playaz and Playettes across the street gave him less and
less time to manage the venue. But when his second cousin passed away in May,
Ron Hardy became sole operator of the venue and is in the process of acquiring
ownership of the building.
Hardy, who had shifted his focus from the
lounge to other projects until recently, feels confident that if he is at the
helm again as a physical presence, he can keep trouble at bay.
"People
felt safer when I was there," Hardy said. "You let them in if they're not acting
right, but you watch them. I don't prejudge people. You give them a place, but
you watch them."
Pam Atchison, executive director of the Shreveport
Regional Arts Council, sees many challenges for Playaz and Playettes as it takes
on the new performing arts venue. Like SRAC's artspace art facility downtown,
she feels the venue's viability will rely on increased programming and support
from city and state grants that are becoming more and more competitive. "They
have to do more programming than they've ever done," Atchison said about the
nonprofit arts group, which won a Governor's Arts Award for outstanding small
arts organization in 2004. "They have to keep it animated and operate without
those liquor sales."
But liquor never was a big money maker for H&H
Lounge, which sold alcoholic beverages at a notoriously cheap price. It was the
admission at the door for special events that brought in money. By continuing
admission fees and, with some luck, landing future grants and private funding,
Hardy is confident he will make ends meet.
And running a business in
Ledbetter Heights is a matter of knowing how things work in the blighted
neighborhood, whose members have very little but do what they can to support
community efforts they believe in. It is simply how the neighborhood operates,
even if Hardy must pay cash and forego a paper trail Playaz and Playettes could
use as leverage when it seeks public funding. "This is how this area works,
where people don't have much but we have everything," he said. "If we want to do
it for the club, this is how we make it. We're not grandiose: we just make it
work."
