Fifteen Plates, One Table:
The Taste of AfriKin Field Guide
The World Cup just crowned a champion. Six weeks from Labor Day, we crown fifteen nations at one table instead, dish by dish, with the Rozz Parker Band providing the soundtrack.
Congratulations to Spain, world champions once again. Sunday night at MetLife Stadium, Ferran Torres settled a scoreless final in extra time, and Rodri lifted the trophy for a country that has now won the tournament twice. It closed the book on a World Cup that filled AfriKin's summer with sport diplomacy, from the Cabo Verde Welcome Reception to Art and the Beautiful Game, the exhibition still open on our own walls through October 2. With the tournament decided, that exhibition has turned its own page. The gallery now centers Togolese-born artist Bamazi Talle and his 48-piece Flying Calabash collection, a body of work that outlasts a single tournament and bridges forward to everything AfriKin builds next: Taste of AfriKin in September, GRIOT in November. The World Cup chapter is finished. This one is just getting started.
Six weeks from Labor Day, the table is where our attention turns next. Fifteen nations. Fifteen dishes. One room in Downtown North Miami where the same argument this whole summer has been making, that culture converts into commerce and commerce strengthens community, gets proven again, one plate at a time.
The Final List Is Set
This year's Taste of AfriKin brings together food and beverage traditions from fifteen countries, confirmed as of this week: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cabo Verde, Eritrea, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and the United States.
Taste of AfriKin, Miami Spice 2026
Labor Day, Sunday, September 6, 2026, 6 to 9 PM, Maison AfriKin, Downtown North Miami
Taste of AfriKin has grown into what Miami Spice organizers and press now call Miami's leading African and Caribbean food festival, the annual Labor Day gathering that anchors AfriKin's culinary programming. The growth is not accidental. It is the same institutional pattern behind every AfriKin program: build something real, prove it works, then build the next room on top of it.
Fifteen Nations, Fifteen Dishes
The menu is not final and we are not giving it away yet. But here is what else can possibly be on the table this year, signature dishes from each of the fifteen nations represented, offered as a taste of what to expect.
Bahamas
Conch Salad
Conch pulled straight from Bahamian waters, diced raw and tossed with citrus, peppers, and onion. A dish built on the sea, still the backbone of the island's table today.
Barbados
Cou-Cou & Flying Fish
Barbados' national dish. Cornmeal and okra folded into cou-cou, served alongside flying fish in a light Creole sauce. Simple ingredients, generations of technique.
Belize
Rice and Beans with Stewed Chicken
Coconut rice and beans beside chicken stewed low in recado spice. Belize's everyday table, brought to Maison AfriKin for the evening.
Cabo Verde
Cachupa
Corn, beans, and whatever the season provides, simmered for hours into Cabo Verde's national dish. It is patience, cooked.
Eritrea
Tsebhi over Injera
A berbere-spiced stew, scooped by hand with injera, the sourdough flatbread that doubles as plate and utensil.
Ghana
Waakye
Rice and beans cooked together with dried millet leaves for their signature color, served with shito, gari, and boiled egg.
Haiti
Griot
Pork shoulder marinated in citrus and epis, braised, then fried crisp, served with pikliz. Some food historians trace the name to the West African griot storyteller, others to a French word for grilling. Either way, it makes a fitting companion to this fall's Art Fair theme.
Jamaica
Jerk Chicken
Scotch bonnet and pimento wood smoke, a marinade refined over centuries by Maroon communities in the hills. Jamaica's most famous export, still its most guarded technique.
Martinique
Colombo
A curried stew carrying the imprint of Martinique's Indian indentured laborers onto a French Caribbean plate. Three continents, one pot.
Nigeria
Suya
Skewered beef rubbed in ground peanut and dry pepper spice, grilled over open flame. Nigeria's street food, holding its own just outside the Jollof spotlight.
Senegal
Thieboudienne
Fish, rice, and vegetables simmered in tomato and tamarind, widely regarded as Senegal's national dish and one of West Africa's most influential exports.
Sint Maarten
Guavaberry-Glazed Specialties
Guavaberry, the island's signature wild fruit, finds its way into glazes and cocktails alike. A flavor that belongs almost entirely to this one small island.
Suriname
Pom
Chicken and grated tayer root baked into a casserole tracing Suriname's layered history: African, Javanese, Dutch, and Indigenous, folded into a single dish.
Trinidad & Tobago
Doubles
Fried bara bread wrapped around curried channa, sold from carts across the islands for generations. Breakfast, lunch, and an ongoing argument about the right amount of pepper sauce.
United States
Gumbo
Okra, rice, and whatever the Gulf provides, built by West African, French, and Indigenous hands working the same pot in Louisiana. Proof that Global Africa's table never stopped at the coastline.
And at the center of it all sits the Jollof Cook-Off, staged as both culinary competition and cultural celebration. Chefs representing West African and Caribbean traditions bring their own definitive version of jollof rice to Maison AfriKin, prepared live and judged before a panel of culinary tastemakers and a room full of guests with strong opinions of their own.
The Signature Program
To taste Global Africa is to taste memory, migration, and mastery, all on one plate.
General Admission: $55 • VIP: $125 • Tables: $440. Doors open at 5:30 PM, program runs 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Free parking on site, all ages welcome. All ticket sales are final.
Live Music: The Rozz Parker Band Returns
Rozz Parker
Vocalist, speaker, and founder of the Wellness Through Music Experience, Rozz Parker built her career on the idea that a room changes the moment live music enters it. She returns to Maison AfriKin after performing at last year's Taste of AfriKin, bringing her full band back for Global Africa's table a second time.
Her sets pull from soul, Motown, and themed live experiences she has carried into corporate stages and community gatherings across South Florida. Expect a set built to move a room full of plates and glasses straight onto its feet.
Visit Rozz Parker →
Live Music
The Rozz Parker Band, Sunday, September 6, 2026, Maison AfriKin
Music, art, and community round out the rest of the evening: original visual art on display throughout Maison AfriKin's gallery walls, a curated vendor village, and a full room built for total immersion, not a single course served and forgotten.
Building Toward GRIOT
Taste of AfriKin is not the only clock running right now. The 12th Annual AfriKin Art Fair, GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times, curated by Dr. Joseph L. Underwood, is still accepting artist submissions through August 1, 2026, extended from the original July 7 deadline due to overwhelming demand.
Call to Artists
Deadline extended to August 1, 2026, due to overwhelming demand
New this week: Rhythm and Soul, a Mosaic Workshop with artist JoKeeta has joined the GRIOT lineup. A beginner-friendly, hands-on session for six to twelve participants, held Tuesday, December 1, 2026, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at Maison AfriKin. Every guest leaves with a finished piece of their own, no experience required.
GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times
The 12th Annual AfriKin Art Fair, curated by Dr. Joseph L. Underwood. We are accepting artist submissions: portfolio, proposal, and artist statement. Miami Art Week, November 29 through December 6, 2026.
Submission deadline: August 1, 2026.
Submit Your Proposal →Two tables, one calendar. Taste of AfriKin proves the model in September. GRIOT builds on it in November. Neither one waits for the other to finish before the next room opens.
Upcoming AfriKin Events
Build the Permanent Home
Every ticket sold this fall funds a single evening. AfriKin's capital campaign funds the institution that makes every evening possible. We are raising $300,000 to convert a decade of proven cultural relevance, exhibitions, press, and civic recognition, into a permanent home at Maison AfriKin: secured infrastructure, a funded season, and the staffing to operate as a lasting institution rather than a reconstituted event series each year.
Give to the Campaign
From Relevance to Permanence
A one-time or monthly gift toward the $300,000 campaign funding Maison AfriKin's transition to a permanent institution. Tax-deductible, EIN 85-2592611.
Donate Now →Partner With Us
Sponsor Taste of AfriKin
Title, Gold, Silver, and Bronze sponsorship tiers, from $7,500 to $25,000, are open for this year's Taste of AfriKin, placing your brand inside Miami's leading African and Caribbean culinary platform.
Become a Sponsor →The AfriKin Ecosystem
AfriKin does not live on one website, and it was never meant to. Five properties carry different parts of the same mandate, each one built from the start to point back toward the others.
The Institution
afrikin.org
Programs, exhibitions, press, and the record of everything we build.
Visit afrikin.org →
The Commerce
afrikin.store
Apparel, coffee, and design that fund the mission and carry it into daily life.
Shop the Store →
The Founder
alfonsobrooks.com
Sixty countries of institutional research, framed as one person's ongoing case for what culture can build.
Read the Record →
The Beginning
rockersmovement.com
Where it started in 1998, building music and art festivals across the world to celebrate Global African culture.
Visit rockersmovement.com →
The Broadcast
rockersmovementradio.com
Carrying that same culture forward on air, every day.
Tune In →
In diplomacy and sovereignty of culture,
Founder & Chairman, AfriKin Foundation, Inc.
afrikin.org • alfonsobrooks.com • afrikin.store • rockersmovement.com • rockersmovementradio.com
Asé
We are AfriKin