Blacks and/or African Americans in West Des Moines -- HELP (Clive: university, living)

[jsjesq1]

Greetings all. My husband and I just moved to WDM from a large, very diverse Southern city. We are African-American and in our early 30's. We really need to find some entertainment and/or places that have larger concentrations of African Americans and/or other diverse ethnicities of people. Any suggestions?

Of course, we are not limiting ourselves to just African-American friends/events/venues. We would, however, like to find our peers and familiar groups. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[opalminor]

Are Caucasians/whites not your peers, or a familiar group...?

[capitalcityguy]

If that was such a priority, why did you move to W DM and not Des Moines?

[DMRyan]

Capitolcityguy is right, there is no black culture to be found in the western burbs. Most of Des Moines' black community and black-owned business areas are north and east of downtown Des Moines.

[El Rhino]

I'm not sure if it's still open, but I think the only place in the suburbs with entertainment geared towards AA's is Club Amnesia in Clive, but I think it may have gotten shut down:


Fights Escalate Outside Night Club - News Story - KCCI Des Moines (http://www.kcci.com/r/24175312/detail.html - broken link)


It may not be what you want to hear, but African-American night clubs in this area have a TERRIBLE track record. I can't think of any that have managed to stay open for more than a couple months without going under or having their license revoked due to violence. I think I remember hearing that the West End Lounge on Forest Ave. by Drake has a large AA clientele but I can't confirm that.

As far as other ethnic groups, there are a lot of SE Asian restaurants and Mexican restaurants, a couple Indian restaurants and various other ethnic joints scattered around. Often times these restaurants have fliers with events going on within their communities (i.e. there's a big Asian fest each fall, Buddhist holiday celebrations, Jewish food fair, etc). As far as I know that's probably the best way to find out about those things.

As far as the black community goes, I don't know. I'd suggest maybe hitting up one of the black barbershops in Des Moines and asking around there.

[wallaby]

I would probably say that whatever you're looking for, it ain't in West Des Moines. I lived next to Drake a few months back in central Des Moines, and there seemed to be about equal concentrations of white and black people. Check out Sebastian's barber shop on the corner of 24th and University, strike up some conversation with the barbers, and ask your questions there.

[DeliciaFreeman]

I notice this post is very old......did you find your type of scenary?

[Disco Inferno]

What got me was "came from a very diverse area." By diverse, does that mean only black? If so, that is not diverse. Diversity means a variety of cultures. Where I am at in New Mexico is not all that diverse either, even though I haven't been exposed to these cultures prior to living here.

[jsjesq1]

"got you" how? And no, that is not what I meant - I know what diversity means.

[jsjesq1]

DeliciaFreeman, not really, but we've adjusted for the most part. We travel a lot and that helps.