Ask a New Yorker: I’m here in Queens with Helga and friends. It’s spring. It’s cold. It’s Helga.
Helga: It’s the contradiction. It’s Spring. It’s cold. It’s Helga. So this morning I decided to put on my most colorful but most winter scarf because I’m afraid to be sick. But the thing that it also does, it attracts attention. You’re the third person who has commented on my scarf this morning. There is something about the vibrancy of the colors which kind of makes people smile. So it has all of the Spring potential but all the practicality of Winter, cold or not quite warm enough, cold. So I’m warm and I’m with my girls, my friends and we are going to spend the morning together. I’m feeling really well.
Ask a New Yorker: Where are you heading this morning?
Helga: We are going to have some coffee and then where are we going…where are we going?
Friend: We are going to Roosevelt Ave and then go to some Indian stores in Jackson Heights.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s your favorite Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights?
Helga: I’m not sure of our restaurant. Usually, what’s nice about that street is that there are so many restaurants and so we kind of feel it. We feel which one feels like the right one to go into.
Friend: Whatever smells good!
Helga: We follow our noses.
Ask a New Yorker: How long have you lived in New York?
Helga: I’m one of those rare birds. I was born in New York. I actually live in and was born in Harlem. I’m not a “boroughist”. I believe in going to every borough especially if there’s great food and of course where ever my friends are–that’s where I want to go. So I’m not a person who doesn’t go below 14th street or won’t leave 125th street. I really like to go and be in the city and experience the city and that’s why I live here.
Ask a New Yorker: I’ll speed this up. Certainly don’t want you to get sick. What do you think of Obama’s health care bill?
Helga: I’m pessimistically optimistic. I’m sad that we are going to give a lot of money to health care companies that are already milking people dry, and I will also be very sad if the government forces me to buy health insurance that can still go up astronomically every year that I can’t afford. I’m not so happy about it. I’m hoping that we can really get ourselves organized as a country to keep fighting for single payer and not let that conversation die, even though this thing has mostly passed.
Ask a New Yorker: Back to your scarf. Your scarf is health care.
Helga: My scarf is my preventive health care. I knitted this scarf myself from yarn that I had left over from other projects. I think that I made three of them altogether. I gave two of them away. If you were wearing a scarf I would do a scarf swap with you. But you’re not wearing a scarf and I would be cold.
Ask a New Yorker: Does anyone have any yarn?
Helga: The other thing that you’ll find fun is that I’m a singer and a performer. I also host overnight music on WQXR here in the city and also had a show on WNYC where I hosted overnight music for a while. I perform and travel a lot.
Ask a New Yorker: Where was the last place you traveled?
Helga: I just came back from Caen, France, which should not be confused with Cannes, France, where the film festival is. It was quite a blow to my stomach and my senses because Caen is near Normandy so the weather was actually a lot like this every day. But the food was delicious. I was there working on a project with a director whose name is Jean Francois Peret. We are doing an adaptation of Thoreau’s Walden and will be at Empac next month, which is the Experimental Music and Performance Arts Center in Troy, New York.
Ask a New Yorker: Wonderful. Last Question: What Harlem’s best kept secret?
Helga: The best kept secret in Harlem. I don’t know the best kept secret in Harlem.
Friend: There’s this little place called Mama’s Fried Chicken, it’s right outside the train station at 137th Street and it has the best sweet potatoes pies. They’re perfect. I’ve tasted a lot of sweet potatoes pies but those are definitely the best, and they’re cheap. (The address is 1 W. 137th St, Mama’s Fried Chicken) Ask a New Yorker: Thanks ladies! Have a great day in Jackson Heights.
