Fusion Fest celebrates South Bend’s immigrant entrepreneurs and international cuisines

SOUTH BEND — At Howard Park, under an expansive, patterned tent, crowds oohed and aahed as Ella Fitzgerald’s voice and swing music filled the air. Young models wearing a local designer’s bespoke bridal gowns inspired by old Hollywood glamour turned the tent full of food vendors into a catwalk.

That was North America. But in another tent a few feet away, attendees grooved as musicians vigorously played djembe and sabar drums and an African dance troupe showed off their coordinated moves.

This weekend’s Fusion Fest gave patrons many similar ways to experience the world with just a walk in Howard Park instead of a long-haul flight.

Attendees sampled Kenyan Mandazi doughnuts, Cambodian egg rolls, Turkish stuffed grape leaves, bought Mexican crochet items and more.

The park had two other tents representing Europe and Asia and South America with vendors selling food and merchandise from their respective regions under the different tents. There were also activities like a zip line and bungee trampolining outside the tents.

This year is the second time the city of South Bend has hosted Fusion Fest, but the event has a long history.

In 1974, a group of volunteers put on the Ethnic Festival on the 4th of July to celebrate 200 years of American independence. In the 1980s, the event was held on Michigan Street in downtown South Bend and boasted Polish pierogi, Pakistani lamb curry and naan, Swedish meatballs, and Irish corned beef sandwiches among other dishes.

In 1997, the city moved the Ethnic Festival to the Howard Park area and then renamed it Summer in the City in 2002. But fights and vandalism had made it increasingly difficult for police to disperse crowds near the end of the festival, and the city canceled it after the 2004 event.

Scott Sernau, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Indiana University South Bend and a long-time resident of South Bend, enjoyed a refreshing Venezuelan tamarind juice at Fusion Fest. Sernau said he remembered attending the Ethnic Festival in the 1990s and preferred the updated version of the event.

“I actually like this format better … the mandala tents are great and being in the park,” Sernau said, The Ethnic Festival "had a lot of rides. It was more of a midway kind of feel. … This is more intentionally about different cultures.”

A refuge in entrepreneurship

Most teenagers get a part-time job at the supermarket or in food service, but Afghan sisters Shogofa Tanai, 17, and Bibi Hawa Tanai, 14, are self-employed. They run a business giving people henna tattoos. In many Asian and African cultures, people get henna designs on their hands and feet to celebrate weddings and other occasions.

“I like that you can do art and make your own design,” Bibi Hawa Tanai said as she was preparing to draw a henna tattoo on a customer’s hand at Fusion Fest.

The Tanai sisters set up their business with the help of Ashlee Herzog, who had taught them English when they moved to South Bend around three years ago. Herzog is a volunteer with Neighbor to Neighbor, an organization that helps new immigrants adjust to life in the South Bend area. Herzog said she had been trying to help the sisters find jobs because the family of 10 was looking for more income beyond what their father earned working as a janitor and driving for Uber.

“They would sometimes give me henna in their home when I was teaching them English. It was beautiful and interesting,” Herzog said, “so I thought I could help them start a business to bring in more income.”

Blending the traditional with the modern

Many food vendors and artisans at the event embodied the idea of a fusion of cultures.

Vendors at Masala Mama served up South Asian foods with an American twist, like Masala Fries, Butter Chicken tacos and Nepalese dumplings that are called momos. The owners, Neha Roberts, originally from India, and Sumit Rasaili, originally from Nepal, became friends working together at Nom Nom Pho in downtown South Bend.

“We’ve been developing these fusion recipes for a long time … we want to show a little bit of our personality to the community,” Roberts said.

Fusion Fest was their first big event since they started their catering business a month ago.

“We made 500 batches of garlic naan from scratch!” Roberts said. “We’re focusing on going to events like this and learning a lot.”

For Joanna Davis, a Black American designer from Chicago, fusion meant getting inspiration from the heritage of West Africa. At Fusion Fest, she was selling dresses, shirts, waist beads and other jewelry.

“When I was in college studying business, I was like, ‘Wait, I can’t find modern African prints that fit me as a 21-year-old,'” Davis said, “So I started sewing African wear with modern silhouettes and adding African prints to denim.”

Davis said her designs were popular with other students. “A lot of people also felt like … these cultural items were sometimes too traditional,” Davis said.

Davis started her brand, Designs by Anna J, six years ago right after she graduated college and started to visit Ghana and work with tailors there to forgo the cost of imported fabric. She has a physical store in Chicago's Hyde Park.

Emily and Ryker Wheedle moved to South Bend from Kansas in January. They said they hadn’t attended any other events in the community before Fusion Fest and were excited to check it out after hearing coworkers at their respective workplaces talking about the event.

“We’re excited to try our first thing, empanadas and also for the live music,” Emily Wheedle said, “It’s a bigger turnout than I was expecting.”

Sernau, the IUSB professor, said he had told all of his students to come to the event and experience the mix of cultures.

“I think (the city) does a better job of celebrating some of that diversity than it used to," he said. "It is still hard to get events that get all corners of the community together … but this might be a winner for that.”

Fusion Fest continues from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15 at Howard Park in South Bend.

Email Tribune staff writer Angela Mathew at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Small business share cultural cuisines and merchandise at Fusion Fest