Uncle Waffles (A Spritual Experience)
Written by: Aduke Akinwumi
August 05th, 2025
Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
I’d been thinking about this night alot, at first I just wanted to write about Uncle waffles in a bit of a review style touching on points of the night briefly. After reflection though, and sitting on the night. I realize how filling it was experience the event, her set and just the night as a whole.
I wanted to write you to talk about my thoughts on music, the necessity of parites and events like these to culture and community, Djs and their role in the musical ecosystem, and my exprience at Uncle Waffles.
For weeeks afterwards, I was riding the high of seeing Uncle waffles, the music, the people, the dancing, drinking, smoking. Everything it was and electricfying night. I was and still am filled with such joy. wondering why i enjoyed this night so much is what lead me to write about it realized the cominabtion of
from watching people dance and sing in the same room. Uncle Waffles is a phenomenal DJ and vibe curator. I truly thank you for enveloping me into your world and creating a space for me to experience freedom with my peers.
Amapiano resonates with me in such a deep way. It reminds me of the Nigerian music scene when I was a kid. The energy of having an African artist singing on an African beat mixed with the unabashed expression that evokes in people; slurry together to create an experience that I can only describe as ancestral.
As a young queer African, I am always looking to be with my community. I want to hear Yoruba, I want to hear rhythmic chants, I want to hear a beat so sick I fear for the sanity of the producer, I want to hear sounds that connect me to something deeper within me, something that forces me to dance or scream.
Music has always been a way to bridge communities and DJs have been an integral part of that since the 60s. As music itself is a bridge into different worlds the DJs role is to Sheppard us through these different realities through their set. They become the architect of the energy we experienced connecting the story being told in the music and the place and time they are being told in.
I can’t count the number of times I've been at a party listening to a familiar song that has been chopped and screwed. My heartbeat’s up, hips moving and all of a sudden slowly a new beat is introduced in, I search my brain for any clues as to what song is coming, I search the crowd to see if anyone hears what I do, then my eyes find the DJ, they’re focused. As they bring in the new song, the energy in the crowd that has been climbing erupts as everyone hears, sees and most importantly feels the transition.
I've been fortunate to have experienced so many of these moments and every time; deep within me I feel so connected. I feel connected to the people in the room, I feel connected to the music, I feel connected to where I am, I feel connected to who made the song I feel connected to where the music was made, all of it.
Uncle waffles gave me a few dozen of these moments even before she reached the stage. Walking up to the plaza theater I was greeted by a line of black people. I can never really articulate how filling it is to be surrounded by your peers when in a city like Calgary. Calgary has a healthy black population don’t get me wrong but there is no hub. Even with events for us and by us, they are often restricted to the summer. So, it is more than common to find yourself in a room where you can actively see and feel yourself as the minority.
Once I entered the theater, I made my way to the front with my hand fan (which has been lost from me now, for longer than I had it). I watch the performers warm up the crowd and start gearing myself up to see Waffles. Dancers were pulled up on stage, the emcee demanding more and more energy from the crowd to which we obliged, meeting every call with an answer.
I looked around trying to squeeze myself into parts of the crowd that were dancing. I love dancing. Admittedly, I can't stand still once a good beat comes on and since I pulled up alone It was my first priority to find a dance partner. I found my position and out of nowhere a gorgeous dark-skinned girl turned to me to say, “you’re so gorgeous.”
“Omg! no. says you.” I respond truly captured by her face. I turn a little more and see the rest of the group she’s with, giving everyone small smiles.
“I love your hair.” I say.
“Omg my sister did it!” She beams excitedly and turns to show me her sister. I try to tell her that she did very well on her sister’s hair but it's too loud. The gorgeous girl and I start to dance together, and she asks who I'm with. I tell her I'm hoping to run into a friend who had mentioned she wanted to come but I'm on my own right now. To which she says “well we’re your friends for the night. you’re with us now”.
The crowd is still getting warmed up, when I think about how long we’d been waiting for her to come out. Then, seemingly out of nowhere she appears on the stage! The crowd is at a new volume and the emcee is stoking the energy. I'm not sure if this was right away but they started to pass out cut outs of uncle waffles head and just as quickly as I noticed this, the gorgeous girl's sister had one in her hand.
Uncle waffles set starts and all I feel is ecstasy. I had been so excited to see her. Now to be in a room dedicated to the music allowed me to retreat into it and into myself.
I scream and shout hearing the songs that had been restricted to my bedroom, played in this theater full of people. Each song that plays opens me up more and more. I made eye contact with one of my new friends as I danced, she danced, and we danced together. She bounces her energy off me, and I do the same. We whine and grind on each other and I think this is better than drugs. There is just something so euphoric about looking at someone and you see them hearing the song the same way you are hearing it, feeling it in the same way you feel it, dancing just as hard as you.
I'm mesmerized by the girls who went up on stage to dance with Waffles for Zenzele, their energy electrifies me, and I imagine myself as one of them up on stage. I scream as one of the girls puts her back into her part and waffles returns the energy. I am barely myself, I feel everything, I am everyone, I feel myself becoming beyond the present in the moment, I lose myself more and more as the energy climbs. I am becoming the party, not just a spectator of it.
I'm out of breath. I've been dancing and over dancing. I look around the room and all I see is African children dancing to African songs. I think of my mother, about how she wasn’t given the opportunity to dance in this way because of the lack of access when she was my age. I close my eyes, and I feel so grateful. I feel the accumulated effort of the artists who made the songs, the organizers of the event, of Uncle Waffles. In the same moment I think of the push by those before me to normalize African music, African culture, Black gatherings… after so many centuries of demonization and the active attempt to kill Black and African joy. I look up at Uncle Waffles and wrongly sing the lyrics of a song I do not know but is within me. I feel Black I feel African; I feel fortunate, I feel free.
I think that these parties, events, and music are so important because it is in these spaces, culture is made and reinforced. It is also one of the many ways community is made and sustained. By gathering together as Black and African people in Canada we are not just showing up to have fun, but we are actively showing up for each other to ensure that these spaces continue exist and are seen as necessary and sustainable for the people after us. An event like this creates a place in which we can be free and be together; allowing us to not only connect to each other into the present moment, but to every single person that has contributed to making this moment possible and every person who will have these same feelings in the future.
As Uncle Waffles allows herself to be a Sheppard of her culture. She allows me to connect to a piece of myself and my culture through her all the way in Calgary Alberta, and for that I am truly grateful. It was a 10/10 experience Uncle Waffles I truly lovedddd your party and I can't wait to see you again.
I've added videos and pictures of the night below
Thank you so much for reading, I'll end off by asking what do events/parties mean to you, and do you think DJs are really as important as I've made it seem?
Leave a comment below, email me, dm me, text me if you have my number, I'd love to talk more xoxox
#bye #ily #iloveunclewaffles #amapiano #youngblackandafrican
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