This October, Nana Mensah made her Broadway debut in ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,’ Jocelyn Bioh’s play about a Harlem braiding shop. Mensah plays Aminata, a stylish hairdresser with a scratch-off lottery card addiction and a stormy love life.
Nana Mensah knows what she wants. When we meet in the midst of a torrential September downpour at Friedman’s at the Edison in the Theater District, she looks at the menu and takes all of 30 seconds before deciding that she’ll have the Nova Benny, the American-style restaurant’s spin on eggs Benedict. “I-braiding shop that employs West African stylists.
She describes those next few years in New York as “tumbleweeds.” She worked at a wine store while her parents supported her for a year, and other actors would tell her that the working actor’s rite of passage — a role oncould jump-start her career, but she couldn’t secure anything. If she was ever bitter about not getting any acting jobs early on, I couldn’t tell.
Mensah does indeed perform the sexy, stylish Aminata with confidence, and with a knowingness that made me feel like Aminata is a real person I might run into while sitting in the salon for several hours on a Saturday. The whole play resonated deeply for me, someone who has lived in Harlem for several years and walks past many of the African women sitting outside on 125th to look for potential customers on a regular basis.
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