11th Ave is a good place for a street fair (Image: CHS)
A coalition of Capitol Hill artists and performers are coming together in an effort to bolster both the economy of the neighborhood as well as the bonds within it, especially among the BIPOC community.
On The Block Second Saturdays will be a recurring event that will take place on 11th Ave between E. Pike and Pine, with the first edition scheduled just two weeks away on May 14. It will be held every second Saturday into October of this year. The event will run from 1 PM to 9 PM.
“What we hope to do is build a kind of community that will level the playing field by bringing people together authentically, and also super organically create an environment that is more safe for our communities,” said Julie-C, founder of artist support group Forever Safe Spaces, who serves as the project coordinator for On The Block.
Julie-C said though the pandemic brought hardship to the community, it is not the only barrier to local artists — BIPOC artists in particular are often excluded from creative spaces. The new event seeks to both uplift and create a space for them while also assisting in local economic recovery after the devastation of COVID-19.
On The Block Second Saturdays will feature a selection of art, as well as clothing drawing from local fashion, streetwear, and vintage curators. The event aims to host around 20 to 25 vendors as well as a number of performance artists, according to Julie-C.
Partners include Throwbacks NW, Blue Cone Studios, Vermillion Art Bar & Gallery, and Forever Safe Spaces. Julie-C said these groups have collaborated before on a number of local events, but this is their first time coming together in a more cohesive cooperative of local businesses.
It joins the neighborhood’s long running monthly Capitol Hill Art Walk — capitolhillartwalk.com every second Thursday as a regular gathering for the neighborhood’s businesses, organizations, and communities to rally around and be part of at several different levels from sponsorship to hosting events to simpy fancying up the specials sign out front.
“What’s exciting about this project is everybody who’s part of this core team is folks who have done a lot for the community already,” said Julie-C.
Julie-C called the block of 11th Ave between E. Pike and Pine where the event will take place a “social nexus point,” with many businesses owned by women and a history of community gathering such as during the Black Lives Matter protests. It has also been home to past efforts to organize street fairs and events in the neighborhood including this 2018 event. Meanwhile, 11th on the other side of Pike had been home to one of the pandemic’s more popular Pike/Pine patios before being reopened to car traffic this year.
On the Block draws funding from the Neighborhood Economic Recovery Fund, an effort of the city that supports market events among other facets of the community.
More details on what to expect from the event will be added to its Instagram page @ontheblockseattle in a week or so, according to Julie-C. Interested vendors can sign-up here.
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11th and Pine has a history of community gatherings like CHAZ that gave a massive boost to support local businesses in the area. Maybe this can be the first step in bringing back a community autonomous zone for our unhoused neighbors and where graffiti artists are free to express their art through out the neighborhood. This would be a chance to liberate the neighborhood and return it to the people. The whole area could become a No Cop Zone with armed community volunteer guards instead.
Are you serious? Few if any local businesses derived a net benefit from CHAZ. (To be fair, that wasn’t its purpose.) For the vast majority it was a nuisance or worse. And while the no-cop zone may have been a well-intentioned experiment, it sure didn’t end well. As I’ve been arguing with anarchists for decades, human civilization is nowhere near the level of maturity and self-control that the society they want would require, and won’t be for a very long time. I’m sympathetic to their vision, but that’s the reality.
I have the feeling that Ralph’s comment is satire. At least I hope so!
On re-reading it I think you’re right. “Graffiti artists” should’ve clued me in if nothing else did.
I’m super excited about these events. It’s awesome to see a revival of street life and I’m looking forward to see what other artists are up to, and I have immense gratitude for the people working to put these together.
One minor irritation: I realize that a strong current of alternative/progressive politics is traditional in the community, but I do wish they would learn to talk about their events and work without sounding so didactic and patronizing. IMO it trivializes, stereotypes, one-dimensionalizes, and condescends the individual artists voices, concerns, experiences and work and attempts to co-opt them for an highly ideological project that they may or may not be invested in or even agree with.