Monday, July 20, 2009

Good Eats on the Outside of Eastern Market (Old School)

(Under the "farmers' shed," 2009) Old-school food on the outside of Eastern Market is found under "the farmers' shed". Eastern Market was built as a public market in 1873; local farmers came from Maryland and Virginia to sell their produce, baked goods and other products, such as flowers, outside under this shed. In 2009, while most produce under the shed is sold by merchants, there are still local farmers at the Market. I remember when the "farmers' shed" was falling down and the word came down that it would be rebuilt. Many of the merchants, farmers and exhibitors wondered: would the new structure be the same would it fit in with the historical nature of the ("market Shed" by: Cherie Lester 2000, archival pigment print hand tinted image transfer)

area? When the construction was underway for the new shed, I was in Europe (France, I think), back in 2004. Many traditional markets in France are covered markets: maybe a bit larger, but much like our "farmers' shed". So, when I came back to Eastern Market in the fall, I was a bit fearful that some architect with glass and steel ideals had done in the old shed. However, when I saw it from afar, I could hardly tell the difference from the old one. Yippee! progress foiled again! For those of you like myself, who don't value the new simply because it is new, there exist wonderful images of the outside of Eastern Market. They can be seen, for instance, in the work of photographer/painter/collageist Cherie Lester. With the new shed, too, all the lights under the shed actually work, and there are electrical outlets on every other pole; when they're used, they don't blow fuses in the North Hall (okay, I admit that's a bit of a bonus.) There are also, I believe, a faucet for watering plants and washing down the bricks. Oh, yeah--the new shed also lacks the holes that graced the old shed, so that when on rainy days it provides shelter. For fifteen years, I set up on Sundays across from Jesse Dunham's produce stand. Next to me for over a decade was abstract expessionist painter Sheila Crider, who often commented on how beautiful Jesse's stand, was especially when his wife Sherri Dunham, arranged the produce. There is something captivating and evocative about fresh produce; the colors, shapes, textures and smells just draw you in. And whom else can be found under the shed? Farmers Robert"Bunk" Knopp and his wife Cindy are owners of Knopp's Farm in Severn, Maryland. They have been at Eastern Market for five years, and tomatoes are one of their specialities. (Knopp's Farm) (yellow tomatoes) Green tomatoes are wonderful fried, needing only a pinch of salt and pepper, cornmeal, eggs, a good "seasoned" cast iron skillet and some Crisco (some Philistines, like my evil best friend, say you can even cut out the eggs and Crisco, but I'm not about that craziness.) Make some hot water corn bread and you've got a meal! But then, the question arises: what wines go with fried green tomatoes and corn bread? I mean, is a pinot noir to serious, a rose too light? Perhaps one needs a Shiraz. Me, I'm for homemade lemonade in a jelly jar, a classic vintage.
Of course, for the health nuts out there,
one can always eat tomatoes.....RAW! Freaks! (green tomatoes)
Over here, farmer Cinda Sebastian is owner of Gardeners Gourmet farm in Uniontown, Maryland. Many
folks have commented on how tasty are her greens and cabbage. She has been at the market for seven years.
(Gardeners Gourmet) I know what you're thinking when you look at these pictures (me, too!): borscht! There is just nothing better than hot borscht on a cold winter day after the market, accompanied by some of that brown bread with black spots in it (okay, so I mean poppyseed bread, homemade, of course.) I have not the slightest idea how this stuff is made--I just like going over to a friend's house and eating some. But again the question--what fruit of the vine? Chardonnay, no! Ah, I have it: the only choice--borscht needs a bottle of Cote-Rotie to bring out that beety flavor. Plus, Boone's Farm ain't wine! Of course, feel free y'all to stop by the market and shop on a cold winter's day. Nor would it be inappropriate to bring frozen artists et. al. a piping hot bowl of food and, as the Irish say, "a wee dram... " We won't mind, and we wont tell. I feel healthy just looking at this photo, don't you? You know you are old when....in the background is Daniel Barker, of Dunham Farms; I have known Daniel since he was thirteen, but now he is in charge of his Dad's produce stand at the market. He ain't thirteen anymore, and I ain't twenty-five anymore (I am at twenty-five...plus.) But Jesse Dunham of Shanghai, West Virginia, has been a produce merchant at Eastern Market for thirty years. His produce stand has the best West Virginia peaches! And in the fall, his selection of apples is second to none. And we all know where to look for Christmas trees, the day after Thanksgiving. Peaches=peach cobbler with butter pecan ice or, if you're dieting ,vanilla ice cream (see? dieting isn't so bad!) One can also eat them sauteed in butter, with a touch of brown sugar, nutmeg and/or cinnamon, then let cool and (the finishing touch) add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I have also heard tell of folks who....(close the children's ears)...eat fruit "commando"...raw with the skin on!!!! (Dunham Farms) So, how do you eat your fruit? One can hear her singing out "cooked all night for your eating delight" every weekend at Eastern Market. Ma Brown is a baker. She has been at the market since, well, not since 1873, but let us say longer than thirty years. If you have not eaten her pound cakes, pecan pies or coconut cakes, you have not come to Eastern Market . She does not mince words; if asked she will tell you, "I don't spare the butter or sugar!" Ma Brown, under the "farmer's shed," is an Eastern Market institution. (Ma Brown) That was just a taste of good eats at Eastern Market (old school), but in the last three to five years we have a new school of "good eats on the outside". I just love his... a hungry witness, Sonda T. Allen Turtle's Webb

Friday, July 17, 2009

Les Femmes Des Savons

( dangerous animal seen regularly at Eastern Market)
It's hot! The rebuilt Eastern Market structure may have air conditioning, and our vending fees may be going in part to finance it, but outside in D.C.--ouch! It is HOT and humid! Back in the day, before the new fancy stones, when 7th street was asphalt, during this time of year I could look out from my Saturday spot on the North plaza and see heat waves coming off the pavement. Then, when I walked across it, the tarry stuff was tacky. So, after a long day of selling my work (or, as I like to call it, arting, or, for most of you ,SHOPPING) one needs a bath, because one is unclean, and the Market has many wonderful options to change that.
Before I discovered "dirt soap," I would jump in the shower and get out, towel off and...yuck! I mean, y' all know when you're toweling up dirt on your skin. At such times, don't leave the shower/bath and come back and look down; my exclamations included, "who left that?" "was there a pig in the shower?" "that sh@# did not come off of me!" and, one memorable day, "so that's where that ant got to!"
Okay, so maybe nothing can completely beat the filth after a long, hot day at the Market, but you can still get clean with...dirt? Bernadette Mayo, i.e. BAMI products has created soap balls, one of which is made from "Dead Sea mud." Yeah, weird, but it works: think pumice, but with a better smell. It helps to exfoliate the skin, and goes head to
head with the filth.
(Bernadette Mayo)
Bernadette has been at the Market for twelve years. She has often had assistants in the form of her children. Lucky woman! Okay, mothering, tough job, but after you raise them, I hear they are useful...at times. Now she has not only the grandkids working for her, but the dog (see the dangerous animal above.) She calls him Tybee. (I call him "ugly"...also, "rat." I love dogs...to kick, sic on people, sit on my feet when it's cold, you know all their uses. But we all know that CATS are the superior pet.)
True story, just to give you the feel: last spring, when I was set up next to Bernadette , I needed a mint or some gum. Breathe deep: spring in DC smells a lot like pollen. My throat was itching and I was coughing. Bernadette is a grandmother, after all, so she has everything: sewing stuff, plastic forks, delicious spicy shrimp salad, potato salad (she makes this especially for Dan Kessler's birthday) extra containers of propane, change for twenty dollar bills, extra sweaters in the winter, needle and thread, crochet needles... I really do mean everything. But did she have gum? No! A doggie treat, sure: nothing is worse than a granny with a small dog. She told me once when it came to Tybee, "the dog spoiled himself."
( I spoiled myself) Anyway, there is healthy soap (very important in the summer at the Market) and then there is sexy soap. You know that sometimes you need a SYM ((Sexualize Yourself Moment), right? This situation calls for some hand made candles and soaps from my girl Kim Downes ( Aurora Bath & Jewels), a cross between, Madonna, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Phylis Diller and Cyndi Lauper. I called her Broom Hilda behind her back for years, Broom to her face. You've got to hear her laugh--she has a real cackle. And her outfits...well, only mine match them on originality. But where she shines is the boudoir products. Kim was featured this spring in the Washington Post Magazine for her Cherry Blossom soap, sort of a soap version of "like a virgin". Every Valentine's Day I take myself out on a date; key elements are a shower with Kim's rose soap and finishing the evening with chocolate. Heaven! Kim, like Bernadette, has turned her business into a family affair. She (lucky thing) has Mom and Dad back home in Pennsylvania making soap and such, and sending it down to her in Washington. Don't think I could try that move with my mother. Nope, not a chance. Kim Downes has been at the Market for sixteen years. By hazard Kim and I often meet up at Teaism in Dupont Circle. We holler and cackle together about our life as strong
(Kim Downes)
minded, independent women who are making our livings
outside at The Market.
Back in the day, with Market 5 Gallery, we (that is, artists, makers, vintage and flea market folks) could set up inside the North Hall on Saturday and Sunday. Olivia Cook's place (Peacock Botanical) was in front of the stage on the right. Photographer Jim Spillane and painter Victor Kinza were on the left. And to her right was Adiante Franszoon, wood artist. I remember learning that Olivia Cook was a high school English teacher. She makes beautiful, fragrant soaps. Visually her soaps are extraordinary, with small pieces of "stuff" or, as she told me when I finally asked, other soaps inside each bar she hand-cuts. (Olivia Cook)
My mother was also a high school teacher. Soap or not... When I would come into Market 5 Gallery in the North Hall to ask John Harrod a question (John is the founder of all outside activities at Eastern Market) or pay my booth fees, I would see her multi-tasking. Often she brought a pile of papers to grade in the intervals between soap sales (poor babies.) She had a rhythm: answer a client's question, sell a bar of soap, and never lose her place in some high-schooler's composition. That red pen would fly. Breathe easy, twelfth graders: Ms. Cook is now retired. She just makes soap now, so your spilt infinitives and dangling modifiers are now safe. Olivia Cook has been at the market for more than a decade.
Historical corrections
In the Washington Post Metro section the Sunday before the grand re-opening, it was stated that all merchants including crafters were returned to the building.
More than a dozen crafters, artists and flea marketers in the North Hall first were displaced by the renovation for two years and are now permanently disenfranchised from their permanent spaces on Saturday and Sunday by then Office of Property Management (OPM) now Department of Real Estate Services (DRES). The North Hall of Eastern Market now is a soulless shell; there is no clear plan as to its future as a "community arts space."
witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Africanisms and Horses

Adiante Franszoon (adiantefr@yahoo.com)
Eastern Market is a cultural crossroads; we both are and are not local folks. I am awed by the world that has come to make Eastern Market its home. My passions are history and culture. I remember learning about Suriname in college, about escaped African slaves from the low lands of Suriname going into the mountains to freedom and community--part of the story of the "New World". After centuries, many in that world questioned there identify, their origins. For those participants in the triangular trade or that "particular institution," cultural connections to Africa by the 20Th century were called Africanisms; examples include the sweetgrass baskets of North Carolina and Georgia and the speech, burial rituals in the Gullah islands off the coast of Georgia, iron work found in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the wood carving in Surinam, South America and many others.
At Eastern Market we have Adiante Franszoon of Dangogo in Suriname, South America. He comes from the Saramacca Moroon peoples of Suriname. He has been carving a place for himself and his work for more than 15 years at the Market. He wrote that his"... goal is to incorporate the Saramacca Maroon style of woodcarving into the contomporary western style of furniture making." His hands, heart, mind and work trace a line from the mountains of South America, through the "middle passage," back through the "door of no return" on Goree Island to the heart of West Africa. His work has been in the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution. There are less than 70 wood artists from Surinam in the entire United States.
Adiante is from one hemisphere and Tsolmon Damba is from another--Darkhan, Mongolia . For many years the iconic animal imagery seen in many paintings at the Market was mostly humorous dogs and cats, as seen in the work of Dan Kessler and Jonathan Blume. Then came Tsolmon with "Horses." As, a child, I thought of horses as just very big dogs, but I remember walking over to his stand and thinking, "Wow." Tsolmon paints in a tradition Mongolian style, using ink on linen and paper. He is also a leather artist. For years, I looked at his work. Then came my first nephew, Elias, named after his great grandfather, in the year of the horse. It was a sign. The Smithsonian Institutions "Folk Life Festival" of "The Silk Road" my favorite folk life fest to date. Tsolmon's work was included. While, I am not sure of all the significance that horses hold in Mongolian culture, I brought one of his horse painting in honor of my nephew's birth because I wanted my nephew to have within him the spirit of freedom, beauty and grace I see depicted in Tsolmon's paintings. Tsolmon Damba has been at The Market for over a decade. His work is in The Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. (http://www.freersackler.com/)
(http://www.tsolomart.com/) Tsolmon Damba
I have lived and studied art and metalsmithing in several western European Countries; every time I went, I visited their markets. I have never seen a level of talent or diversity of cultures even close to what we have here at Eastern Market.
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Poet Thomas Sayers Ellis wrote a poem called "behind the monuments." You know the monuments: the White House, the Capital, the Supreme Court. Who built them, what master craftsperson cut the stones and laid them, do you know? In his poem he spoke of what it was like growing up in the 1970's and 80's at 7Th and O streets NW in a housing project in the nation's capital.
On June 26, 2009, Mayor Fenty cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony for the re-opening of Eastern Market--a monument. But parts of it had never been closed.
Everybody was there: the community which had raised money, made phone calls, kept shopping, rallied around; the merchants, food, arts/crafts/flea market, the church leaders, community leaders, some homeless folks and all the DC political elite. And me! I heard everyone speak, including Mayor Fenty, Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells, Chair of the Board of the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee (EMCAC) Donna Scheeder, select members of said committee, Robin Eves Jaspers, director of the office of property management (OPM), non- voting member of congress Eleanor Holmes Norton, and more. The media were there, print and cyber, listening to and recording this monumental event on TV. It was a beautiful day. These speakers praised, thanked and gave accolades to themselves, the community, the contractors, EMCAC, Mayor Fenty, the contractors, the inside food merchants, OPM, Congress women Norton, council member Wells, everybody, except...
These speakers acknowledged the hardships, devastation's, and sacrifices that the burning of Eastern Market had brought upon everyone--the community, the inside food merchants, except...
Not once did any of the speakers acknowledge the existence of the non-food vendors or outside produce and food exhibitors. Those who make their livings in front of the monument. This was no oversight, but a statement of how important the outdoor actives on Saturday and Sunday are to City leaders and community movers and shakers. Think of this as a metaphor. Some folks often ask "Why are they so hostile?" or "Why are they always so anger?" It's funny how, when you have helped build, grow and maintain a thing over decades in spite of obstacles and trails, yet when it come to reaping the benefits, "they" forget your contributions, or, better yet, act as if you never existed. At the Last Eastern Market Tenants Council meetings, artist Quest Skinner reminded all those in attendance that during the winter months, the non-food merchants "hold it down for ya'll, by setting up outside when it is to cold for the farmers to be there. We keep people coming to the market." All agreed; no one denied this fact.
At one of the two meetings between management and the non-food vendors, photographer Joe Shymanski said, "I feel being at Eastern Market is a privilege." History tell us that there are always those who came before, who "held it down " for us. Inside the north hall now is a curious exhibition, telling one version of the Eastern Market story. Every photo there gives names and titles to those in them, except that the largest, most diverse group is lumped together under "flea market." However, many started coming to the Market only on Saturday as art and crafts exhibitors. No names , titles, years spent at the market, or occupations are given for these artists and vendors. Another metaphor: remember those old National Geographic photos, the ones where a man in a hat (he always has a name an a occupation, i.e. explorer, hunter or discoverer) stands beside a bare-breasted "other," often in "exotic" plumage. We don't know whether it is the viewer or the maker of these images who prefers that the subjects being dehumanized and objectified smile at the camera in those photos.
There is as African proverb that says " until the lion has his own historian, the story of the hunt will always be told by the hunter." This is a salute to those who "held it down" outside the monument and are now gone.
ROLL CALL
1. ALEX MADISON (painter) 27+years
All artists at Eastern Market owe him thanks!
Was known for his pen and ink drawings of Miles Davis and was one of the first artists to show at Market 5 Gallery. 2.MARYALICE AND JOHN MUNZER (vintage, antiques)20+years
I never thought they saw me until the day Maryalice called me over and gave me a book on metalsmithing.
3.GENE LOHMAN (glass artist) 5+years
Wonderful artist and person.
4.CATHY JACKSON (vintage jewelry) 20+years
Her vintage jewelry was excellent.
5.KENT ASH (farmer) 25+years
I can still taste his dried apples, cherries, and pears.
6.DANNY ASTON (produce merchant) 20 years+
He smiled said goodbye for the evening on Saturday and was gone Sunday. I remember Becky cried all day Sunday.
7.BILL ANDREWS AND TOM SHERMAN (antique glassware) 12years
Crystal, Depression glass, Fiestaware--they had it all and knew their stuff.
8.CARLTON FRYE(flowers) 20+ years
Grouchy, with beautiful flowers, he was always working.
9. Larry Hansen (photographer) 10+ years
Known for his Georgia O'Keeffe-like photos of flowers.
10. MR. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON WARD SR. (baker) 25 years+
An old-style gentleman and a fine baker.
After 18 years at Eastern Market, having been fortunate enough to have know these folks and privileged to share my work with many more, I find that singer Ben Harper expresses my sentiments beautifully:
"Glory behold all my eyes have seen
I am blessed to be a witness."
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb


When I wrote this...

with much love and heartfelt thanks
this is dedicated to Mr. John Harrod founder of Market 5 Gallery, the arts and crafts festival at eastern market and the flea market at eastern market.  He passed in August 2011.
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The Dark Room Collective: Where Black Poetry Took Wing

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/arts/the-dark-room-collective-where-black-poetry-took-wing