What builds a community? Who built this community? How did they do it? What are their stories?
Last year some time I read a book called L'Elegance du Herisson by Muriel Barberry, a very good read. Like any fine piece of writing it has layers: like an onion, but with a heart and soul at the center. The book is about a woman who, on the surface, is a building super, overlooked and underestimated, but whose interior life is rich, intellectual, savory, elegant, beautiful and full of grace. The main character works hard to keep this fact hidden from view. It is this character's view that it is impossible for some to believe that someone so unremarkable, so easy to overlook, so plain on the outside could be worth anything, could have anything to say, to teach or to share with the world.
Note:
Historiography is the study of how history is constructed, "is a meta-analysis of descriptions of the past. That usually focuses on the narrative, interpretations, worldviews, use of evidence or method(s) of presentations..."
Turtle's Webb Raising Hell at Eastern Market is a first-person narrative about the exhibitor community at the historic Market 5 Gallery's Arts and Crafts Festival on Saturdays and the historic Flea Market at Eastern Market on Sundays. Moreover, it is a celebration of life.
Thus, on a personal note, I would like to express my appreciation for all the exhibitors at Eastern Market who have allowed me in some small way to tell their stories. Doing so was a great challenge and joy. I would also like to thank all my readers. I am also mindful of the communities that love and support all aspects of what John Harrod, founder of Market 5 Gallery, The Arts and Crafts Festival and The Flea Market at Eastern Eastern Market, called into being.
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| John Harrod |
What I am Grateful for:
In the late 1990's, I started studying metalsmithing in County Wicklow, Ireland. There I met and became friends with Inger-Maria Saeverud, from Bomlo, Norway. Over the years since then we have met in four countries, Ireland, England, France and the United States. When I started this project, she was one of my first readers. About a year ago she started her own writing project; at first it was about silversmithing and her love of traditional Norwegian metalsmithing and later it evolved... Her husband of more than twenty-five years had leukemia and she changed the title of her easy to "
A Journey to Life" she would write every week about his treatments. At the end of every post she would end it with "what I am grateful for..." I love it. Sigve, her husband, is now in full recovery and they have welcomed their first grandchild, Helmer, into the world.
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| Inger Marie and Sigve Saeverud |
This should read "who I am grateful to" rather than "what I am grateful for." In this project of writing I have had many who have helped me by giving of their information, ideas, images and critical thoughts. Of those, there are folk who stand out in my mind for special recognition. The first is photographer Val Proukii for giving me permission to use his fabulous image as the image of my essays. Mitch of Crepes at the Market said to me that Val's picture shows so clearly the reality of what the exhibitor community lives every weekend, and I could not agree more.
On the French side... I have for years been a volunteer at the library at Alliance Francaise of Washington, D.C.. and I enlisted their help every time I wanted a recipe or a funny phrase in French. They have been, as well, some of my most loyal readers.
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| Madame Coudret(Reception) & Nadie PazGabriel (librian) |
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| Sarah Diigenti-Pickup (Director of Education Allaince Francais) |
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| Greta Warren "girl friday" |
To begin to do justice to the history of the exhibitor community at Market 5 Gallery and The Flea Market at Eastern Market, on many occasion, I had to reach beyond the folks presently at the market. As of this year I have been an exhibitor for twenty years. There were things I wanted to say. I wanted to get it as right as I possible could. It was important that this beauty, this richness of peoples and cultures not go uncelebrated. There were two essay, that for me were the most important. The first was "Shelia Crider and The Talented Tenth" and the second was;" Entertaining Angels Unaware: Painter Andrew Shelton". Think of them both as a metaphor on the book I mentioned in the introduction. By and large, the artistic renaissance at Eastern Market went unremarked by the larger artistic and media establishment in D.C., and Mr. Shelton is generally overlooked and misinterpreted as a matter of course.
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| Stevens Jay Carter |
For the first, I called on and received the words and quotes and memories of former Eastern Market painter, in the vanguard of that artistic renaissance, Stevens Jay Carter. Mr. Carter was always open to helping celebrate "the place that gave me a start". It was his image of John Harrod I used when writing of Mr. Harrod's passing. Stevens now maintains two studios, one in the historic O Street Studios in northwest DC, and he has recently inaugurated
The International Peace and Arts Center in Oakland, California.
And for the second essay I did not so much call on her as evoked her spirit...
On Living my Dreams...
This past December at
"The DownTown Holiday Market" Tom Rall (founder of The Flea Market at Eastern Market) came through (he is also one of the founders of this event and a part of the management team) to say hello to the exhibitors and to see how the show was going for folks, just as he has done for years at the market. After the passing of my mother and John Harrod - I am more aware of how precious time is. So, I let him know how much I had appreciated his founding, maintaining and growing the flea market as well as this show. I let him know that these markets had allowed me to live my dreams.
In Febuary of this year I went to Mexico. I went there for two reason. One, to improve my Spanish. And, two, to see and hang out with my friend,
Marta Vindiola.
Marta and I set up beside each other on Saturdays for about eleven years at the Arts and Crafts Festival at Eastern Market. She was born in a very small town in the mountains of Mexico, but spent most of her adolescence and professional life in the states. When she retired she moved back to Mexico.
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| Marta at her stand at the market |
When I was seventeen, for my high school graduation my mother sent me on the school trip. We went to Madrid and Toledo in Spain, Paris, France and London, England. I remember at seventeen being amazed by our guide's knowledge of the arts and cultures and her ability to change languages from country to country. I loved the trip, and in the back of my mind and heart began a desire to learn how to speak, read and write Spanish and French. Years later...it was funny to me, but in the language classes that I started taking in 2001, folk would complain about not having native speakers or folk who spoke the language with fluency around to speak with. I did not have that problem. I could cite the newsletter I wrote celebrating the contributions of
Vernon Burnett (Assistant Market Manger at The Flea Market at Eastern Market) to the exhibitor community. I encourage everyone to reread this news letter and think. He said that Eastern Market was a place to learn...languages. For years on Saturdays I would practice my French with Marta and
Namory Keita ( from Mali) and, on Sundays, with
Shelia Crider (S.E. Washington, DC) and later
Messrak Assef (from Ethiopia). Now on Saturdays or Sundays I can practice my Spanish with the
Sinchico family(from Ecuador).
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| Messrak Assef |
Marta now lives in Mexico City. On my visit there, she took me to "El Mercado de Sabado," an artist market. We walked through the lower garden of painters and went up and through the craft section. We ate lunch in the garden of a church. We visited the church that has "La Virgen de Gaudalupe","La Casa Azule" -Frida Kahlo's house, and "El Palacio Nacional" to see one of the major works by Diego Rivera. We spoke mostly in Spanish, with a little English and French thrown in like spices.
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| Sinchico family |
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And then there are two...
In this project there are two people who stand out above all the rest. I shall call them my right and left hands. In the language of my neighborhood "they had my back". My right hand. We heard tell of each other in high school. We are and were outspoken at an early age. We met in college. Now at Western Carolina University, she is Director of English Education, professor and writer. Next spring she will publish her second book of poems. Catherine Carter is above all my best friend. If what I have written is worth reading, it is because of her insightful, thoughtful and careful editing. I have argued with her over "my voice". In the last two years, she has balanced her career, marriage and social life with the constant demands of her best friend. I always insisting that this post was important and...
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| Catherine Carter |
And my left hand well, I will let his words conclude this project....
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Turtle's Webb Raising Hell at Eastern Market is being read by...
This information does not reflect that these essays are read mostly on my on face book. This information is also based on only six months or so of data collected by the web hosting program where my website on the market is hosted. So enjoy, but take it with...
The top ten countries reading these essay are:
1.United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Taiwan
4. Russia
5. Germany
6. Turkey
7. India
8. Canada
9. Netherlands
10.Japan
The top ten posts read are:
10. The Art of Andrea Haffner
9. Le Second Souffle de Steven L. Miller
8. Erika Rubel-Mixed Media
7. A Warrior Come to Eastern Market: The Art of Tsolmon Damba
6. A British Invasion: Sola Ope at Eastern Market
5. Brocanteuses y Le Marche aux Puces
4. Sheila Crider and The Talented Tenth
3. Down Yonder: Knopp's Farm and Greenhouses
2. A Red Persimmon at Eastern Market: Katrina Ulrich and Fair Trade
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| Marta, Marcella and I 'al mercado de sabado'-Mexico City |
So, in February of this year I went to Mexico to hang out with a friend and improve my language skills. In Marta's space are artifacts of her life: paintings, craft items, furniture and, you know, stuff. Like paintings by
Andrew Shelton and
Thomas Bucci, or the tables by
Brian Rayner or drums made by
John Millen or a handbag by
Jenae Michelle-Range of Emotion or jewelry by...
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| Marta's space |
But, see, the next day we went to "El Mercado de Sabado" with her sister in law and her sister in law had this cute little hand bag that Marta had given to her a couple of years back, made by...Marta and I tried to remember who it was and where they were from but the name and place escaped us. What was funny to me is that I knew who I could ask. He was a thousand miles away, and the person who made the handbag while having been an artist at Eastern Market for years was even further away from Mexico City than he. The history of the exhibitor community is held in two places in the hearts and minds of the people who lived it and in the the hands of the management team that founded and maintained it. While I loved what people said about
Vernon Burnett when asked, what I love more is what he said about his experiences at the markets. In rereading what he said about what he likes about the market: I find that his words explains so clearly why the # 1 post that people are reading all over the world about exhibitor community is...
1. International Suite I: Eastern Market
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| Vernon Burnett |
p.s. so when I emailed Vernon with info needed for a post, he wrote me back that the person I was trying to remember was...
Peter Melocco, and his wife and children, were at the market for years. He was a silversmith and his wife made small handbags. They are from Hungary.
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On left....
In this project Catherine Carter has been my right hand. And on my left... I needed help to try and begin the process of doing historical and narrative justice to what is the exhibitor community at Eastern Market. I needed information, dates, memories, stories, facts, names (spelling better than mine) details. I needed to be trusted with a life's work. I had no money to offer for all that I was given. I could only do my best. Thus, I will conclude this project with his words on my writing.
Tom Rall wrote
and reposted on his face book page:
Decoupage: BoxBoy Paul Alan Bierman at Eastern Market
Tom wrote: "This blog just gets better and better, a work of love. The concluding paragraph was so apt!"
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb
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