The Hell Raiser's Holiday Shopping Guide: 2014

What... did you think I was gone...


It's time to invest in ...ART, Fine Crafts, in your community, in local producers, in micro enterprises

It's HOLIDAY SHOPPING TIME....
BUY LOCAL!


What it was, What it is, What it always shall be...The Eastern Market Exhibitor community.

When: Saturday and Sunday

The Arts and Crafts Festival on Saturday at Eastern Market 

And

The Historic Flea Market on Eastern Market on Sunday 

http://easternmarket.net/


then...

with this as the foundation the folk at

The Flea Market at Eastern Market

Diverse Market Management


http://diversemarkets.net/

has grown

and

Brings you several wonderful local HOLIDAY Shopping opportunities

it goes without saying of course the nations top rated flea market

and

One of the Best HOLIDAY MARKETS in the country:

according to Travel and Leisure magazine and...the thousands of customers that shop there every year!


http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-best-christmas-markets/3

The DOWNTOWN HOLIDAY MARKET 

http://downtownholidaymarket.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DowntownHolidayMarket

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and for the second year

yes local, hand made, Art, Fine Craft and - is coming for the Mall...

CHRISTMAS MARKET & WINTERFEST 2014

http://tysonscornercenter.com/Events/Details/221269?startDate=12/5/2014

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The Hell Raiser says...

It's time...to shop local for the HOLIDAYS and all year long. 

Remember to get contact information from the exhibitors you buy from,

so when you need another or want to suggest a great gift idea to a friend you know 

whom to send them too!

_____________________________________________________________________

or...more Hell Raiserish....

Witnessing

Sonda T. Allen

Turtle's Webb 

John Harrods Legacy and Eastern Market

African proverb
"Until the lion  writes its own history the story of the past
will only be told by the hunter"

John Harrod: Founder

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Think of the above and below words as metaphors.
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Langston Hughes

Note on Commercial Theatre

You’ve taken my blues and gone—


You sing ’em on Broadway

And you sing ’em in Hollywood Bowl,

And you mixed ’em up with symphonies

And you fixed ’em

So they don’t sound like me.

Yep, you done taken my blues and gone.
------------------------------------
But someday somebody’ll

Stand up and talk about me,

And write about me—

Black and beautiful—

And sing about me,

And put on plays about me!

I reckon it’ll be

Me myself!

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Recently, I told a story of one of my oldest and most cherished memories of my mother. She was taught that folk who looked like her had no history.
 In that remembrance, I  saw my mother watching Congresswomen Barbara Jordon  on T.V. during  the impeachment hearing, for then President of the United States: Richard Nixon. Congresswomen Jordon spoke about faith, in this instance of The Constitution of the United States.  She stated, "My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total.  I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."  And that is how I feel about "History".  I believe that the recording of history has a value far beyond what one can perceive.   I believe in the importance of the history of the common, everyday, ordinary folk.  After all I am one of them.
_________________________________________________________________________________
                                             

                                                        {The Danger of a Single Story}

http://turtleswebbmyviewfromhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/danger-of-single-story-turtles-webb.html

Angie Brunson , (" Blue Iris Flowers" Eastern Market)

kept the Plaque Honoring John Harrod  (Founder of Market 5 Gallery and The Flea Market at Eastern Market) in her stand inside the market for years.  This plaque was payed for by the Exhibitor Community at Eastern Market as well as others.

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The Mayor's public schedule

Friday, October 3, 2014

10:00 am

John W. Harrod Memorial Plaque Dedication at Eastern Market Eastern Market 225 7th Street SE (Media: Open) Mayor to Offer Remarks

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October 3, 2014...almost ten years after the passing of Mr. Harrod,  The plaque honoring his many contributions to...The World, The Nation, The District of Colombia, The Capital Hill community and his beloved north hall...: was unveiled and dedicated by The Mayor of the District of Columbia Vincent Gray and....

Mayor District of Columbia: Vincent Gray 

John Harrods son

Tom Rall (co- founder The Flea Market at Eastern Market )

Camille Mosley-Pasley 

 The Politicos

{The Danger of a single Story}

http://turtleswebbmyviewfromhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/danger-of-single-story-turtles-webb.html

_________________________________________________________________________

__________________________

Former exhibitor and present assistant  ( The Flea Market at Eastern Market)

Mr. Harrods Family and his grandson 

        Grand Dame of the exhibitor "One of the first exhibitors at Market 5                                                               Gallery in the 1970's"

He was one of the original youth in Market 5 Galleries community programs in 1970s

Long time exhibitors Tom Bucci and Mai Ling with newer exhibitor Erika Rubel

Joe Snyder exhibitor ( one of the main forces behind the creating of the memorial plaque) with other exhibitors and community members

Kim Downes long term exhibitor

The unveiling...with John Harrod's daughter and son...

William Coates... he is not John's son, but John did ... and did and through folk like Mr. Coates who 

was part  of John's youth program in the 1970 - John Harrods legacy is assured.

Witnessing, 

Sonda T. Allen 

Turtle's Webb 

Post Script 

It was only after former Mayor Barry died, that one could take his measure...Mayor Barry in the over 20 years that I have been at the Market is the only Mayor of Washington who use to come to the market and shop...every Sunday he would be gripping grinning and hand shacking...he would buy flowers from Angie (Blue Iris) I hear tell he would even ask for a discount ( he was so wrong and so right).  He would stop into 'the office' and speak to John. Mayor Marion Barry had our backs (the exhibitor community at Eastern Market).  John Harrod and Marion Barry came from the same school.  They witnessed lived manipulated survived the horror the hypocrisy the pain and triumphs of those years before and after the marches sit-ins peace protest ...'the riots:,  They were what Leroi Jones called "Blues People" and to my mind they lived life with a field holler, Yoruba back beat, a Lead Belly hollow colored with a jazz rhapsody. 

Marion Barry dies at 78; 4-term D.C. mayor was the most powerful local politician of his generation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/marion-barry-dies-4-term-dc-mayor-the-most-powerful-local-politician-of-his-generation/2014/11/23/331ad222-c5da-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html

In What manner has your investigations been a contribution to the ...?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1


In a closed room...it had taken years to get to this place.  One is facing your jury...in ways understood and not you have picked these people to judge...your work.  One is defending-years of study. One is defending ones life.  After hours days weeks years of writing...the penultimate question is posed.  " In what manner has your investigations been a contribution to the study of...? 



One must chose a subject, a time period...one must have access to primary materials...one must...dare.

http://www.turtleswebbraisinghellateasternmarket.blogspot.com/2010/10/entertaining-angels-unaware-painter.html


http://turtleswebbraisinghellateasternmarket.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Talented%20Tenth%20and%20Sheila%20Crider

http://turtleswebbraisinghellateasternmarket.blogspot.com/2012/10/tom-rall-archives-flea-market-at.html


What ones knows. What one can prove.  What one takes on Faith.   What one believes to be true.  

In the vernacular..." so back in the day inside Market Five Gallery,  or  The Flea Market at Eastern Market or outside on the plaza in front of the flower stand "Blue Iris- Angie and Isiah's " one saw this man in the French beret painting away.  He would speak, but for conversation it was best to talk to his wife...she would tell you stories.  He would too - if in the right mood.  He was resolved too live and too work on his own terms...He had painted...his work was in the collections of...he was...he  had study at...with...he taught at...

So, later you wondered  "WHY" there was never stories written about...not just this man or that women. but this community.  You had been asked once  years before in that room...in front of  your jury "In what manner had your investigations been a contribution to the disciple of... the study of...to the field of...



So one of the stories that this man told was about having these patrons...
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                                 National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

Bill and Camille Cosby Loan Private Collection to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art Selected Works 

One of the world’s preeminent private collections of African American art never before seen in public will have its first public viewing later this year at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. “Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue” brings together artworks from two world-class collections: the National Museum of African Art and the William H. and Camille O. Cosby Collection. The exhibition, which opens at the museum Nov. 9 and remains on view through early 2016, is a major part of the museum’s 50th anniversary, celebrating its unique history and contributions toward furthering meaningful dialogue between Africa and the African diaspora.#CosbySmithsonian

Simmie Knox
Born 1935, United States
Portrait of Bill and Camille Cosby
1984
The Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr.
Photograph by David Stansbury, permission courtesy of the artist

https://www.facebook.com/si.africanart/photos/a.145184908832449.28119.144872555530351/950151961669069/?type=1&theater

_________________________________________________________________

http://www.simmieknox.com/official.asp
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Continents in Conversation

Bill Cosby’s Art Collection Joins African Art at Smithsonian

By HOLLAND COTTERNOV. 6, 2014









The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/arts/design/bill-cosbys-art-collection-joins-african-art-at-smithsonian.html?_r=1
_______________________________________________________________________

So back in the day at the same time he had painted or was painting...Mr. Knox and his wife were also holding it down and keeping it real at Market 5 Gallery and The Flea Market at Eastern Market.

*

Roberta Knox

*

                                                                Simmie Knox
*Tom Rall archives

_____________________________________________________________________________________

To quote Chinua Achebe...

"There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1720/the-art-of-fiction-no-139-chinua-achebe


ROAR...

Sonda Tamarr Allen

Turtle's Webb

_____________________________________________________________________________

                                                  The Danger of a Single Storyhttp://turtleswebbmyviewfromhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/danger-of-single-story-turtles-webb.html

Shoutin' Down Heaven: Praise Song for Becky Mensah

It was being born...in Africa- Cape Coast, Ghana.  It was losing a mother when only a little girl.  It was leaving home, crossing an ocean a kind of middle passage where on the other side was a world of folk with no knowledge and to many thoughtless questions.
It was Dignity....It was Dignity...that had you answering question when only a child about your home land.  It was saying "NO My people in the land of Kwame Nkrumah do not live in trees like monkeys...."NO" NO" . It was after to many questions like this that school and formal education in that new land was left behind.

It was coming from folk with infinite grace focus beauty and determination that you made a way in this "New World" with ancient eyes.  It was becoming a 'market women' at festivals, on the streets on D.C. and being a founder in the 1970's, one of the pillars of the exhibitor community at Arts and Crafts festival at Eastern Market that you found freedom.  You found a way ... an in doing so you helped make a way for many many others. You did this with joy, honesty and an ability to mix combine blend and create phrases of such arabesque beauty that left no one who heard them used- deluded that you would tolerate being treated poorly by anyone. It was giving birth to you daughter Olivia...it was Olivia ...It is Olivia...who delighted lifted and made you even stronger.

It was that day I saw you standing outside the market door turning purple because of the cold, while the rest of us where inside. And you just smiled. Vous etiez si forte si belle...You were determined , you needed to make money your daughter was sick, you were not going to let anything defeat you. You held it down for all of us that day. More than that you set a bar of what could be done.  What it is possible to endure.


It was the stroke you had and came back from about ten years ago.  It was the friends you made Kim Betty Daniel Eleanor Angie Linda Bernadette Katrina... It was the food you cooked  spicy chicken stew with fou fou. It was your love of dancing.  It was the stories you told.  It was Olivia winning honors and graduating from high school and entering college.  It is your radiant smile that you greeted folk and the world with every day...
that will be missed.


Witnessing,

Sonda Tamarr Allen

Turtle's Webb

Becky Mensah and Linda Brown in 1988 at the reception at Market 5 Gallery in Eastern Market for Tom Rall's wedding.

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs095/1102686630764/archive/1103491336204.html
________________________________________________________________________________

Becky Mensah passed away on July 21, 2014.
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                                                   The Danger of a Single Story
http://turtleswebbmyviewfromhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/danger-of-single-story-turtles-webb.html

_________________________________________________________________________________

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Go Down, Death

James Weldon Johnson, 1871 - 1928

 (A Funeral Sermon)

Weep not, weep not,
She is not dead;
She’s resting in the bosom of Jesus.
Heart-broken husband--weep no more;
Grief-stricken son--weep no more;
Left-lonesome daughter --weep no more;
She only just gone home.

Day before yesterday morning,
God was looking down from his great, high heaven,
Looking down on all his children,
And his eye fell on Sister Caroline,
Tossing on her bed of pain.
And God’s big heart was touched with pity,
With the everlasting pity.

And God sat back on his throne,
And he commanded that tall, bright angel standing at his right hand:
Call me Death!
And that tall, bright angel cried in a voice
That broke like a clap of thunder:
Call Death!--Call Death!
And the echo sounded down the streets of heaven
Till it reached away back to that shadowy place,
Where Death waits with his pale, white horses.

And Death heard the summons,
And he leaped on his fastest horse,
Pale as a sheet in the moonlight.
Up the golden street Death galloped,
And the hooves of his horses struck fire from the gold,
But they didn’t make no sound.
Up Death rode to the Great White Throne,
And waited for God’s command.

And God said: Go down, Death, go down,
Go down to Savannah, Georgia,
Down in Yamacraw,
And find Sister Caroline.
She’s borne the burden and heat of the day,
She’s labored long in my vineyard,
And she’s tired--
She’s weary--
Go down, Death, and bring her to me.

And Death didn’t say a word,
But he loosed the reins on his pale, white horse,
And he clamped the spurs to his bloodless sides,
And out and down he rode,
Through heaven’s pearly gates,
Past suns and moons and stars;
on Death rode,
Leaving the lightning’s flash behind;
Straight down he came.

While we were watching round her bed,
She turned her eyes and looked away,
She saw what we couldn’t see;
She saw Old Death.  She saw Old Death
Coming like a falling star.
But Death didn’t frighten Sister Caroline;
He looked to her like a welcome friend.
And she whispered to us: I’m going home,
And she smiled and closed her eyes.

And Death took her up like a baby,
And she lay in his icy arms,
But she didn’t feel no chill.
And death began to ride again--
Up beyond the evening star,
Into the glittering light of glory,
On to the Great White Throne.
And there he laid Sister Caroline
On the loving breast of Jesus.

And Jesus took his own hand and wiped away her tears,
And he smoothed the furrows from her face,
And the angels sang a little song,
And Jesus rocked her in his arms,
And kept a-saying: Take your rest,
Take your rest.

Weep not--weep not,
She is not dead;
She’s resting in the bosom of Jesus.

Mary Belcher "The Artist" Rock Creek Park

There are many reason "WHY" I took years out of my life to write about the folk that exhibit at Eastern Market.  The infinite fatigue of the visible being made to seem invisible.  The inability of folk to put together the picture...because it is too complexly beautifully diverse ....

Last weekend Mary Belcher came by my booth  - she wanted me to see something.  Now I want you to see something.   What makes a community...who maps the details of its diversity...

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                                                  The Danger of a Single Story

http://turtleswebbmyviewfromhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/danger-of-single-story-turtles-webb.html
_________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/lifestyle/magazine/rock-creek/

MARY BELCHER

The Artist

She painted the illustrated park map and other D.C. scenes

Nearly every weekend, Mary Belcher sets up a booth at Eastern Market and sells prints of her paintings of Washington scenes. When visitors spot a tall illustrated map of Rock Creek Park, they linger, looking for familiar spots.

“I can tell when people are from the suburbs,” she says. “They say, ‘Oh, look. It’s a map of Rock Creek Parkway.’ ”

Belcher, 62, moved to Washington in 1970 from Ohio. In exploring the park, she soon found what she calls her “power spots”: settings with striking natural beauty (Pulpit Rock) or historical resonance (the former site of Blagden Mill). She also got involved with efforts to protect a historic cemetery that lay partially on parkland, sparring occasionally, she says, with the National Park Service. Today, she can see the park’s treetops from her home studio in Adams Morgan.

The map project began in 2001. It was born out of her frustration with traditional maps: “boring, flat things that didn’t really give you a sense of the experience.”

Courtesy of Mary Belcher

To guide her painting, Belcher consulted an 1866 map by Maj. Nathaniel Michler of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Congress had directed him to scout locations for a public park and a new executive mansion, far from the stench and heat of the city’s core. Michler’s renderings of the Rock Creek valley — a “wild and romantic tract of country,” he wrote — were the beginning of a nearly 25-year effort to create the park. Belcher sells the map for $395 framed, $300 unframed.

Her artistic project is ongoing. There are thousands of other sites in the park she’d like to paint. But capturing those scenes will be a challenge.

“There’s four borders on the picture,” Belcher says. “The park is a 360-degree experience.”

— Libby Sander

On the map: Prehistoric stone quarries, which Belcher notes on her map, were discovered along the steep banks of Piney Branch in the 19th century.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/lifestyle/magazine/rock-creek/

What is.. the exhibitor community at.Eastern Market, but a collection of small businesses

Support  real "LOCAL" micro' small tiny...-  every weekend not just one week out of the year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/small-business-week_n_3461967.html

http://turtleswebbraisinghellateasternmarket.blogspot.com/2010/06/eastern-market-turtles-webb-newsletter_30.html

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs095/1102686630764/archive/1103491336204.html

5 Ways To Support Local Businesses

 During Small Business Week: Forbes

Forbes  |  By Ty KiiselPosted: 06/18/2013 6:12 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/19/2013 1:08 pm EDT

"Since 1963 when President John F. Kenney first officially introduced Small BusinessWeek, every president has signed the proclamation to recognize the entrepreneurial spirit that drives most small business owners. From Main Street to Wall Street, small business is an important part of the U.S. Economy. The 30 million or so small businesses in the United States create roughly two out of every three jobs. What’s more, most communities depend on the strength of their local businesses to grow and thrive.

On Monday, President Obama declared June 16-22, 2013 as National Small Business Week and stated, “America’s small businesses reflect the best of who we are as a Nation—daring and innovative, courageous and hopeful, always working hard and looking ahead for the next great idea.”

I couldn’t agree more with the President when he proclaims, “In America, we believe that anyone willing to work hard and take risks can get their good idea off the ground and into the marketplace. It is a notion that has made our Nation bold and bright, and the best place to do business for generations—from small-town storefronts to pioneering startups that keep our country on the cutting edge. This week, we celebrate America’s entrepreneurial spirit, and we recommit to helping our small businesses get ahead.”

I grew up in a small business family and worked in the family business. I’ve spent my entire career working in small businesses as an employee as well as a business owner. When most people think of “small business,” they think of the businesses you’d typically find along Main Street. Most of my career has been in Main Street type businesses. And, Lendio, where I work now, is a small business.

When I’m on the road I love traveling through the small towns that dot the old highways. It doesn’t matter if it’s the small towns that line the Oregon Coast or little towns like Marysvale, Circleville, or Orderville, Utah, I can’t help but smile as I see local shopkeepers revitalizing towns simply by doing business. Nevertheless, being a Main Street business owner is not for the faint of heart. When I see Main Streets scrubbed and polished, I know it’s the grit and determination of the local small business community that’s making it happen—and I stop to participate a little in their local economy.

More from Forbes
-- Top Brands for Innovation and Research
-- Twenty Female Entrepreneurs To Follow On Twitter
-- Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Business 2013

The importance of doing this was reinforced last summer as some friends and I opted to ride the Loneliest Road in America across Nevada. We stopped for lunch at the Toiyabe Café in Austin. In it’s heyday, silver mining was this part of Nevada’s claim to fame. In fact, some of these little towns once boasted some pretty impressive population numbers for the time.

Over hamburgers and milkshakes I asked the owner what kept her place in business—it was obvious there was no industry to support her town. She said, “It’s Highway 50 and folks like you that keep us alive these days.”

The Nevada Department of Tourism has created a passport that encourages travelers to get off the interstate and experience something a little different. In each town you can stop and get a stamp on your passport and collect a souvenir by sending in the completed book at the end of your trip. The $5 or $6 here and there along the route was actually keeping many of these businesses alive.

I want to take the trip again, if for no other reason than to support the small business owners along the route. With that in mind, here are a couple of things you can do to celebrate small business week and help the local businesses in your community:

1. Enjoy dinner in a locally owned and operated restaurant: My favorite place to eat is a local Mexican restaurant my wife and I go to every week. The food is great, the service is good, and they recognize that I’m a regular. Local businesses depend on local patrons to keep them in business. They don’t have the media budgets the big chains do and depend on word of mouth to bring traffic in the door. This week, expand your horizons and visit a local restaurant you’ve never been to before.

2. Buy your groceries from a local grocer or the farmer’s market: The few dollars you might spend buying groceries this week from a local business will put the money back into the community and you might be surprised at how good the produce from the farmer’s market will taste.

3. Tell a friend about a favorite local business: With social media it’s easier than ever to tell your friends about your favorite local restaurant, bookstore, or other business. Visit their Facebook page and “Like” their page or even comment about the things you like about them. This week, you might even share the Facebook page of one of your favorite local businesses. Dime City Cycles may not be in Utah where I live, but they’re a Main Street business I follow. If you’re into motorcycles, you might want to check out their Facebook page.

4. Share with your friends and family the important role small businesses play within the national economy: Teaching your children about small business or sharing your thoughts about the American dream with your friends might sound corny, but who knows, you might be encouraging a future entrepreneur and put a spark into the next generation of small business owners.

5. It starts with appreciating small business: The small businesses in your area are what helps keep your community alive and thriving. But it doesn’t stop there. Collectively, small businesses have been the single biggest job creators in the U.S. since the 70s. I think that’s worth appreciating.

I’ve always been impressed with the resilience of Main Street business owners regardless of where their business might be located. By patronizing and sharing your favorite places with your friends, they might be able to celebrate small business week too.

This week I’m going to make sure I do as much business as I can with local businesses—will you?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/small-business-week_n_3461967.html