Sankofa Market Kick-Off
On Saturday May 5th members of ACT’s Sowing Place collaborative convened with Southside and West End neighbors, along with vendors like Lela’s Delights and the Food4Good food truck to offer the first ever Sankofa at Southlight marketplace. The monthly market, one of the primary initiatives of ACT and its partners at the Healthy Communities Office, the Southside Cultural Center of RI, the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation, and the African Alliance of RI that will be supported through a two-year Kresge-funded FreshLo grant, will take place every first Saturday this summer and into the fall. Each month, new arts and crafts vendors, as well as food vendors, and other small businesses and enterprises from the Southside and West End neighborhoods and across the City will come together at the Southlight Pavilion between 11am and 3pm for a marketplace, art-making and crafts for people of all ages, as well as games, music and performance.
For our inaugural market we were joined by the legendary Kim Trusty, of the Kim Trusty Band, who performed a sun-soaked set of familiar peace and protest songs that were so jamming, our self-described “market mascot” Ramona Bass Kolobe was on her feet the whole time. Trusty was a fitting artist to bring for the first Sankofa Market at Southlight performance because she has been supportive of the Cultural Center since its earliest days.
Next month we will be joined by more artists and vendors as we ramp up into the summer growing season. We hope you will join us!
