Orange Street between Chapel and Court streets was closed to traffic Saturday afternoon, making way for a block party featuring two stages for concurrent DJsets, clothing vendors, food trucks, and an open jam.
The Pitkin Plaza and Cita Park (at the corner of Chapel and Orange) party was one of several free events hosted throughout the year by New Haven music and culture organization Seeing Sounds. Attendees were encouraged to donate to support the artist-run effort, but there was no ticket fee. Somehow, Seeing Sounds has managed to pull it all together without city or state funding, and been able to distribute serious cash directly to artists — over $100,000 in the four years since the organization came into existence.
“This is the best day of my life,” said New Haven DJ and producer Chef Gray, a.k.a. Chef the Chef, after his open mic cypher with DJ Mark Little and a rotating cast of rappers and, at some point, a bassist. The artists laid down beats and invited passersby to come up and freestyle into the mic. Gray said he spent the day introducing his family, which are from Bridgeport, to the culture of New Haven.
“They don’t know that New Haven kinda fucks with everyone,” Gray said.
The block was alive with activity. One attendee, Azariah, danced fluidly from the crowd by the DJ stage onto a hopscotch grid Karissa Frederick had drawn just minutes before with sidewalk chalk. Beyond the hopscotch, partygoers with long jump ropes were setting up double dutch.
Musician Trey Moore, who runs Seeing Sounds, seemed to have invented teleportation, popping around from section to section in the blink of an eye.
Kids were welcome at all areas of the block party, even the Cita Park beer garden, provided they had a guardian with them. The turf on the ground at Cita Park gave the space a backyard feel, and the all-ages setting gave parents a space to safely relax. The babies danced and played as hard as the adults. Back at the cypher, rapper Sunshine even watched his tongue as he noticed children walking by the stage.
The food trucks lined up among the vendors kept block partiers well-fed. Walking down the block, you could get a Colombian-style arepa from The Portabello, cashew pumpkin mac & cheese from Khemi’s Vegan Cuisine, or shortrib poutine from Twentynine Markle CT.
Frank E. Brady hopped up to the mic at Gray and Little’s cypher, freestyling about the scene he saw around him. He noticed me with my camera and eased into the rhyme: “1, 2, 3, 4/ Taking pictures ‘til we can’t pose no more.”
Ceramics artist Danessa Pedroso called Gray to the side of the stage, telling him things to shout out on the mic. “Strange Ways has tattoos and vendors behind you; please check it out,” Gray said to the crowd. He waited a beat, following up with “I don’t see nobody moving, go over there. Damn.”
Inside Strange Ways, tattoo artist Sydney Bell offered flash tattoos. The shop was open as well, featuring oddities, art, clothing, and cute home goods.
Out on Orange Street, secondhand Y2K clothing boutique Soulful Threadsshowed off shoes and crop tops. Jewelz by Jadore installed tooth gems on the spot. Clothing line Snucks featured custom-printed shirts and shorts with slogans like “Kill Your Ego” and the Martin Luther King, Jr. quote, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
Jaeda Richardson of clothing brand Godlike showed off a fresh haircut while giving out free handmade stickers on mailing labels. “The universe said, ‘Take that shit off,’” Richardson said, ready for a new start.
“Make some noise for the producers. CT got mad producers,” Sunshine said into the mic. It was the kind of event that was less about impressing each other (though, that too) and more about pride for what the local scene is able to create together.
