Fair Necessities

July 08, 2019

Hester Street Fair was conceptualized in the ancient catacombs of the Greater New York area approximately 10 years ago. It's currently helmed by Janine Ciccone, the event producer who pulled off an incredible feat in celebration of Pride with help from only one other person. Friend, and drag performer, Alotta McGriddles, provided Ciccone access to The Queer World.

Together, their two brains organized an explosive World Pride Fair on June 29. It was a major success. With 60 local vendors, a DJ, and even more drag, the outdoor market offered space for an international LGBTQ community to support their peers. Carefully curated, the fair runs from April to October every single year at Seward Park.

Each Saturday presents a different theme; previous ones have included all-women identified vendors, or local artisans from the neighborhood. The outdoor market is changing the face of New York, providing a unique, one-stop shop experience; especially considering America’s lack of night markets, et al. Supporting small businesses in an era of corporatization is an act of courage, and subversion.

See you at the next fair...

Text by Mar Chan
Photos by Dylan Thomas

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Between truth and construction, the series explores what it means to be seen in a space where everyone performs, records, and displays themselves, and where identities quietly unfold. I look for the moments when the crowd no longer absorbs but reveals: solitude within the chaos, intimacy rising through the lights, the fragile beauty of those suspended instants the night sometimes lets slip. Light works through shadow, deliberately dark yet never opaque, to unveil what usually remains hidden. This chiaroscuro builds a constant sense of mystery, the feeling of watching without being seen, a gaze observing bodies, fractures, gestures, without ever intervening, whether in a single frame or in movement.

Created during the Dance Hole by Petit with Kim Petras, u.r.trax and JENYS - Billel Ouazene’s Revelation of the Obscure explores what it means to be seen in a space where everyone performs. Moments of solitude in chaos, light revealing what the night usually hides.