Every city of a certain size has one or more depressed neighborhoods. Lexington is no exception, and for the downtown area of the city that particular neighborhood is North Limestone (fashionably referred to as NoLi). Since Lexington's earliest days, Limestone Street has been a major north-south artery. Through the mid-20th century, the area surrounding the thoroughfare saw consistent commercial and residential growth, but over the last half-century outward sprawl and a decentralized economy have taken a toll on what was once a close, vibrant neighborhood.
Today, amongst the shotgun houses, vacant lots, and light industrial architecture, a budding civic-minded cultural redevelopment movement has taken root. Home now to organizations such as the
Lexington Art League as well as popular entertainment destinations and eateries, NoLi is in the midst of transforming into a chic and pedestrian-centric community once more.
To help raise awareness and foster involvement, the
NoLi Community Development Corporation hosts a Night Market on the first Friday of each (warm) month. Occupying the 700-block of Bryan Avenue (the small spur between Limestone and West Loudon Ave), the Night Market features live music, local art, adult beverages, delicious eats, and more earth-friendly causes than you can shake a stick at.
The first Friday in May found Wonderful Wife and I strolling the pleasingly crowded block, eying all of the finely crafted goods and enjoying the thumping bass lines of some spectacularly vintage funk spinning on the event's turntable (as a warm up for the night's live entertainment provided by
Soul Funkin Dangerous). The crowd was an eclectic mix of young and old, with skinny-jeaned hipsters mingling amicably with aging hippies and a smattering of Gen-X'ers (including yours truly).
Although the
West Sixth Brewing tent was in close competition with
Thai and Mighty for the gravitational center of the market, a piece of unique interactive art propped just west of the stage was our focal point. Envisioned by the students of the University of Kentucky
College of Design, the sculpture was a gigantic abstract representation of a hackle - a tool that was very common to the hemp-making industry that once was prominent in this region of Kentucky. Young children and their parents (and some not-so-young children) enthusiastically applied their creative abilities to transform the apparatus into a "community" work of art.
The NoLi Night Market, which is free and operates between 7:00pm and 10:00pm, offers a chance to be part of a grassroots revitalization movement while enjoying great food, tasty beer, and enthusiastic attitudes.
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