Happy Friday! An Event That Makes Everyone’s Favorite Day Even Sweeter

Written by Kelsey Vickers. Graphic by Kelsey Vickers.

Lively music blares from the DJ booth on 39th Street. Either side of the road is lined with tents of varying colors. The juxtaposition resembles a patchwork quilt: pastels, earth tones and black joined in an unconventional whole. Vendors dance in their tents and welcome my friend and me over, greeting us with “Happy Friday!”  Every first Friday of the month, from 5—9 p.m., the streets of the Starland District in Savannah, Ga. bustle with artists and buyers. Savannah’s abandoned neighborhood has become one of its most promising, united by art.

This beloved, district-wide event began in a single house. In 2000, the previously abandoned space served as an art gallery for the first First Friday, curated by SCAD alumnus Marcus Kenney (M.F.A., photography, 1998). Business partners Greg Jacobs and John Dederick hired him. About half of the properties in Starland were unoccupied at that point. Jacobs and Dederick aimed to rejuvenate the neighborhoods and unite their inhabitants. They realized art is the driving connector. “It is so many things that can bring people together regardless of class, status, race or orientation,” says Kenney.

Over the years, other local artists and non-profits joined in the effort of First Friday. Desotorow Gallery was the first to want in on the action. They later passed the torch to Arts Southeast, the current curator of the event.

Now, every First Friday, 39th Street, Bull Street and DeSoto Avenue are chock-full with vendors. They populate the sidewalks with foldout tables adorned with jewelry, art prints, ceramics, crystals, clothes, or in Darriea Clark’s case, ‘zines. “It’s been a great way to meet new people and talk about things that are important to me, specifically ‘zines and print publishing,” says the founder and editor of UnBlushing Media. Her fold-out table is covered in pocket-sized printed magazines. They are spread out across the center like a deck of cards, and two rotating display stands anchor either end, filled with even smaller ‘zines. They are collections of Clark’s personal essays, printed by herself. She’s expanding UnBlushing Media to include contributor pieces, and she encourages me to submit a pitch. She hopes to connect Savannah locals through print publishing. “First Friday has helped me find people who connect with my personal and artistic missions,” she says. 

All one has to do to become a vendor is contact one of the businesses in Starland to host them. One vendor, Pixie Pearl, fortune teller, tarot card reader and pet psychic, is here for the first time. “I feel like I got invited to the big show.” She sits at a table draped in a green velvet tablecloth in front of her host, Nomad Society. The scent of burning incense and Pixie’s gentle voice soothes me. I separate the tarot cards into three stacks. The top card of each tells my fortune: the house, coffin and snake. Pixie declares that I will be experiencing a move soon. It surprises me, knowing my parents are planning on putting my childhood home in Maryland on the market. She suggests I write a eulogy for it. Though I am skeptical of the reading, I conversed with someone in the neighborhood I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

First Friday has spread beyond the street vendors of Starland, independent businesses participate as well. Pixie Pearl’s host, Nomad Society, offers flash tattoo sales for the event. UnBlushing Media is sponsored by Arts Southeast, hosting open gallery showings. Local hot spot Foxy Loxy plays live music and offers beverages at a discounted price, and the plant shop Stump offers new workshops every month. One For the Road, an assortment of mini shops in one building, keeps its doors open until 8 p.m. in honor of this monthly tradition. 

Local illustrator and SCAD alumna Nono Flores’ first brick-and-mortar location is within One For the Road. Her artwork stretches across the pale blue walls of her cozy space with copies of her specialty three-minute portraits and a five-foot, woodcut, painted daisy. “Weekends in general are good for getting tourists in here, but First Friday brings the locals out,” she tells my friend and me while drawing our portrait. She’s been attending the event since 2016, her freshman year at SCAD. It was a full-circle moment for her when she became a seller last October. Her livelihood comes from One For the Road, and there is a significant boom in portrait requests on First Fridays. “My friends don’t usually go to the neighborhood events, but first Friday brings even them out,” she says.

For 25 years now, the neighborhood has come together in the name of art and creativity. It can create unexpected relationships organically, even if fleeting. A writer meets a publisher, a skeptic meets a psychic and a college student meets an alumni. I came only to support local artists, and I left more connected to my community than I thought possible for an introverted, part-time member.