BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY August 4, 2019 12
Due to high demand the Bronx Night Market goes weekly
BY ALEX MITCHELL
The Bronx Night Market
will be taking over Fordham
Plaza every Saturday for the
next few months.
The foodie’s paradise
that’s been putting Brooklyn’s
Smorgasburg to shame,
and has been an overwhelmingly
successful open air,
uptown food market, has announced
it’s moving from a
bi-weekly to a weekly format
because of high demand for
some of the Bronx and city’s
best culinary pop ups.
In addition to the weekly
expansion, the market will
also be adding ten new vendors
to its already massive
lineup, including one vendor
serving up some tasty
treats from across the pond.
Carter’s Chips will be bringing
some of Brittan’s best
fi sh and chips to the plaza…
with an interesting twist.
They serve fi sh-shaped
sandwiches with savory
fi llings like chicken pot pie
and English-style burger
fl avors.
In addition to offering
hand cut fries, Carter’s will
also be introducing its foot
long fry which when measured,
lives up to its name.
Many market favs will be
returning for the late summer
expansion as well.
The Bronx Burger Co.
has quickly become a staple
at the Bronx Night Market,
showcasing its maple bacon
burger that’s heavenly taste
could turn atheists into believers
upon one bite.
Offered by another Bronx
food establishment, Fried
Kitchen, are fully-loaded potato
waffl es fries with fried
chicken, a perfect fi t for
breakfast, lunch or dinner,
in addition to many other of
the borough’s greats.
One out-of-towner, San
Antonio’s Wood Fired Pizza
continues to bring a mobile
brick oven to Fordham, supplying
the best of pizza time
for all marketgoers. Bronx
Native is also dishing out
some of the Bronx’s most authentic
apparel as well.
All this great action
while the market team continues
its extensive partnership
with SummerStage as
the offi cial food vendors for
the citywide concert series.
Recently, a Summer-
Stage regular, Taste Buds
Required, showed Queens
and Brooklyn the true
punch Haitian cuisine can
deliver.
Catch a show and grab
a bite at Crotona Park until
Dj Sabronxura spinning at the market. Round 7
Saturday, August 3, and
then head to East River
Park, Manhattan from
Thursday, August 8 to Sunday,
August 11, Marcus
Garvey Park, Manhattan
on Wednesday, August 14
until Sunday, August 18,
and then fi nally the Charlie
Parker Jazz Festival at
Tompkins Square Park and
Marcus Garvey Park from
Friday, August 23 to Sunday,
August 25.
The Bronx Night Market
opens up at 4 p.m. and runs
until 10 p.m. each Saturday.
Don’t miss it.
A woman enjoys tacos at the
Bronx Night Market. Round 7
NYC Cultural Affairs releases Morrisania Cultural Study
BY ALEX MITCHELL
The NYC Department of
Cultural Affairs recently
released a report that detailed
a ‘cultural snapshot’
of Morrisania, highlighting
the south Bronx nabe’s
artistic and historical
value.
This cultural inventory
study was conducted partly
by speaking with 529 merchants
and residents of
Morrisania spanning as
far north as Crotona Park
South and south to East
161st Street , stretching
east to west between Prospect
to Park avenues.
It begins by recapping
a brief historical synopsis
of the area, detailing Morrisania’s
original occupants,
the Lenape people,
followed by the early Dutch
settlers along with Jonas
Bronck’s settlement in the
1600s, and then recounting
the impact the large infl ux
of Irish and German immigrants
had working as
shopkeepers and brewers
in the mid 1800s.
Morrisania’s demographics
have since shifted
greatly as CDA currently
referred to the neighborhood’s
population of 88,005
as one of the most diverse
in all of New York City.
During the height of
Jazz music movement in
the 1940s and 50s, Morrisania
became both an
icon and hub for the African
American infl uenced
swing-style music.
Clubs like the Blue Morroco
then paved way for the
spread of musical genres
like Latin jazz, mambo and
salsa, which captivated
both the Bronx and city in
following decades.
It was after Latin
peaked that rap and DJ legends
Grandmaster Flash
and Grand Wizzard Theodore
left their own marks
on their Morrisania neighborhood
during the 1980s
with some help from the
fi rst all female ‘MC Group,’
Mercedes Young Ladies as
well.
One underground club
venue, The Black Door
where Flash and fellow
Bronx hip hop pioneer DJ
Kool Herc would spin and
mix was listed as one of
Morrisania’s Cultural assets
in addition to the P.S.
63 Park.
Also listed as cultural
assets for the area were the
Clay Avenue Historic District,
which encompasses
32 residential buildings between
East 165th and East
166th Streets, in addition
to the McKinley Square
Theatre, which served as
a Yiddish theatre and later
a Latin club prior to its demolition
in 2002.
The study also highlighted
The Morrisania
Band Project as one of the
neighborhood’s richest
cultural assets.
Currently, the group
performs around the borough
and city, putting a
modern touch on some
south Bronx classics.
Renaissance Youth
Center was acknowledged
for its musical mission to
“to empower at-risk inner
city youth to fully maximize
their potential as
productive and responsible
members of society,
by offering dynamic,
teambuilding education,
music, and sports programs,
while instilling
the importance of building
strong communities,”
while the Bronx Music
Heritage Center was
credited for its work in
“rich musical history and
its residents, the BMHC
works to restore pride
of place, reverse stereotypes,
empower citizens,
and improve neighborhoods
through arts access.”
While other visual art
institutions and community
organizations were
recognized in the study
as well, there’s no doubt
that Morrisania’s cultural
snapshot is most
defi nitely a musical one.
An African musical performance at the Bronx Music Herritage Center. Cultural Affairs/ E.B. Gallardo
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com