Block Parties, Jazz Nights and More at the Rock Lot this Summer

Thanks to the Wilmington Renaissance Corporation's Creative District initiative the revitalization is moving westward of Market Street and the LOMA district. Neighborhoods are truly blossoming.

The Creative District encompasses the area bounded by Fourth, Ninth, Market and Washington Streets. Within this district, at 305 W. 8th Street there is a gem of a place called the Rock Lot. This beautiful artistic cove is designed to bring the local community together. Join us for a variety of complimentary events at the Rock Lot this summer:

• Wednesday  5/30, 6/6, and 6/13- Jazz Nights, 6-7 pm. Artists are Alfie Moss & The Dexter Koonce Project, Sharon Sable Quartet, and Terra Soul.

Leading up to the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, the Creative District Wilmington is teaming up with Market Street Music to bring well-known jazz musicians to the green space in the heart of the district.

• Saturday 6/9- Lending Library Kick-Off, 1-3 pm. 

A community lending library is coming to The Rock Lot and in order to celebrate its opening, we’ve invited Bryce Bullock, nine-year-old comic book creator and author, to read his latest work!

• Saturdays 6/16, 6/23, 6/30, 7/7, and 7/14- Reading Series, 1-2 pm

While kids are home on summer break, Creative District Wilmington partners up with the Wilmington Public Library and members of the community to host a series of reading events at the Rock Lot.

• Wednesday, June 27th Spoken word night  “Outspoken” 6-7 pm 

Host Christian Wills, the creative mind behind Sweet Jams!, the spoken word nights at UDairy Creamery’s Market Street location, is bringing OutSpoken! to the Rock Lot! The spoken word nights are open-mic events and the public is invited to participate!

• Wednesday, July 11, 18, 25 Capoiera

Join Chris Devany of ASCAB Capoeira Delaware at the Rock Lot to experience an interactive session of this creative 16th-century art form.

• Saturday, July 28th – Community Dinner

Enjoy an evening of food, fun and fellowship. All are welcome. (Grown and prepared by William Penn High School culinary students.)

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Remembering the Past, Celebrating the Future, FREE Events at the Delaware Historical Society

"History is who we are and why we are the way we are. History is not just the past....history is the present." 

Thanks to the Delaware Historical Society and their complimentary programming below, we can continue to educate ourselves on the present by learning from the past. 

Saturday, May 19th: Free WWI Writers Workshop

Image Credit: Timetoast.com

Saturday May 5th and Saturday May 19th are the fifth and sixth World War I-themed writing workshops. Each workshop is open to the public.  By bringing participants of different ages and backgrounds together to discover this history, the dialogue should be engaging and informative.  Each workshop session will use a specific guiding question as the theme, and feature the DHS exhibitions, The First State at the Front: WWI and the Road to Victorious Peace and Delaware, One State Many Stories.

Using World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It, the anthology published by Library of America, participants in the workshop will read and discuss selected works.  The anthology, edited by A. Scott Berg, brings together 127 pieces that tell the vivid story of battlefront and homefront, from Sarajevo and the invasion of Belgium through the sinking of the Lusitania, the Armenian genocide, the controversy over intervention, and the terrible ferocity of Belleau Wood and the Meuse-Argonne, to the League of Nations debate and the racial violence and political repression that divided postwar America.

Facilitator:  A. Myrna Nurse, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, Department of English and Foreign Languages, Director, Women's and Gender Studies Minor, Delaware State University

Delaware History Museum 1 PM

FREE PARKING is available courtesy of Colonial Parking on the corner of 6th and Shipley streets.

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Tuesday, May 22nd: New Direction Series Dr. Robyn C. Spencer – Author Discussion and Book Signing

Part of Wilmington 1968 programming schedule http://dehistory.org/wilmington1968

Co-sponsored by Delaware Humanities

Dr. Robyn C. Spencer, Associate Professor, Department of History at Lehman College, City University of New York, will speak on her book, The Revolution Has Come:  Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland (Duke University Press, 2016).

The presentation will be followed by a book signing.

The story of the Black Panther Party (BPP) reveals the complexity of everyday life in working-class African American communities.  Focusing on the role of black women in the Party provides an even deeper exploration of the development of community-based and public policy solutions to the problems of under-resourced schools and the impact of mass incarceration on black family life.    Spencer argues that “solutions the Panthers sought, such as community control of the police, freedom for political prisoners, and an end to poverty and war, remain central in many struggles for justice today.  Although this book centers on Oakland…the BPP’s commitment to making linkages with revolutionaries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean made it one of the most effective ambassadors for Black Power.”

Delaware History Museum 6 PM

Reservations requested

FREE parking available at 6th and Shipley Street courtesy of Colonial Parking.

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Thursday, June 7th: A Dream Deferred: Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion

Part of Wilmington 1968 programming schedule  http://dehistory.org/wilmington1968

Co-sponsored by: The Delaware Historical Society, The Delaware Art Museum, and Delaware Humanities

Join the Delaware Historical Society, Delaware Humanities, and the Delaware Art Museum for a screening of the documentary A Dream Deferred: Remembering the 1968 Occupation of the National Guard in Wilmington.  This 40-minute film, originally produced by Teleduction, Inc. in 2007, presents an oral history of this momentous chapter in Delaware history, from the perspective of political leaders in Wilmington, including Joseph Johnson, James Sills, Harry Haskell, Russell Peterson, Littleton Mitchell, Leonard Williams and Lloyd Casson.  Historical footage illustrates the impact of events from the national, such as the March on Washington, to the local, including campus protests at Delaware State University.  In the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, activists broke with the principles of non-violent resistance to proclaim the need for Black nationalism and protest the lack of change in their daily lives.

Following the documentary, a discussion will be held with a panel of individuals who experienced the civil unrest.  Their conversation will bring the events of 1968 into the present as we discuss the current state of race relations in Wilmington and in the United States.

The panel will be moderated by Simone Austin, the Delaware Art Museum’s 2017 Alfred Appel Jr. Curatorial Fellow and M.A. History Graduate Student at the University of Delaware, whose research on this period provides additional context and perspective.

Delaware History Museum 6 PM

Free Admission. Please R.S.V.P to deinfo@dehistory.org

FREE PARKING is available courtesy of Colonial Parking on the corner of 6th and Shipley streets.

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Tuesday June 12th:  New Direction Series John Thabiti Willis Author Discussion & Book Signing

John Thabiti Willis, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carleton College and Associate Editor of the Journal of West African History, will speak on his book, Masquerading Politics: Kinship, Gender, and Ethnicity in a Yoruba Town (2017).

In West Africa, especially among Yoruba people, masquerades have the power to kill enemies, appoint kings, and grant fertility.  John Thabiti Willis takes a close look at masquerade traditions in the Yoruba town of Otta, exploring transformations in performers, performances, and the institutional structures in which masquerade was used to reveal ongoing changes in notions of gender, kinship, and ethnic identity.  As Willis focuses on performers and spectators, he reveals a history of masquerade that is rich and complex.  His research offers a more nuanced understanding of performance practices in Africa and their role in forging alliances, consolidating state power, incorporating immigrants, executing criminals, and projecting individual and group power on both sides of the Afro-Atlantic world.

Delaware History Museum 6 PM

The presentation will be followed by a book signing, and the book will be available for purchase in the museum gift shop.

FREE
Reservations requested: (302) 655-7161

FREE parking available at 6th and Shipley Street courtesy of Colonial Parking.

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Wednesday, June 27th: Vietnam Mailbag – Author Discussion with Journalist Nancy E. Lynch and Vietnam Veteran Rick Lovekin

Journalist Nancy E. Lynch, author of the award-winning book, Vietnam Mailbag, Voices From the War: 1968-1972, and Vietnam veteran Rick Lovekin  will join forces for a program at 6 p.m., June 27, 2018 at the Delaware History Museum. 

About Nancy E. Lynch:

A former staff reporter for The News Journal in Delaware, Lynch will read selected correspondence from servicemen featured in her book, based on the nearly 1,000 letters and hundreds of pictures mailed to her popular News Journal column Nancy’s Mailbag in the 1960s and 70s. For five years Nancy received correspondence from our troops on the front lines during the undeclared and polarizing war.

In her final column in December 1972 she promised “her guys” she would someday put all their war letters and pictures in a book to honor them. The 2008 Veterans Day release of her 456-page social history fulfills her pledge. The book earned a gold medal from Independent Publisher in 2009 for Best Non-Fiction in the Mid-Atlantic.

About Rick Lovekin:
A medical disability could have provided a means for Lovekin to avoid service in Vietnam, he chose instead to enlist in the Army and spent a year in combat as a door gunner on a Huey helicopter and later as crew chief on a Cobra chopper. He was based in Bien Hoa and Vung Tau with the 147th Helicopter Company.

He wrote frequently to Lynch during his 1969-1970 tour, always signing his letters, “Your Man in Nam.” He will share some of his combat experiences as well as a DVD of images from Vietnam enhanced with 1960s music. Now retired, Lovekin, formerly of New Castle County, lives in North East, MD.

FREE

Delaware History Museum 6 PM

Registration is requested at (302) 655-7161

FREE PARKING is available courtesy of Colonial Parking on the corner of 6th and Shipley Streets.

This presentation is sponsored by the Delaware Historical Society and is underwritten by Delaware Humanities.

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Follow the Delaware Historical Society

Facebook: @DEHistory

Instagram: @DelawareHistoricalSociety

Twitter: @thisisdehistory

Comedy Continues in Humble Park October 13th!

If you missed the music and comedy show in August, this is your opportunity to experience what the NEW Humble Park is all about, community, music and laughter.

On October 13th from 7-10 PM join us at 4th and Shipley Street in Wilmington, DE as Spaceboy Clothing & Southbound Comedy have teamed up once again to bring you an awesome evening full of live local stand-up comedy! Seating is limited, feel free to bring your own lawn chair. Following the show, please join us at for the official after party at Ernest & Scott Taproom (9th & Market St.) Featuring exclusive food and drink specials!

Featured Comics:
Brandon Jackson
Megan Goetz
Sidney Gantt
Erik Terrell & more!

Music Provided by:
Dj Skinny White

Thanks to the Sponsors:
Why Fly
The Mill
Ernest & Scott
Downtown Visions
Spaceboy Clothing 

Be sure to RSVP for this event on Facebook and share the event with your friends!

Your City, Your Park, Help it Come to Life!

Photo Courtesy of Spaceboy Clothing

Humble Park at the corner of 4th & Shipley is about to not be so "humble" anymore! Thanks to a collaboration between The City of Wilmington, Downtown Visions and Sanchez of Spaceboy Clothing, the park will soon be filled with vendors, art and entertainment! 

The press is excited for what is to come, and the park is already receiving attention from Technical. ly Delaware and The News Journal! The very first event is a comedy show, scheduled for August 25th at 7 PM and we need YOUR help to prepare! Join your fellow neighbors and business owners in cleaning up the space for everyone to enjoy! We will be meeting on Saturday, August 12th from 9 AM- 1 PM. Feel free to let us know you are coming through our Facebook Event and be sure to spread the word by inviting your friends. This is your chance to be a part of the renaissance happening in your city!

Each future event at the park will not only provide incredible entertainment, it will be giving back to those who need it most. A hot dog stand ran by the Wilmington-based Rick VanStory Resource Center, a recovery-oriented peer center for people with psychiatric disabilities will provide food for sale for each of the shows. Additionally, each of the shows will be free to the public, and have a fundraising effort on-site for a special cause. The show on the 25th will raise funds for Ramona Robinson of Wilmington, who is battling breast cancer and is a family member of Sanchez of Spaceboy.

Have an idea for the park, or want to help contribute to its positive future that is going to affect hundreds of Wilmingtonians? Let us know!

Click the image above to watch a short video provide by Delaware Online on all of the progress made by the generous volunteers!

Follow Spaceboy on Facebook and Instagram

Post by Julia Mason of Enthusiasm Lab