Neighborhood Arts Festival once again opens it doors and yards

Next Saturday Hamtramck’s neighborhoods become alive with art and performances when the annual Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival returns. File photo

By Alan Madlane
Get ready for another spectacular day of local art and music making.
The Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival, or HNAF, is having its 14th annual event on Saturday, Oct. 5, beginning at 9 a.m. and – officially – going until about midnight.
The HNAF is unique, as area festivals go. That’s because, as an audience member, you get to “curate” your own experience. Each artist, in the broader sense (you might have musicians, painters, poets, photographers, actors, improvisers, mimes, clowns, performance artists, and just about every other variation of the theme) puts on or performs their art right on their own front porch, or in their studio for all to see.
Each act or artist sets their time frame for availability – some might only play or perform once during the day, some all throughout – for example, a painter or sculptor may work on their piece most of the day, and you can sit there and, well, watch the paint dry or the chips fall, as it were.
Some artists are more gregarious than others, explaining their particular process as they work. Others, perhaps not so much. Or at all. The great thing about the HNAF is, if you don’t care for what you’re presented with at one location, you can meander on over to another.
The website, hnaf.org, typically will provide a schedule and a map once they have nailed down the performers and artists participating. As of Wednesday, Sept. 25, the website was still indicating that they were accepting sign-ups, but that period of time is surely coming to its end.
Some of the events are outdoors or semi-outdoors, for example on covered or partially covered porches, and those may be susceptible to weather, should it get inclement. A few accommodating folks might even invite attendees inside, depending on any number of factors starting with how much room they have and how many are clamoring to see.
But the show does go on.
This is a fun day for the city, as folks are drawn to wander from neighborhood to neighborhood. Plus, many of the city’s eateries or other businesses are aware of it, and cater in various ways to festival goers.
Given the impending Halloween season, some of it skews toward the creepy. Some, not at all.
So far, you’ve got Tattoo parlors (Harlequin, Ink as Identity); open art studios (Hatch Art, including an open reception for Luzhen Qiu and a Luke MacGilvray installation); open individual studios (Dawn Marie Smith, Emily Jane Wood); an ongoing project (Sicily Amaris McRaven’s “Mending to Avenge the Dead” quilting); outdoor installations (Joe & Lynn, Max Ryan); porch and lawn music (Purple & Grey +2 others, Richard Weick, Popps Packing “Soundhenge,” Playhouse Labs’ Bangla School of Music/The Hinterlands/Thank You For Coming concert plus communal song-share and picnic, and The Vision Detroit).
You’ve also got bar music (Honest to God Jug Band at the Polish Sea League); story and craft time (at Book Suey); and a Monster Monster Costume Parade, going from the Ride It Skatepark to Hamtramck Disneyland with Renee Willoughby and Monty Etzcorn, with a classic monster movie to follow the walk).
There may be a few late additions to this. You can pick up festival maps and drop some dimes on festival merch the day of, from 9 a.m. until noon, at Passenger Recovery, 2697 Caniff St.
And again, that website is www.hnaf.org.
See you out there, in the open air.
Posted Sept. 27, 2024