Maxx Moses is an artist who lives to create, and he likes to work on the largest canvases he can find. That's what led him to create Graffiti Gardens in Encanto.
Maxx Moses' graffiti roots
He started his journey as a graffiti writer in New York in the 1970s — a time when graffiti was "hated with a venom." Now he is a world-renowned muralist. But during COVID, he had a hard time finding those large canvases to paint.
"I was going to people and asking them, 'Can I paint your wall?'" Moses recalled. "And I was like, I'm so tired of asking people, can I paint your wall? I need my own place to just paint. And so my mentor told me about this place (the Boys and Girls Club in Encanto), and I came in, and the landlord or the owner of the property showed me this location. I was like, 'Whoa, this is awesome.' She was showing me the inside, and I was like, 'No, I don't want to rent that spot. I just want to rent the walls.' She was like, 'I can't just rent you the walls. I don't know how to do that.'"
Those large cinder block walls on multiple sides of the building were too tempting for Moses to walk away from. He eventually realized the interior space could be a studio, and he could partner with other organizations in the building to offer classes and workshops. So he took over the space and created Graffiti Gardens in the heart of San Diego's Black Arts and Culture District.
Reimagining Black Friday
The space has inspired Moses not just to paint its walls, but to create community events. Last year, he had an idea to reimagine Black Friday.
"I was like, it's black. We need to take that over as Black people," Moses said. "Let's take Black Friday over. You celebrate Black culture, you celebrate Black community, you celebrate Black economics, and really ingrain that in the culture. I want to take over that idea of Black Friday to be an economic movement, a Black consciousness movement, a Black love movement."
For this year's event, Moses will partner with artist Brandon Flowers and Marilyn Harvey of Mvinyo Book Bar to bring art, food, music and libations. There will be a market featuring a diverse group of artists, from emerging to established, all from San Diego. Clothing designers will offer wearable art. New this year, attendees can sketch a live model. An art sale will start early Friday, with happy hour beginning later in the evening.
Harvey said the name of her soon-to-open Mvinyo Book Bar comes from the Swahili word for "spirits." She will be serving Black and BIPOC wines picked by her sommelier, as well as mimosas. She was excited when Moses approached her last year with just the seed of the idea for a rebranded Black Friday.
"As we talked, we were like, 'Oh, we're about to co-opt Black Friday and going to make it a real Black Friday," Harvey said. "What appeals to me is showcasing and highlighting, in this lovely community, folks who are doing beautiful things, who are creatives and who are intentional about bringing beauty into spaces that have been overlooked. I think there's a lot of beauty here, and we want for people to be able to be seen, be heard and to make money."
Some of the proceeds from her sales will go to Think Dignity, an organization that provides resources and advocates for the unsheltered.
Flowers will preview a new book called "Heartimes," which he is creating with his daughter, at the Black Friday Artist Market. He will also help with live music and artists booths.
"You can expect a lot of different artists — sculptors, painters. We even have an artist who does a nail-and-yarn technique named Dominique King," Flowers said. "Last year was amazing, and we're expecting to have a different music composition by an artist named Aki. He's very well-versed in his sampling techniques and everything like that. So he'll be providing the sound for the event this time."
Giselle Rocha recently started working as Graffiti Gardens coordinator and said she is excited to help with this year's event.
"I believe it's going to be a culmination of just different types of art-making, art-feeling, color, vibrancy, connectiveness," Rocha said. "I think there is love and joy that goes within the work and the time it takes to create something and put it out for the world."
She is also excited about the future of Graffiti Gardens, which has taken time to recover from flooding a couple years back.
"There's a lot of plans for it to not only grow, but just, in a sense, develop in character and artistry," Rocha said. "We hope to continue to create a space where people can truly explore and gather — and not only that, but nurture their artistic self and however that shows up within a multigenerational life. I would say it's an imaginative space."
Moses reflected on those floods: "I guess after the flood, it's biblical, right? It's like after the flood, and it's almost like a cleansing of what's going to take place next. I think we're in that phase now. I just want people to come and support this because it's a beautiful experience. This is a sanctuary right in the heart of Southeast San Diego. So we're just co-opting that whole Black Friday and turn it into a movement where people of all races and colors funnel their energy in this direction, to this community who is always giving, giving, giving — and it's time to, like, yeah, let's support them."
The Black Friday Artist Market runs from 2 to 9 p.m. next Friday at Graffiti Gardens.
