About THE Festival
The Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Fest is a loosely curated showcase of artists, writers and musicians living in Hamtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. The Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival takes place annually the second weekend in October.
Our goal is to activate the city’s indigenous talent and create a walkable, neighborhood-scale, art experience on porches, in houses, on sidewalks and storefronts.
THIS Year's Events
View all event details below or print your own to share!
Coffee and Maps!
If you donated to the festival Patronicity campaign, come pick up your swag! Also grab a cuppa coffee and a map!
Stop in at Cafe 1923 for some coffee and pick up a festival map!
Psychogeographic Stroll
If you like Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Columbo, or exquisite corpses, you'll love Walter, Lena, and Oleg's Binational Psychogeographic Stroll.
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The Grandmother Project
On the front porch it will begin with chanting and then the Grannies will have they say. Miss Irene and Miss Eulalie are sitting on the front steps. Having just hung their laundry, they decide to air their grievances with each other and take to fussing about their grandbabies. The bickering escalates and the audience is urged to weigh in.
This interactive theatre event will hosted by Madelyn Porter, (Creative Non-Fiction Kresge Artist 2019) and Collette Cullen (Playwright). It begins with a garden performance of "Duet". This 10 minute play is reminiscent of a day with Grandma. Then audience will share their own stories. Think of The Grandmother Project as a block party with Grandma as the ringmaster.
The Weight of Air, Part 1
Work-in-progress scenes from our upcoming puppet performance about the physical effects that invisible policies and processes have - on the physical, residential and topographical bodies of Detroit.
A puppet and performance studio
I'll See You in My Dreams
If you love propaganda, naptime story hours, or watching people sleep you'll love I'll See You in My Dreams.
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Frank Woodman
Bashing out punk rock on the front lawn. Day drinkin. Bring the kids!
2 piece primitive punk rock. Art damaged with a psycho surf bent muzak.
Open studios at Hatch
Up to 10 artists showing what they do and how they do it.
Dawn Cooke, Nina Caruso, Linda Ward, Herman Bruner, Lulu Cameron, Mike Kelly, Andrew Dall'olmo, Miroslawa Sztoczka, Julian Wong.
The Grandmother Project
On the front porch it will begin with chanting and then the Grannies will have they say. Miss Irene and Miss Eulalie are sitting on the front steps. Having just hung their laundry, they decide to air their grievances with each other and take to fussing about their grandbabies. The bickering escalates and the audience is urged to weigh in.
This interactive theatre event will hosted by Madelyn Porter, (Creative Non-Fiction Kresge Artist 2019) and Collette Cullen (Playwright). It begins with a garden performance of "Duet". This 10 minute play is reminiscent of a day with Grandma. Then audience will share their own stories. Think of The Grandmother Project as a block party with Grandma as the ringmaster.
Backyard Bounty
An afternoon of seed banking & exchange at Squash House
Sarah Rose Sharp is a writer, activist, photographer & multimedia artist. She has exhibited nationally from NY to Seattle, and in Detroit at the DIA and Simone DeSousa Gallery. Sharp is primarily concerned with artist & viewer experiences of making & engaging with art, and conducts ongoing research in the state of contemporary art in redeveloping cities, with special focus and regard for Detroit.
The Grandmother Project
On the front porch it will begin with chanting and then the Grannies will have they say. Miss Irene and Miss Eulalie are sitting on the front steps. Having just hung their laundry, they decide to air their grievances with each other and take to fussing about their grandbabies. The bickering escalates and the audience is urged to weigh in.
This interactive theatre event will hosted by Madelyn Porter, (Creative Non-Fiction Kresge Artist 2019) and Collette Cullen (Playwright). It begins with a garden performance of "Duet". This 10 minute play is reminiscent of a day with Grandma. Then audience will share their own stories. Think of The Grandmother Project as a block party with Grandma as the ringmaster.
AttattarattattA- “the knock upon the door at the end of time…”
A shadow puppet play with haunting imagery that calls upon ancestral memories and is informed by ancient mythology, spirituality and conspiracy theory’s throughout history. How we came to be, where are we, & where are we going?
North is multi-dimensional artist from rusty roots of the Midwest, a punk & DIY performer & organizer for over a decade. A musician, songwriter, singer, storyteller, visual, performance & experimental artist working through many mediums & in many environments. My artistic goal is to challenge the perceived notions of reality by going deeper into the mysteries of the human condition & experience.
Free Cruiser Rentals @ Wheelhouse
Reach all corners of the Art Festival in comfort and style! Wheelhouse will provide complimentary simple cruiser rentals to HNAF attendees. Free rentals will require a valid ID and are first-come, first-serve and subject to availability.
Wheelhouse Detroit Bike Shop was established in 2008 on Detroit's Riverfront with a second location opening in Hamtramck in 2016. 'Experience the Motor City on Two Wheels' with their bicycle retail, service, rentals, and tours.
Hamtramck Recreation District - Community Art Event
The hand-print mural wall provides community members with an opportunity to select one word describing the characteristics of who they are as part of the community of Hamtramck and help create a beautiful intervention in the Park. These words help our team understand the values of the community and integrate those into the future plan.
Born and raised in the City of Detroit, Artist Phillip Darnell Simpson has been drawing and painting since a child. Simpson works predominantly in the medium of painting but very sufficient in pencil. Simpson specializes in making people smile with his work. Some of his work can be found in galleries but also in many urban neighborhoods across the city.
Ada Lovelace Day Celebration
Ada Lovelace Day! Join us in celebrating the first computer programmer and “Enchantress of Numbers” by creating take-home Ada Lovelace/Lord Byron Mash-Up ‘Zines with discarded computer textbooks, poetry anthologies and timely ephemera, personalized Victorian/IBM calling cards, sipping tea, and in general, having a jolly good time!
n/a
#SquadtoberFest Hospitality Yard
Join the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival Committee and the #Squadgoals crew at the corner of Evaline & Charest for curated music and hospitality. There will be seating and games in the yard and a porch gathering of neighbors and friends. Have a beer, grab a hot dog, meet your neighbors, talk about what you have seen and where you are going next!
The #Squadgoals Crew originated as a chat room for meeting up before DCFC games and morphed into a volunteer and social group. It is made up of local officials, Hamtrmack Labor Day Committee members and volunteers and clowns from around the tri-county area.
Somewhere Else: Four Artists Using Abstraction
Abstract art by four artists: Jide Aje and Judith Feist work in mixed media, while Sanda Cook and Sam Kthar paint.
Abstract art is as difficult to define as art itself. Commonly, abstracts use color, form, and texture in place of identifiable subjects, although often to the artist it is representational. Filled with emotion, purpose, and meaning, these artists create a broad range of visual delights. Jide Aje and Judith Feist work in mixed media, while Sanda Cook and Sam Kthar paint.
Durable / Flexible
Popps 10 year anniversary group show!
group show
"DEMONS"
This is a collection of demons rendered by Sadie over the course of a month, inspired at least in part by her recent increased awareness of the destructive nature of human activity on the earth as well as the existential threat it poses to itself.
Sadie Nielsen currently lives and works in Victoria, Canada. Her practice seeks to extend across a vast array of media and encompass subject matter pertaining not only to tensions within facets of the human experience but to our relationships and responses to the world around us. Sadie's practice is ever-expanding but has been focused primarily in acrylic paint, drawing, and textile sculpture.
Public Pool
Exhibition of new paintings
Maria Prainito-Winczner is a Detroit born artist that currently lives and works in Michigan. Her work is focused on the investigation of contemporary painting. She exhibits throughout the U.S. and has participated in exhibitions abroad. She received her MFA from Vermont College 2006 and BFA from College for Creative Studies 1995.
QBert 3: Tribal Electrics
Improvisational group musical seance featuring multiple synth and percussion.
Improvisational group musical seance featuring multiple synth and percussion.
Popps Packing is an artist-‐run neighborhood-‐based nonprofit organization founded in 2009 by husband and wife artists, Faina Lerman and Graem Whyte. Our mission is to create impactful arts programming and foster cultural exchange between local and international artist communities, while leveraging the unique features of our region, neighborhood, and personal practices.
Alice V. Schneider studio wsg. Dalia Reyes
Come and visit Alice V. Schneider, lead organizer for the Hamtramck Artist Festival and programs facilitator at Public Pool opens her studio to the Public for the Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival. Cosmic artist Dalia Reyes will have her artwork on show as well.
Alice Victoria Schneider is a Detroit-based visual artist whose work is a combination of sculpture, painting, printmaking and filmmaking. Dalia Reyes is an interdisciplinary artist, independent arts administrator and arts instructor from Southwest Detroit. Her work is cosmic, meditative and focuses on a metaphysical curiosity as well as surreal imagery.
Porous Borders sound map
If you like walking meditation, geocaching, or the Conant/Davison neighborhood, you'll love the Porous Borders sound map.
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Take Out Take Down
If you like NASCAR, football clubs, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Bengali food, and small businesses, you'll love the Take Out Take Down.
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Holly McLees
Turkish textiles for sale.
Turkish textiles for sale.
Ultramarine
Figure and portraits paintings in blue, on canvas and found surfaces, by local artist Christine Monley
(N/a)
Make Your Marker!
If you like amending historical documents, renegade crafting, or sidewalk storytelling, you'll love Make Your Marker!
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Elizabeth R Wahl
Paper artists Elizabeth Wahl will open up her home/studio at the kozy korner of Klinger and Meade showcasing handmade books, sculpture and collage. Local musician Francis DeCarlo will be performing complementary weirdness throughout the day. Cmown!
Elizabeth likes playing with the most abundant materials on earth-cellulose fibers. Working in multiple modes of stitch, she binds books using new, handmade, and vintage materials, in addition to creating paper sculpture and collage.
Freeways & Sidestreets
“Freeways and Sidestreets” by The Hinterlands and partners around the globe is a five-act playful performance event taking place at Play House, along Conant Street and online, exploring the myriad of ways this tiny commercial corridor straddling Detroit and Hamtramck ties into and parallels places, communities, and imaginations around the globe.
“Freeways and Sidestreets” by The Hinterlands and partners around the globe is a five-act, all-day playful participatory event (components include: a psycho-geographic stroll tag-team led by a philosopher in Hamtramck and one in Moscow; memorial-making for places forgotten, secret, or in the future; a friendly competition between two businesses on either side of Conant; a nap-time reading hour stretching across twelve hours of time difference; etc) that takes place along Conant Street, in Play House, and in partner venues across the globe. Spaces near and far will be connected through live-streaming and shared at Play House (which will have the feel of an open studio/broadcast station), connecting artists and audiences in multiple countries, and highlighting how Hamtramck/Detroit stories tie in with lives, issues, and dreams across the globe.
10AM-12PM Psychogeographic Stroll with Walter Wasacz and more
12:30-6PM Billy Mark’s Porous Borders sound map available for rental
12:30-2:30 PM I’ll See You In My Dreams with Shen Bolun
3PM-7PM Make Your Marker sign-making with Maisha Qurashi
3PM-4PM Porous Borders sound map opening reception
4PM-7PM Take Out Take Down 2: Modhuban Sweets v. Zamzam
THE HINTERLANDS creates performances & public events that are highly irrational and deeply American, built around pressing into the unknown areas of our personal and collective history with fearless physicality and a sense of humor. Our work has been seen across the US and abroad including at the Flynn Center (Burlington), p! (NYC), the Shanghai Biennale, and the Berlinale. www.thehinterlands.org
Belmont One Year Anniversary Banger
Come out to Belmont for a BANGER one year in the making. Featuring performances by 208, 3n3rgy, Bryni Makiko, Sui, Ghost Coasts, and Pleasantries. Artwork will be presented by Liv Russo, Synefeld, and Xavierdraws. Plus we have a few surprises in store. We're going all day long!
Belmont House is a house venue located on the last block of Belmont between Buffalo and Alpena. The house focuses on showcasing the work of DIY musicians and artists as well as integrating them with more established local performers. Displaying a variety of work from music to art to film, Belmont House serves as a platform for artists of all forms.
Radio GaGa Book Reading Road Trip
Radio Ga Ga: A Mixtape for the End of Humanity & Chief Editrix at the Post Human Post
I am Stefani Bulsara. I am the bags of fat burned off during liposuction. I am the clumps of hair that fall out when bleached and straightened with chemicals. I am the excess cartilage ripped out during nose jobs. I am the puss-filled infections that grow around butt injections. I am the raw nerves that are scraped by veneers. I am the gnarled toes and bunions brought on by years of wearing high-heels. When you see a meteor shoot across the sky, I am the chunks of rock that plummet to earth. Join me for a reading at Book Suey!
Author at Radio Ga Ga: A Mixtape for the End of Humanity & Chief Editrix at the Post Human Post
KO Gallery Open Studio
Come kick it with us as we open up our studio and gallery space! Check out our current exhibition “Bridges” featuring colorful new paintings by Carl Oxley III. Our studio will be open too with a behind the scenes look at work by Nick Pizana, Max Majoros, Nathaniel Edmiston, Jared Baker, Brach Goodman
KO Gallery is an artist owned creative space and art gallery. KO Gallery hosts a broad range of events, including art exhibitions, musical performances, live drawing sessions and other special events with the goal of bringing together creatives of all different backgrounds to start conversations, projects, and relationships.
Trixie's Songwriter Showcase
Stop in and sing a song! We will have one guitar and one mic set up on stage. Sign up begins at 7:30, music from 8-9. Guitar provided. Stick around for warm drinks!
Trixie's Bar is a neighborhood bar and performance venue. Hamtramck's House Party features comedy, karaoke, live music, and the biggest backyard in the city.
AttattarattattA- “the knock upon the door at the end of time…”
A shadow puppet play with haunting imagery that calls upon ancestral memories and is informed by ancient mythology, spirituality and conspiracy theory’s throughout history. How we came to be, where are we, & where are we going?
North is multi-dimensional artist from rusty roots of the Midwest, a punk & DIY performer & organizer for over a decade. A musician, songwriter, singer, storyteller, visual, performance & experimental artist working through many mediums & in many environments.
Live Out Fest 2019
10/12 Schedule: 12—6p | Queer Market (Ghost Light Bar, 2314 Caniff) 6—8p | Live Out Fest Open Mic (Ghost Light Bar) 8p | "As They Like It" (Play, Black Box, 2357 Caniff) 9p | Not In My House (Dance Production; Ant Hall, 2320 Caniff) 10p | GenderBender (Drag Show, Ant Hall) 11:30p | Live Out Fest Afterparty (Dance Party, Ghost Light)
Planet Ant is a 501c3 nonprofit professional theatre and performing arts venue founded in Hamtramck in 1993. Planet Ant seeks to build community by facilitating artistic expression and collaboration in theatre, music, film and other visual and performing arts; to promote artistic freedom and expand stage access; and to enrich individual artists through training, coaching and networking.
HNAF After Party
Official HNAF After Party with music performance by The Full Counts from Pittsburgh. https://thefullcounts.bandcamp.com https://www.facebook.com/EricVermillionAndTheFullCounts/ Opening band to be announced later. bands will play from 10-12pm. Free Show. drink specials!
Outer LImits Lounge