More than 100 people packed Grand Avenue’s {9} the Gallery to celebrate the inaugural night of Urban Fridays at {9}, a diverse show featuring the work of local painters, poets, rappers and other artists.
The evening, also known as URF9, was a collaboration between creative label EFFWITHUS and other local artists and students, including ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus journalism student Malcolm Brinkley.
“We came into this having no expectations,” said Brinkley, who hosted the event. “This is our culture in utero, if you will. We’ve been wanting to do an event like this to spark this culture for so long.”
Brinkley met two of the minds behind EFFWITHUS — D.J. Duporte and Khalil McCullen — at the end of May last year. The creative group expanded through mutual friendships and developed an idea for an exposure of local talents.
“I feel like the urban art scene here doesn’t have a lot of unity, everybody wants to clique up and do their own thing,” said Kyle Gise, a Mesa Community College entertainment-marketing student who was involved in the production of URF9. “So this is really an opportunity for everyone to come together and find new talent, become a new fan of a new artist.”
Duporte agreed, adding that while many of the people who performed at Friday’s event had previous show experience, they had never performed with each other.
“We wanted to bring all these people together,” Duporte said. “Why should there be just 10 people at your homie’s house when there can be 100 people in one venue together?”
The group worked with {9} the Gallery owner Laura Dragon to lease the space on Friday night. Dragon was supportive of the producers’ idea to have a nonviolent music-based event.
“They reached out to us about doing a nonviolent hip-hop event, and I loved the idea,” Dragon said. “They asked me what do they need to do to do that, and I said, ‘Pick a date.’”
The gallery worked with EFFWITHUS to develop the concept with the hopes of creating an urban space they felt was missing in downtown Phoenix.
“I really feel like there’s a need to reach a certain audience in Phoenix that doesn’t really have a place to call home, in a way,” Dragon said.
After the gallery space was acquired, the producers began a month-long period of extensive promotion through social media outlets and their website. The website featured videos of some of the artists performing in the days leading up to the show.
One of those performers was iAm Jones, a musician who found inspiration in his mother, who was a preacher and poet. Jones’s confident verses and funky jams received some of the loudest responses from the crowd.
“I love that everybody is still so cool, everybody is real peaceful,” Jones said. “No one is too cool to have a good time, you know what I’m saying?”
Acts started at about 9:30 p.m. Friday and stretched through the entire night, with small intermissions in between each performance. Between iAm Jones’s grooving band set to a soulful vocal piece by Davia Janay, the artists covered themes of heartbreak, love, respect and honesty to oneself.
There was plenty of variety in the performers throughout the night as well. The heartfelt poetic wisdom of Truth B. Told contrasted with the versatile wordplay of opener Johnny D. Two female poets, a few more rappers and a freestyle cypher finished the event close to 1 a.m. the next day.
Also featured at the event was live painting by two female artists, as well as the clothing designs of Alysha Prince. Prince said she started her women’s clothing company Dope Essentials a year ago after she noticed people all wearing the same clothes.
“This is my first event,” said a nervous Prince before the show started. “A lot of my really close friends don’t even know that I make clothes or have a website or anything. I just tell them when they ask.”
Most of the costs to put on URF9 were paid by the producers, although tickets were sold at the entrance for $7 and through the website for $5.
All of the promoters thanked Dragon in particular, with Duporte saying that “she basically donated us the space.”
Duporte and the rest of the production crew originally said that URF9 could become a monthly event. However, after Friday’s packed show, they could see this becoming something much bigger than they expected.
“The feedback we received before the show was that people wanted this,” Duporte said. “The people that ended up showing up, they’re gonna tell their friends about it when it’s over, and they’re gonna tell their friends when it’s over.”
Duporte and Gise bounced around ideas for the future, including a possible small-scale local music festival, jewelry booths and more painters.
Friday’s turnout success puts URF9 in a difficult but ultimately rewarding spot, Jones said.
“It’s crazy because it’s a dichotomy,” Jones said. “I want to see it get bigger but I also like the intimacy of being able to look everybody in the face. But of course I want it to grow, because things that don’t grow die.”
Contact the reporter at miguel.otarolaalfaro@asu.edu
