Downtown Phoenix Voices is an ongoing series of profiles on the many diverse and inspirational voices in the downtown Phoenix community. To read the previous installment in the series, click here.
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Under the string lights of the Alwun House back porch on a First Friday, Kim Moody sat content, talking to three of his neighbors while a guitarist played acoustic music on the stage.
The yard buzzed with activity: Dozens of people sat at tables and listened to the music. Others chatted at the outdoor bar or walked through the art gallery in the house, which Moody spent all day cleaning. The backyard felt like a hideaway from the massive First Fridays crowd. Moody’s bright blue eyes flicked between the performer and the visitors, his black polo shirt and matching hat both displaying the logo of the Alwun House Foundation –- his house.
Moody’s house doubles as an art gallery, and he hosts events there almost every week. The colonial bungalow-style house, which is massive in relation to the other properties in the neighborhood, was built in 1912 on the northeast corner of Roosevelt and 12th streets.
Moody curates art and performance shows similar to this every First Friday, taking a more relaxed approach to the monthly event that draws thousands of people to downtown Phoenix’s arts corridor. He helped start First Fridays and create the art scene, but his history of working with art downtown goes back further than the first First Friday.
Thirty years ago, the area where Moody lives — the Garfield neighborhood — was rife with crime and violence, he said.
“There were gangs, there was rape, there was pillage going on in this neighborhood,” Moody said. “New Year’s Eve was so loud with gunfire.”
Moody said he recorded the neighborhood sounds on a microcassette once in the 1970s and took it to a member of the Arizona Republic’s editorial board who compared it to the sounds of war zones.
Roberto Frietz, a specialist at the Neighborhood Services Department for the city of Phoenix, said Garfield was listed as the neighborhood with the highest crime rates in Phoenix in the mid-1990s.
Moody said he realized the neighborhood needed changing, and that partnerships with politicians and other community organizations were going to be important in turning the neighborhood around.
What helps with this change is what Moody calls his “pioneering spirit,” which he traces from his family, who trekked west to Arizona for a better life. Moody is a fourth-generation Phoenix native.
As a student at ASU, Moody worked for an underground publication called “Prick.” At one point, he and other students occupied the ASU president’s office to protest the university’s contract with a towel company that exploited its workers. After he graduated college, Moody bought the Alwun House in 1971 for $11,000.
“I’ve always been a social activist,” he said. “I believe in justice for all, equality … and fought all the battles along the way.”
Moody worked with former Gov. Janet Napolitano to establish Garfield as a site for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Weed and Seed program, which aims to eradicate crime and implement programs that build positive behaviors, such as the Alwun House’s work bringing art to children.
“One person can’t do it,” he said. “It’s not Alwun House, it’s not Kim Moody — it’s collaboration.”
Moody also worked to bring First Fridays to Phoenix alongside John Avedisian, artist and head of the Phoenix Elementary School District’s art department. First Fridays started as an annual exhibition for people who worked at Madison Street Studios, which is now Chase Field; Moody was instrumental in expanding the exhibition into First Fridays, Avedisian said.
Moody said he is working to implement a “Green Art Park” in the empty lot next to Alwun that will create more showcase and performance space. He said he is also working with the city to develop more places where residents can legally have storefronts in their homes.
Garfield was named the “Best Up-and-Coming Neighborhood” this year in Phoenix New Times’ annual Best of Phoenix awards. Moody said he credits the changes in the neighborhood since the ‘70s to art, hard work and police partnerships.
“We have defined Garfield as a freakin’ neighborhood, and don’t mess with us,” he said. “Where gangs used to be tough, we’re tough with words.”
There are no guns going off in his neighborhood now.
“It’s a sense of accomplishment, and it proves that art can transform community, and that it’s not just a cliche phrase dropped for some ego purpose,” he said.
Moody and his partner Dana Johnson have worked tirelessly to change the negative stigma their community had and to make it more inclusive, said Frietz, the neighborhood-services specialist. The city holds meetings and discussions at Alwun House to bring the police and residents together, Frietz said — and community members are reaping the fruits of Moody and Johnson’s labor.
“You just can’t find a more diverse neighborhood in the city of Phoenix than Garfield, and that has a lot to do with the work that Kim and Dana have done over the years,” Frietz said.
Today, the Alwun House is a center for a variety of art and community events.
For example, Moody has developed art programs for children with the Garfield Youth and Leadership Group through the Alwun House. A play one group of kids performed gained enough popularity that they eventually performed it at the Herberger Theater Center, Moody said. This is an example of how art can change the community, he said.
The Alwun House now hosts “Salon des Enfants” annually to highlight the artwork of children from the Phoenix Elementary School District. He said the kids can make about $40 for each piece of art.
Other regular events at the Alwun House include the Monster Ball art showcase and costume ball every Halloween and the Exotic Art Exhibit, which focuses on provocative art and performance pieces.
Avedisian, who helped start First Fridays with Moody, said the uniqueness of the space at the Alwun House makes it a “downtown oasis” for artists.
“Everyone who lives in that neighborhood really understands what Alwun has done for that neighborhood,” he said. “It’s a very cohesive neighborhood. It’s almost like a small town.”
He said the Alwun House — with its indoor gallery, outdoor stage, courtyard, pond and multiple screens for art — is a unique place in the entire country.
“There are galleries — and then there’s the Alwun House,” he said.
Moody said art will play a prominent role in downtown Phoenix as it grows. He said corporations and artists should be connected and work together.
“That’s how we’ve lived,” he said. “Don’t put us in a box. We’re outside the box.”
Contact the reporter at sajarvis@asu.edu
