Northattan

Merchants at the “Off the Map” holiday market celebrated their neighborhoods with distinctively uptown products like limited edition “Inwood Hill Park” poster prints signed by the artist, original photography with Northern Manhattan as its subject and T-shirts with scribbled neighborhood slogans.

Will Alicea is a local T-shirt designer and entrepreneur whose designs show off neighborhood pride. Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

This first annual market on Saturday afternoon at Inwood’s Bread and Yoga studio, just steps from the 207^th Street subway station, was the first time that small business owners and artists in Inwood and Washington Heights came together to showcase their talent.

A steady stream of neighbors stopped in to support 14 local artists and small business owners and to peruse tables of eclectic handmade goods, from all-natural, vanilla-scented Play-Doh to a holiday wreath made from the pages of a book.

Sasha Schwartz, founder of Scribble Art Workshop, sells homemade, all-natural play-do called "Scribbledo." Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

Inwood designer Pat Tillery sold this holiday wreath, made from pages of "a bad book." Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

The market was sponsored by the newly formed Inwood Merchant Association and organized by Leopold Vasquez, artist M. Tony Peralta and Bread and Yoga director Marcela Xavier. Vasquez, who founded The Sound of Art, said the idea behind the market and the Inwood Merchant Association, which he also helped start, is “getting small, local businesses together as a unit” to make a difference in Inwood and Washington Heights. “People have tried to start one before,” Vasquez said, but always without success. He attributes the Inwood Merchant Association’s success to the support of the Audubon Partnership.

These hats were designed for community pride by M. Tony Peralta. Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

Other projects aimed at supporting local businesses, like Small Business Saturday last month, have also fallen short in Inwood and Washington Heights. “The community is in dire need of this, so we just had to get it jumping off,” Vasquez said.

“It had a good community feel,” Jocelyn Gottschalk, who sold leather purses and bracelets, said of the market. “And it was also good for my business,” she said, noting that she sold far more than she usually does at farmers markets.

Jocelyn Gottschalk helps a customer choose a leather bracelet. Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

At events like the “Off the Map” market, Inwood feels more like a small town than a New York City neighborhood. And Inwood’s proud of it.

“It’s a hidden treasure,” said Amanda Hall-Smith, a dog trainer and walker. Referring to her fellow young entrepreneurs in Inwood, Hall-Smith said, “We’re all trying to help each other make it.”

Gottschalk greeted friends and neighbors at her table and said, “For me, it was nice to see people that I know.”

Sofia Ramirez handed out handmade confections from her home-based baking company, Batter sweet. Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

The market’s name is a reference to Inwood frequently being left off city tourist maps. “It’s called ‘Off the Map’ because we are not the Bronx,” Vasquez said. “We are not Harlem. And sometimes, we’re not even Manhattan!”

But while being “off the map” enhances Inwood’s small-town feel, it also means that some residents think they have to venture out of the neighborhood for their holiday shopping. Vasquez thanked visitors for instead “supporting your local business here” and for not showing up with shopping bags from downtown retailers.

Anina Young owns Brazen Lingerie at 253 Dyckman St., where she sells sassy loungewear, including thongs that read “Uptown’s finest.” She joked with market visitors that, “I don’t want Chelsea girls wearing that. Or Midtown” girls, either.

Young says people have pre-conceived notions about her shop “because it’s on Dyckman Street and it’s in Inwood.” When customers tell her that her store is not what they expected from a lingerie shop in Inwood, she replies, “You thought it was a hoochie-momma store, didn’t you?” Young says “the block has been changing and changing” with a burgeoning restaurant and retail scene.

In keeping with the neighborhood theme, artist Sasha Schwartz, who owns the Scribble Art Workshop, offered a canvas bag featuring Inwood staples like Inwood Hill Park and the Dyckman Street subway station. “There are so many artists in this neighborhood and it’s great to get them all together,” Schwartz said.

Sasha Schwartz sold canvas bags adorned with iconic Inwood locations. Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

Inwood resident Jessica Wells-Hasan left the market with armfuls of handmade goodies, including multicolored, striped Hula-Hoops, custom-made canvas totes and limited-edition prints. Wells-Hasan said, “It’s so much better knowing money is staying in the neighborhood and going to your friends and neighbors,” rather than big brand stores.

Ryan McPartland, 16, sells customized Hula-Hoops that he sells with his business, Inwood Hoops. Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan

The community support reached beyond the four walls of the Bread and Yoga studio to Inwood’s vibrant online community. Inwood resident Annie Szymanski posted on Twitter after the market that: “this neighborhood has truly made me understand how community makes a home.”

Since the market was hosted at a yoga studio, attendees were asked to peruse its offerings without shoes. Photo by Chiara Sottile/Northattan.

The Off the Map Market will return to Bread and Yoga next Saturday from 1:30 to 9 p.m. and again on Dec. 18 at the Audubon Partnership Headquarters from 3 to 9 p.m.

Story updated Dec. 8 to include more information about the Audubon Partnership.

Karen Suarez may serve danishes, brownies and muffin-top pastries during her day job, but on this Friday night, she is cooking up some catchy rhymes and hard-hitting poetry.

Suarez, 23, an East Harlem native and poet, is a server at Savoy Bakery on East 110th Street near Lexington Avenue. She and another poet, who also works at the bakery, approached their boss last summer about turning the bakery into a venue for an occasional open-mic night for the community.

“We didn’t think he would go for it,” Suarez said. “But he agreed and now it’s a success.”

The small bakery makes for an intimate setting.

People in East Harlem mingle during intermission at an open-mic night at the Savoy Bakery on Friday, November 19. Photo by Carlos Mayorga/Northattan

On a recent Friday night, around 30 people huddle on old wooden milk crates. The night starts off with an ice breaker called a “soul clap,” led by Lex D Emcee, a member of the hip-hop, funk and soul group Lifted Crew.

The audience is led into in a continuous clap while Lex begins a freestyle rap: “And you can clap if you like something that you hear. And if you don’t, then you can hit the rear. Cause Karen and I hosting. Look, we got the cheers.”

Suarez likes to mix it up. On this night, she begins with a poem she finished the night before. She recently joined a non-denominational church and had been questioning of the meaning of life.

“We always have questions like ‘where do we come from?’” Suarez said. “We all look alike, physically, right? But there’s something inside, that feels, and where does that come from? I had all those questions circling in my head.”

Later on, she recites a piece she wrote when she was 16 and often performs for the youth. It’s about hip-hop and how the music should be less demeaning and commercial, and instead address deeper issues: “Hip-hop’s not about piggy banks and picking on people ’cause they take their own position. Sit down and listen. Hip-hop is a community.”

In her third appearance, Suarez changes it up again and performs a rap paying homage to the Dominican Republic, her parents’ native country.

“It’s not all about hip-hop,” Suarez said of the open-mic nights. “It’s whatever you want. You can just go up and give a fragrance of something you went through today on the train. Let’s just get together and share the love.”

Karen Suarez and Katherine Bonilla both perform a poem at an open-mic night at the Savoy Bakery in East Harlem on Friday, November 19. Photo by Carlos Mayorga/Northattan

On this particular Friday, there is also singing. Daniel Bonilla, 22, spreads out a few sheets of his favorite rock songs and plays a few on his guitar. In a monologue, Lynnese Page plays a woman who had an affair with a man and angrily calls it off when she realizes he hadn’t kept his promises.

“I think it gave the audience something different, other than the guitar and singing,” said Page, 24, of East Harlem. “Just to spice it up a bit.”

The monologue is from the play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” It’s one of Page’s favorites and she often performs it on auditions.

“I had never done an open mic,” Page said. “For so long, this neighborhood hasn’t had some things.” This event “is bringing art and culture to the forefront.”

Daniel’s sister, Katherine Bonilla works alongside Suarez during the day at the bakery, but writes poetry and sings on the side. The 19-year-old Bonilla and her brother had been practicing a song together and decided to debut it for the event.

“Singing is beautiful,” Katherine Bonilla, who lives in the Bronx, said. “I think singing is emotion with a melody. I sing when I’m happy, I sing when I’m sad. I sing when I’m excited. I sing when I’m down. It’s another form of poetry.”

Suarez and Lex, the usual hosts of the event, along with Bonilla, all say they hope word about the open-mic night continues to spread throughout the community and that more people will start coming.

Suarez said the event is something good for the area that counters the negative perceptions arising because East Harlem has seen an increase in violence and shooting deaths this year.

It also gives young people a place to be on a Friday night – somewhere other than the streets.

“There’s a lot of love here, so they’re able to be heard and just share what they feel,” Suarez said. “To just be able to help kids to just reflect and to feel better about themselves, even in a tough world, like the one we live in.”

The open-mic nights are held about every other month. For information on the next event, call Savoy Bakery at (212) 828-8896.