From I ❤️ 3W by Marc Newsome, one of the installations in Round 47 at Project Row Houses.
Gifts with political heft that support local businesses and organizations? What’s not to love? Here’s the Third Ward edition:
Get A Membership to Project Row Houses
Launched 25 years ago by a collective of artists, I’m going to let PRH’s website explain it:
Project Row Houses (PRH) is a community-based arts and culture non-profit organization in Houston’s northern Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African American neighborhoods. Founded in 1993 as a result of the vision of local African-American artists wanting a positive creative presence in their own community, PRH shifts the view of art from traditional studio practice to a more conceptual base of transforming the social environment.
Central to the vision of PRH is the social role of art as seen in neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation, community service, and youth education. The programs of PRH are built around Five Pillars inspired by the work of internationally renowned artist John Biggers and his principles concerning the components of row house communities: art & creativity, education, social safety nets, architecture, and sustainability.
Friday, December 8th is a great time to visit the site, meet the supporters, and become a member. Your ticket to Cocktails in the Courtyard gets you a membership, but you can always buy more for the people in your life who appreciate art, activism, and community revitalization.
Even if you can’t come for Cocktails in the Courtyard, get your membership online and invest in an organization that’s been investing in Third Ward for 25 years. With all that will be happening during this anniversary year, you’ll want to be an insider.
Eat Cookies Like You’ve Never Experienced – CrumbvilleTX
Ella Russell’s bakery, CrumbvilleTX, packs a punch. The cookies and cupcakes are as delicious as they are inventive, and you can special order cakes in addition to the smaller treats.
Keep track of what’s coming out of the oven on Instagram (edubalicioustreats). Cookie Minaj, Chance the Cookie, Mayniac Munch … music in your mouth. Vegans and butter-fiends alike will be happy with the options.
The venture started out as an installation for PRH’s Round 43, Small Business, Big Change, but has become a permanent fixture on the ground floor below the historic El Dorado Ballroom on Elgin at Emancipation Boulevard, the once and future Third Ward Main Street.
Chocolate with white chocolate and caramel and peppermint chips. That’s a good-ass cookie.
Go On A Home Tour – The Real Riverside Terrace Home Tour
In flat-out WTF-land, realtors who do not live in this historic neighborhood have created a new civic association and scheduled a “home tour” that seems to be more about selling real estate than anything else one week before the actual legit Blue Triangle Garden Club.
The actual legit home tour that has been going on for 56 years, run by actual residents.
Seriously. Read what the Forward Times has uncovered.
Houston will never escape our legacy/destiny as a real estate development Shangri-La, but people, we can do so much better than this complete and utter nonsense.
Get a ticket to the real-deal Christmas home tour on December 10th. Even if you can’t go, you can support the event.
Help Save History – Blue Triangle Community Center
The Blue Triangle, once a YWCA, houses an amazing mural by John Biggers, The Contribution of The Negro Woman to American Life and Education. Already in need of restoration, the mural was further imperiled by damage from Hurricane Harvey.
The story told in the mural is the story playing out throughout the Third Ward. The art keeps watch over the people keeping watch over the community. Make a contribution, or, if you’re really feeling the love, make your mark by underwriting the restoration.
Contribution of The Negro Woman to American Life and Education
nonsequiteuse 