New York’s Biggest New Hang Is a Fundraising Sidewalk Sale in Greenpoint
If you enter from the wrong side of McGolrick Park, you might miss it. The Sunday farmer’s market sits in the middle of the Greenpoint park, but on the northwest corner, just outside the gates, something exciting is happening. What began with two tables and four friends selling their old skateboards and Supreme gear has resulted in over $150,000 donated directly to grassroots organizations and mutual aid funds based in New York and beyond—and one of the more striking gatherings of young New Yorkers in recent memory.
It’s called, simply, the Sidewalk Sale: a bi-weekly, vendor-oriented shindig put on by skate-world connector Aaron Wiggs and a group of his close friends. Its roots are in the skate world, but in recent weeks the sale has expanded to include streetside haircuts by Dylan Chavles, ceramics by photographer Brianna Capozzi and collaborator Maya Barrera, vintage picks from stylist Haley Wollens’ closet, tees by Tony Tafuro, and bouquets by one of the sale’s cofounders, Sachiko Clyde. This wasn’t what anyone had anticipated happening three months ago, when a few friends sat on a bench in this very park trying to figure out how they could help.
It had been just over a week since George Floyd’s death and New York had revived itself after months in quarantine to take to the streets. “The idea was small and simple,” Clyde said. “Perry [Goodman], Aaron, and I were sitting here in McGolrick, where we had met up many times throughout quarantine. We were heartbroken. I felt like no matter how many protests I went to or how much money I gave individually, nothing was enough. I was also starting to run out of funds that I could donate personally.” The group thought they might leverage their connections in the worlds of styling and retail—to get their friends at places like Supreme and Palace to bring their own gear to sell, too.
And so, on a Sunday in June, they did. Wiggs’ friend and co-founder Stephen Ostrowski explained: “That morning we were talking and I remember saying something like ‘If we make $500 or even $1000 to donate today, that would be fab.’” The group walked away after their first sidewalk sale with $15,000 to split between emergency bail funds and the Equal Justice Initiative. Each week’s proceeds have shifted in response to meet community needs. This Sunday’s sales totaled out at just under $35,000, and will be given to aid the families of Karantina who have been affected most severely by the explosions in Beirut.
This being New York, the Sidewalk Sale couldn’t stay secret for long. And so, despite published hours of 1-6pm on a recent Saturday, teenage girls lined up just after noon upon hearing the news that Chloë Sevigny would be parting with pieces from her own closet. Some gems literally didn’t make it to the rack, snatched up as soon as Wollens and Sevigny put them on hangers. Organizers Ostrowski and Goodman rushed to create a line down Russell Street in order to maintain some structure—and to keep the focus where it belongs. It's a fundraiser, not a party, Wiggs emphasizes—the point is to do good, not to look cool.
New York has been a playground for artists and designers and writers forever—and while, in recent years, it’s been as difficult as ever to forge a creative career here, 2020 has flipped everything on its head. We’ve been asked to take a beat, to take a breath, to put aside what we may have once deemed important. Now it’s time to figure out what we can give to New York. While racks of 2017 Supreme sweaters may not seem like the immediate answer, they represent something. “I think there’s this idea that young people don’t care,” stylist Becky Akinyode told me as she sifted through a rack of her friend’s clothes. “This event is indicative of exactly the opposite. It’s a space to show care. Care for those around us. Care for those who need it most.”
Akinyode has come to shop and hang every other week since June. Her response echoes that of those around her: an initial feeling of shock at seeing so many familiar faces after months of isolation, quickly turning to comfort knowing that this is how her community has chosen to show up. They’ll keep showing up, too: there is no end in sight for Wiggs and his crew. And as long as Chloë Sevigny has maternity clothes to give away, and your neighbor a pair of old skate shoes that need a new home, this shaded stretch of Greenpoint sidewalk is happy to play host.
Callan Malone is a writer and stylist in New York.
Originally Appeared on GQ
