Glass Street LIVE! Delivers Diverse & Socially Conscious Entertainment Line-Up

Glass House Collective and the Glass Street LIVE event committee invite East Chattanooga and surrounding neighborhood residents to the 6th annual Glass Street LIVE, a community-led block party located at Glass Street and North Chamberlain Avenue on Saturday, Nov. 9, from 12-5 p.m.

The committee also just announced the addition of Citi Limitz, the East Chattanooga trio of teen cousins who recently appeared on the Ellen show, to the entertainment line up for Saturday afternoon.

The Glass Street Live entertainment stage will feature a line up of nearly 40 socially-conscious local rappers, poets, hip hop artists, dancers and gospel singers, mostly all from East Chattanooga and surrounding neighborhoods. GSL Entertainment committee chairman, local artist, C-Grimey, said all of the performers booked this year have their hearts and minds on improving themselves and the community around them. “Everyone was selected not only for their individual talent, but also for their community-driven values and support of other projects moving the community forward,” C-Grimey said.

Block party attendees can expect a live mixtape approach to the afternoon’s entertainment, with diverse performances, musical genres and artforms sprinkled in throughout the day. From rap and gospel to hip hop, poetry and dance, this year’s entertainment will all be within earshot of the block party activities now that the event is returning to the intersection of North Chamberlain and Glass Street. Positive vibes will be flowing to the families hanging in the kidzone for the bounce house and live wrestling, or browsing through the pop up marketplace and interactive history museum on Glass Street.  “No one will have to miss anything. I can’t express how much talent there will be here this year!” C-Grimey said.

This year the block party will also premiere a new multi-disciplinary performance art piece called Rooted Neighbors, an original performance art experience inspired by the history of Glass Street. Thanks to a NeighborRoots grant with the City of Chattanooga, local spoken word artist and SWAY creative strategist, Erika Roberts, has collaborated with The Pop Up Project and local musician/producer, Brophesor X, to create a uniquely layered performance piece featuring spoken word, original choreography and original music. Roberts is the founder of Velvet Poetry Productions and is a Chattanooga-based activist for artistic expression as well a social justice artist. She has been nominated for a 2020 Black Excellence of Chattanooga Award (BEC) in the Best In Arts category. The performance will be premiered at 2pm, with encore performances at 3pm and 4pm. The site-specific performance arts piece created for and about Glass Street is a collaboration between The Pop Up Project, Velvet Poetry Productions, Brophesor X, Public Art Chattanooga, and Glass House Collective.

Kudos go out to the volunteer steering committee who have been guiding a successful resident-led planning process and implementing a new committee structure. This has helped create new partnerships and solid skill building for experienced and emerging community organizers in the neighborhood. Working together with neighbors and other socially conscious creatives builds another layer of fabric that helps strengthen communities. C-Grimey said he believes this kind of organizing, around a fun project like a block party, is not only a great way to build partnerships and work with different creative people, it is also a way to get some hands-on experience so those skills of mobilizing and organizing can be used in all different aspects of community work.

This is what community wellness looks like. Using art and creative processes to strengthen communities working for change.

Glass Street LIVE! is Saturday, November 9
12pm-5pm
Intersection of Glass St. and Chamberlain Ave.
Stay In The Loop : Glass Street LIVE! Facebook Event page.

Let’s fill the streets with celebration as we come together with our neighbors to bring Glass Street back to life! Don’t miss an afternoon of family-friendly activities celebrating local artists, homegrown cooks and business owners, and Chattanooga’s most talented rappers, poets, gospel singers, hip hop artists and dancers!