Bronzeville Summer Nights Highlights Community And Promotes Business Corridor

Bronzeville Summer Nights. Photo provided by QCDC.
Bronzeville Summer Nights. Photo provided by QCDC.

Bronzeville Summer Nights Highlights Community And Promotes Business Corridor

By Tia Carol Jones

The Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC) is set to host its Bronzeville Summer Nights. The first event will take place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, July 11th.

Quad Communities Development Corporation was established in May of 2003 as a community economic and development organization, which services portions of the third and fourth ward in the greater Bronzeville area. For more than 20 years, the QCDC has been instrumental in community development, economic development and improving the quality of life for residents.

Rhonda McFarland, Executive Director of Quad Communities Development Corporation, said the organization has been a strong stakeholder and partner with government around housing development, infrastructure improvements, working with charter schools and the University of Chicago, launching a farmer’s market and establishing the arts and recreation center at Ellis Park. McFarland said 75 percent to 85 percent  of QCDC’s programming is around supporting small businesses, engaging small businesses to become brick-and-mortar locations, providing workshops and a resource publication, as well as shoplocalbronzeville.com. She said the organization’s goal is to increase the number of businesses located within the community, with a focus on hyperlocal ownership.

Bronzeville Summer Nights was the brainchild of McFarland’s predecessor at QCDC and it morphed from a Jazz Night to a collaboration with other organizations. The goal of the event was to celebrate community, commerce and culture. McFarland said having the event was a way to bring people into the community’s economic corridor, which includes 39th Street, 42nd Street, 47th Street, Cottage Grove and a portion of King Drive.

“It was to get consumers, visitors and residents into our corridors to meet, greet and shop with our local businesses,” McFarland said.

McFarland said having people engage in Bronzeville’s business corridors in the same way they would any day of the week, gives the event a more relaxed atmosphere. There are no closed streets and more than one way to enter the event. McFarland said she is always thrilled when someone tells her they didn’t know there were certain kinds of businesses and resources in the community after attending the event. McFarland said she encourages people to get out of their cars and explore the community and the commercial corridor. She said the event also gives business owners an opportunity to expand their customer base.

Bronzeville Summer Nights will feature live entertainment and theatrical performances, including Kenchris and Kemistry, Tiaybe, the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Jeronimo, Eros, Jason Williams, Mara Love, the Javon Watson JWE Experience, and Honeywater Live. McFarland said partnerships with creatives are meant to bring people out to the community and encourage people to explore the community. There also is a Bronzeville Summer Nights bike ride, which started around nine years ago. McFarland said anywhere between 30 to 100 people participate in the bike ride. Those bikers get to take a guided tour of the community and the tour ends at the corridor where Bronzeville Summer Nights is taking place that month.

McFarland said the event is incredibly popular and people come from all over the city to attend. She said the QCDC is always trying to expand its outreach to invite more people out, with the hope they will see all the opportunities there are to live, work in play in the Bronzeville community. She said 13 years in, the event has always been a positive experience for the people who attend.

Check-in for Friday’s event will be located at 4400 Cottage Grove Plaza. Check-in for the Friday, Aug. 8th, event will be located at Park 43, 534 E. 43rd St. Check-in for the Friday, Sept. 12th, event will be located at the South Side Sanctuary, 4702 S. King Drive.

To register for the events, visit www.bronzevillesummernights.com or www.shoplocalbronzeville.com.

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