Photo Essay: Spokane Global Market weaves food, art and kindness into tapestry of community

Photo Essay: Spokane Global Market weaves food, art and kindness into tapestry of community

Photos and News Story by Gen Heywood | FāVS News

In the parking lot of The Gathering House, a church in the Garland district, the Global Food and Art Market has grown from a vision into a reality. The church wanted to find a way to live out their faith and the call to love all neighbors. There had been a farmers market at this location in the past. They thought since there were already plenty of farmers markets, they asked themselves what was really needed at this time in their location?

“Our vision was to create a place for businesses owned by refugees and immigrants in our community to have their own market,” said Joanna Newcomb the visionary for and a volunteer of The Gathering House, “and a place to launch their business or grow their business in a way to reach the Spokane community.”

They achieved that and more. The market offers the community a place where they can visit people from other countries, try different foods, talk with the business owners about their experiences, shop for creative gifts and visit with friends in the covered dining area. 

“We really want a place for people to sit and talk. So more than just come try the food, but definitely come try the food, because it’s great,” Newcomb said. “And then there’s artists to shop from, and it’s a place where you can sit down at a table with people you don’t know and just say hi, and that’s totally normal.”

All of the business owners spoke with praise for the food that was available at this market. Newcomb recommended that church groups and friends make a point to come out for dinner. It is a way to support our neighbors while enjoying the art and music.

The Market gets musicians — and sometimes dancers — that may be local or international. On this night it was the Pharm Boys, a local father and son duet, who gave the market its inviting feel.

“We had a Bulgarian musician, who’s a Whitworth student, playing last week and then a Mexican musician doing Spanish language music. And it was so great,” Newcomb said, when talking about the musicians the market’s had since May. 

“We were able to do some food vouchers for World Relief clients, and they were able to come. A lot of them were Spanish speakers and to see them sit down with their kids playing and singing along to the Spanish language music. It’s like, yes, this is wonderful,” she said.

When Chonita’s Tacos owner Maribel (who only wanted to be known by her first name) was asked what she would like others to know about her business, she said, “We’re trying to make the traditional tacos, like Mexico City.”

The variety of foods offers visitors the chance to travel the world any Tuesday evening in July. 

Entiser Ahmed started her journey with Feast World Kitchen. Now, she is at The Scale House Market at the Quarry in Spokane Valley and the Global Food and Art Market. Her goal is to have a restaurant of her own in the near future. 

Her success has been from the support of her husband and five daughters as well as how she prepares the food with love. 

“My business name is Ishtar, the queen of love,” Ahmed said. “This is my business. Making food with love. I’m happy when I see that people love the food.”  

Krista Baraza, co-owner of Baraza Bangles, offers handcrafted earrings, bangles and purses made by her family in Kenya. Her husband is Kenyan, and his family are artists. 

“This is what they do full time,” she said. “They ship all over the world, and we started selling on their behalf last summer as an extension of the family business. So all the proceeds go to support them. And they are the makers of everything we have. It’s a privilege to be able to show off their artistry.”  

Baraza’s in-laws, Patrick and Rose Baraza, began the business 40 years ago and are still making their art in Nairobi, Kenya. The bangles that Patrick Baraza creates are made of metals that change color through his heating process. They are shipped around the world.

When asked about how the tariffs have affected the business, Krista Baraza said, ”When I saw the tariff, I was shocked. Really? It almost doubled. So yeah. But even with that, because we source out of East Africa, it’s still profitable for the family. So we can continue going forward, but it has definitely affected other areas of business, and other partners that they have in businesses that they sell with has definitely affected them.” 

Not everyone there sold food or crafts. Pingala Dhital — who was one of 2023’s Spokane Women of the Year — shared the Mahima Project, which she began after the murders of two refugee women in Spokane. One was killed by her husband and the other by her ex-husband.

“Most of us are trauma survivors,” said Dhital, “and Mahima primarily works with domestic violence survivors.” 

She shared with visitors about the difficulties that trauma and domestic violence survivors face and the essential role that Mahima has in the healing process. However, with the funding recently cut down significantly, Thrive International, the organization Mahima runs out of, has had to cut down Mahima’s budget significantly. This leaves her working part-time, despite the fact the challenges the refugee women she serves face have not decreased. 

At this moment, Dhital described stories of women in difficult family situations and health situations. The needs remain. She shared contact information to those who would like to help or to find out more — that she can be emailed at Pingala@thriveinternational.org or called at 509-553-5606.

Jillian Joseph, owner of Kizuri in downtown Spokane, was also invited to be a part of the Global Market. While not an immigrant or refugee herself, her shop sells products based on Fair Trade principles from all over the world that supports many international artisans.

“For us, it was a way that we could support those businesses and be able to be in community with folks from around the world right here in the Garland district,” Joseph said.

Several of the business owners reflected upon the kindness that is felt at the Global Food and Art Market. For Muslima Bahar and Joseph the market is also a time to catch up on friendship. They first met when Bahar’s art was for sale through the Mahima Project near Joseph’s shop. 

For Bahar it is the kindness she feels at the market and especially from her friend that makes being part of this event important to her life. She said that she has experienced a lot of meanness from people in this country but only kindness from Joseph and the people of the Global Food and Art Market.

Bahar creates her own designs for her jewelry pieces. Her work with creating art works out of henna are praised by other workers at the market as well.

The Global Food and Art Market aims to be accessible to people of all ages and a place where kindness and community are built. The market only has four more Tuesdays as it closes at the end of July. 

When talking about The Gathering House, Newcomb spoke of how her church, long ago, was founded by Swedish immigrants. 

“So there is that little connection of immigration,” she said. “We just want to figure out a way to benefit the community.” 

Back when she was first forming the idea of the Global Food and Art Market, Newcomb talked with her refugee immigrant connections and asked them if they thought this would be something good to do. 

“They were like, yes. Some of them were like, we’ve been thinking of doing something like that. We always thought it would be great to do like a market focused on refugee and immigrant businesses, like an international style market where people are making their cultural food and selling their art,” she said. “So, yeah, we went ahead and tried it.”