Building Bridges and Bridging Divides
A Trip to the Julietta Market
by Donna Hecker
A musician and historian promoting healthy cuisine; a clinical researcher who formulates body scrubs; an artist who found his calling in his forties ~ meet Maya McCutchen, Monica King and Dafri.
They’re three of the many entrepreneurs at the Julietta Market. Located in the Greyline Station on the corner of Loudon Ave. and North Limestone, the Julietta Market is open weekly Thursday through Sunday.
The vibe is part dance party, part makerspace, part social club. Ping pong balls whizz by on the public table. A DJ spins tunes. Artisans display homemade jams and jellies, body butters, bottled BBQ sauces. There are food stalls, barber’s chairs, book sellers, hair and beauty salons.
Dafri’s art studio anchors a prominent corner. We’re immediately drawn in, captivated by his vibrant prints and original works full of colorful images of animals, people, plants and places.
Turning 40, Dafri found himself wondering about his place in the world and discovered a desire to tell untold stories ~ stories of people of color, especially those who are and were part of Kentucky’s agricultural heritage, like his grandfather Johnny Thompson, a sharecropper in Harrodsburg.
He channeled his passion for storytelling into creating art; his portrayal of Black workers in the horse industry was exhibited at the Kentucky Derby Museum in 2021, and featured in an article in Bloodhorse magazine.
Dafri loves collages because they “represent the complexity of our relationships with one another and the concept of connections and our melting-pot existence.” He points out how many of the faces are assembled from multi-hued features.
“Treasured Gifts” depicts a Black farmer with his most valued possessions: a Bible, a cotton plant, a quilt square. Another piece is named “School’s in Session” and pictures a young Black girl cradling a chicken, finding joy in being on the farm.
Dafri told us that “we (Blacks) were the cash crop, just as tobacco, corn and horses were.” He wants to flip the narrative by showing his people’s strength in overcoming adversity and their invaluable contribution to the rich fabric of both urban and rural communities.
He says there was a 130% increase in the Black population in Lexington after the Emancipation Proclamation as Blacks moved to the city to work at racetracks and in the horse industry. Dafri lives in a Woodford County farmhouse where he hopes to strengthen his own connection to the land and better support other Blacks in local agriculture.
Leaving Dafri’s studio, we ventured down the next aisle to see Monica King, owner of Love Simply Scrubs, where she sells a handmade line of body butters, bath salts, sugar scrubs and other pampering treats.
Monica turned her background in chemistry and biology into a talent for blending body care products by creating sugar scrubs as Christmas gifts for friends and family.
After a stint working farmers markets and other events, she placed her wares with a retail outlet in The Summit at Fritz Farm before opening Love Simply Scrubs. Monica chose the Julietta Market because she “wanted to see what it would be like to have a storefront and learn what it takes to be a business owner in that setting.”
As her shop name suggests, Monica wants you to know that when you “apply any Love Simply Scrubs product to your skin, it was made with love!”
Monica’s top-selling product in 2021 was The Body Oil. She likes to add flowers from the Lexington Farmers Market to her oils and is currently on the hunt for locally grown lavender. When something can’t be found locally, like Ghanaian shea butter, Monica looks for ingredients that are fair-trade certified.
On the same aisle as Love Simply Scrubs is The Salad Bar, owned by Monica’s sister Maya McCutchen. Maya is a talented violinist who studied history at the University of Kentucky. Inspired to pursue a healthier lifestyle during the Covid pandemic, she’s eager to share her love of nutritious and delicious food with the Lexington community.
The Salad Bar serves made-from-scratch and signature sandwiches, soups and salads, in addition to specialty items like charcuterie boards. Maya hopes her restaurant model, with its emphasis on healthy ingredients, will continue to thrive at the Julietta Market and be duplicated in other locations around the state someday.
Both sisters value building relationships to create a larger network of small business owners, with a focus on local farmers and producers.
As Monica says, “Purposefully sourcing out to these types of vendors makes me feel I am making a difference to someone else's livelihood. I want to continue to make a difference like this.”
The Julietta Market provides a place for Dafri and Monica and Maya to share their talents and stories. The Market itself grew out of the North Limestone Community Development Corporation’s (NoLi CDC) mission to be a bridge connecting public to private; North Lexington to Greater Lexington; entrepreneurs to investors.
That mission led to the creation of the Greyline Station. The building housing the Greyline Station was constructed in 1928 as the headquarters of the Southeastern Greyhound Bus Lines. Today it stands as a concrete through-line from 1930s Lexington to the city of today.
In medieval Europe, bridges were often marketplaces with shops and houses built right on top of them. In Lexington, the Julietta Market is itself a bridge. In Dafri’s artist statement, he writes “my work is a bridge over colored water.”
The span of the Julietta Market bridges many divides ~ Black and white, past and present, rural and urban, the untold and the told. It covers a lot of ground and provides a lot of space ~ space for exploration, entertainment, encouragement, enquiry, equity.
Set aside some time to visit the Julietta Market soon. Sample Monica’s body butters; have Maya make you a salad; let Dafri tell you a forgotten tale. The best takeaway? Fresh eyes, new connections and stories of your own to share.
© 2022, Holly Hill Inn/Ilex Summit, LLC and its affiliates, All Rights Reserved
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