On Oct. 4th, the annual Phoenix Fest took place on Fayetteville Street in Durham, celebrating the legacy of business and culture of the Durham Hayti community.

The festival was founded in 2005 by Denise and Larry Hester, the owners of the Phoenix Crossing and Phoenix Square shopping centers that have housed many Durham businesses. They looked to bring life back to the street where many Black businesses were located, before the period of urban renewal in the 1960s that devastated the Hayti community in Durham.

“I grew up here and witnessed the devastation of urban renewal when the expressway was put through, and it completely destroyed this area,” Denise Hester said. “And so, [we] just wanted to rebuild and restore the area to its position of former prominence in the Durham City area.”

Fayetteville Street, which was blocked off for the festival, was lined with colorful tents sharing informational brochures, selling clothes and canvassing for political candidates ahead of the Oct. 7 Durham municipal primaries. 

At the north end of the street stood a tall black stage where different musical acts performed throughout the day. A canopy provided shade for rows of chairs filled with people enjoying the music and each other’s company. Food trucks sold food and drink at the south end of the street.

There was no shortage of vendors at the festival. One tent sold decorative hand fans and jewelry and another offered a selection of sneakers. Yet another displayed custom T-shirts printed with various Black figures, from Malcolm X and Madame C.J. Walker to Riley and Huey from the animated show “The Boondocks.”

Miatha Clark represented a table for the Durham Business and Professional Chain, a non-profit dedicated to promoting Black business in Durham and the Triangle. 

“I’m supporting my fellow neighbors and different businesses, especially black businesses,” Clark said. “I think it’s great for us to unite together in one place, so we can really see that we are doing something to affect the neighborhood and do something positive.”

Festival-goers of all ages walked up and down the street section, eating food and taking in the day’s festivities. Young children delighted in the “Cars” movie-themed bouncy house near the stage. 

A young mother named Deidra delivered balloons to the festival, but decided to come back with her partner and two young kids to check it out.

“Just being outside is good,” Deidra said. “You know, the community, family members, other people, other vendors; just supporting them.”

Though the Fest is independently sponsored and politically unaffiliated, it was inevitable that political and social groups would gather at the community event in light of the upcoming municipal elections. Groups like the Durham Democrats, labor coalition Durham Rising and political campaigns passed out information and mingled. 

Jacqueline Wagstaff was at the festival canvassing for mayoral candidate Anjanée Bell, who has since advanced through the primaries to face incumbent Leo Williams in the Nov. 4 general elections. She sat in a folding chair next to two friends, passing out campaign material as they laughed and chatted. 

“It’s a community,” Wagstaff said. “And if you can tell, it is a community of color. I enjoy this every year. Sometimes I just want to be with my people, and this is always my time to come and be with my people. It always makes me happy.”

Amon Muhammad, a minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 34 said that the mosque sets up a table at Phoenix Fest every year. The mosque is located in the Phoenix Shopping Center. He described the festival as a time to socialize, catch up with people and distribute literature about the organization. 

“It’s essential,” Muhammad said. “I’m sure you probably already know about what’s going on community-wise, in terms of gentrification. And so this whole Fayetteville Street area, what’s called the Fayetteville Street corridor, has very few locally, culturally produced events, and this is one of the few that are left.”

But Juanita Jones, national first vice president of Eta Phi Beta, Inc., said that she wished that the festival was advertised more to those outside the community. 

“I really wish that it would be publicized more, because I think we need to get all cultures here,” said Jones. 

Denise Hester said that the name of the Phoenix Festival is a nod to Hayti’s urban renewal and the regeneration of the community according to its own vision. 

“The phoenix refers to an old African myth,” Hester said. “That the fire bird, also called the Phoenix, burns itself up every 500 years and it comes back. So it’s a story of regeneration.”

Beside the performance stage and the festivities was the Hayti Heritage Center, formerly the St. Joseph’s African Methodist Episcopal Church and one of the only buildings that survived the area’s period of urban renewal. The building looked on as the Phoenix Fest filled Fayetteville Street with bustling Black business and joy again.