This Saturday marks the return of the Not Yo Mama’s Craft Fair, the event dedicated to providing a space for local artisans to show off high quality hand-made goods. After last year’s debut went off swimmingly, the team of young, sassy and excited Jersey City crafters behind the fair — Megan Gülick, Sophie Penkrat and Leah Siegel-Picus — decided they needed to expand this year.

“People were lining up down the block to get in,” Siegel-Picus (pictured at left) says of the inaugural fair, which was held in the cozy confines of LITM. They estimate that they hosted about 400 people throughout the day, with a vendor count of 27.

“It was a trial run for us,” Gülick explains. “The response showed how much people were looking for this.”

With demand must come supply.

This year, 65 vendors and crafters — hailing from as far away as Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania — are expected to attend the fair, which has moved into the expansive 7,500-square foot space at Parlay Studios to better accommodate the day’s expected crowds. The ladies have pulled in a variety of new sponsors this year (including the Independent), and the day promises to offer a wide range of artisans — plus food from Made with Love, live music, light sculptures from Norm Francoeur and more.

As befits a fair dedicated to DIYers and Etsy-holics, this big undertaking is a truly grassroots affair.

“We started out just having craft nights in my apartment,” Penkrat (at right) explains. After some time of getting together to cross-stitch and many clogged tacky-glue bottle tops, the three women saw a local need and decided to make the group a bit more public. They say the initial reaction was spectacular, and it has only grown as they’ve put together this year’s event.

“It’s great to see so many people getting excited,” Penkrat says. “It really gets us very jazzed.”

As the women planned this year’s event, they decided they wanted to partner with a charity for the second go-around. They ended up partnering with Arts to Grow, a Jersey City nonprofit that offers art programs to inner-city children in the metro area that would have little or no access to them otherwise.

As we chat in Gülick’s apartment during one of their regular Sunday morning meetings, the three explain that Arts To Grow matched what they were doing with Not Your Mama’s Craft Fair — artists supporting the arts.

“We sat down, and looked at their mission statement and goals, and felt that [Arts To Grow] was a great fit,” Gülick (at right) says.

“Where would I be without my papier-mâché classes?” Penkrat says with a smile. The Not Yo Mama ladies feel that people need to start doing what they can to keep the arts alive and well, particularly when funding sources are scarce. The more a community can support itself, the better off it will be. “You have to start having a do-it-yourself attitude for the arts,” she adds.

“It’s really good to give back to the community that has given to you,” Gülick says while shuffling through floor plans of Parlay Studios.

Arts To Grow was started in 2005 by Mallory King after she recognized a need for art school preservation in the community.

“We are very, very excited to be involved,” King says. In 2009, the organization served over 300 kids and are projecting to serve over 500 in 2010. Beyond that, there are fifty schools and counting in the five boroughs of New York City, Jersey City, Hoboken and Newark that are on the waiting list, King explains, but not enough funding to go forward at the moment.

Although the Not Your Mama’s Craft Fair has been well-received thus far, the women behind the curtain feel they are still in the fledgling stages.

“We’ve got a wait-and-see kind of attitude,” Gülick says when asked about the future of their initiative. The three are doing business as “Not Your Mama’s Affairs,” leaving them room to later encompass more than just craft events, while keeping with their grassroots interests.

For more information on the fair, including the full band lineup, click here.

The 2nd annual Not Your Mama’s Craft Fair
$5 admission includes a free raffle ticket/children under 10 get in free.
Saturday, April 17, 11 am until 6 pm
at Parlay Studios
161 2nd St.

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Grace Church Van Vorst barely seemed open from the outside Friday night, even as the first-ever Green Teen Music and Arts Festival was happening within. But as the red double doors swung open, the clamor of people gradually got louder until it swept over us like a rush of hot air from an oven.

Movable walls around the perimeter of Grace’s main room featured art from local Jersey City teens hailing from seven area high schools. Photographs, oil paintings and abstract art pieces hung proudly as the artists roamed about the venue hob-nobbing with other artists and friends.

Organized by McNair Academic students and siblings Katie and Hart Welles, the festival sprang from a need for an artistic showcase for teenagers.

“There is no real opportunity for budding artists and photographers,” Hart said in a rare free moment Friday. The 18-year-old was busy all night, tasked with everything from organizing who was going on stage next to making sure all the equipment was running properly to eventually performing with his band Wine and Dinosaurs.

Hart and Katie came up with the Green Teen idea back in December, and with a few calls to a St. Peter’s Prep art teacher and the support of fellow artists, the festival began to take shape.

“I called the art teacher at St. Peter’s Prep, and she loved the idea,” said Katie, an artist with a love for film. She said that they were able to attract teen artists from seven different Jersey City schools.

With the crowds examining and admiring the art, getting close was at first a difficult task, so we decided to check out some literature from a group we first thought was one of the organizers. But we quickly discovered the group was, in fact, a benefactor.

The Friends of Liberty State Park was one of two environmental nonprofits receiving proceeds from the festival. The group has been working with Katie and Hart since they volunteered their time to help during the All Points West festival last summer.

“We have planted 40,000 trees in the park already,” said Jim Legge, a volunteer for the Friends of Liberty State Park. But there are plenty more to be planted and upkeep to be done, he explained. Green Teen will be helping this cause by donating 50 percent of the proceeds from art purchases and 100 percent of the proceeds from the refreshments. That comes to $1,700, an amount that will divided between the Friends of Liberty State Park and American Forests, a national conservation organization that will plant one tree for every dollar donated.

“I wanted to do an event that combined music and [the environment],” said Hart, who hopes to get his degree in sustainable or environmental engineering.

In the middle of the room, about 100 guests sipped and snacked on the refreshments, while on stage, music — from jazz to rock ‘n’ roll to even a fun a cappella group — was played loud and clear. The impressive sound forced feet to tap or voices to sing a loud; everyone in the crowded room shared the gift of gab while bobbing their heads to familiar songs.

“A lot of the [teens] here are regulars of mine,” FJB Comics & Games owner Floyd Bennett said, adding that it was good to see this kind of event going on in Jersey City, with teenagers taking action on something they have a passion for.

Katie and Hart plan on making the Green Teen Music and Arts Festival an annual event, keeping with the theme of nature, art and music, all the while giving the youth of Jersey City an accessible venue to showcase their artistic talents.

One of our favorites has always been the art of pumpkin carving. So we scoured the streets of Jersey City for the best, cheapest pumpkins in town. But since Jersey City isn’t known for its rural farmlands, there were no pick-your-own patches. Nevertheless, we found some reasonably-priced pumpkins at P&K Fruit Market (170 Newark Ave.), where prices ranged from $6.99 to about $13.

From there, the fun begins — and the fun involves knives and sugar …

RECIPE: Leftover Pumpkin Scones

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin
• 4 cups self-rising flour, sifted
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. To cook the pumpkin remains (i.e. the eyes, nose and mouth of your jack-o-lantern), simply boil them in a little water until tender. Drain the water and puree the scraps until it is of a smooth texture.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
3. In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar, eggs and pumpkin. Stir in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt by hand.
4. Roll out into 1/2 inch thickness and cut into rounds. Place on tray close together and bake for 15 to 18 minutes.

Note: I made half this recipe and it made 5 scones … more manageable for a two-person household.

RECIPE: Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Pull the seeds from the guts of the pumpkin and rinse.
3. Spread out in an even layer on a baking sheet.
4. Sprinkle with salt, Old Bay or cinnamon and sugar depending on your mood.
5. Roast for about 15 minutes or until crispy light brown.

With the pitter patter of rain on the windows and doors all morning, the 4th Street Art & Music Festival was looking to be a soggy jaunt in the puddles that spotted the streets of Jersey City on Saturday.

But however gray, the festival went on with vigor. Walking through the streets, we explored the participating galleries, coffee shops and artisans, which glistened with pride as they showcased their work. Spaces that most days look like your generic garage showed their true colors during this weekend of artistic celebration. Not to say that this town hasn’t already proven itself to be real haven for talent of all sorts, but to us, this weekend seemed to be the harvest of it, like the autumn harvest of pumpkins, apples and gourds underneath the brilliant colors beginning to form from the stagnant green.

The hub of the festival, near the intersection of 4th Street and Newark Avenue, was tucked back in a corner — or rather, radiating outwards — and bounced with activity. Music from the main stage boomed over the local bakeries selling cookies and scones as well as the street meat vendors with questionable-yet-tasty skewered beef nibblets.

People moved in streams between the local artisan markets that boasted everything from jewelry to paintings up for silent auction in support of Mission Remission, a charity to raise awareness about cancer. Performances from local comedy troupes entrained the masses between musical sets, with the backdrop of a wet city air-drying under muffled sunlight. The entire time onlookers, visitors and artists all smiled wide and laughed, seemingly glowing with their craft.

Despite the rain, the 4th Street Art & Music Festival was a great way to welcome us as two new citizens of Jersey City. With obvious consensual support of local talent in every artistic arena, this event portrayed a certain type of community effort to make the arts of Chilltown open to everyone to experience, enjoy and contribute to.