The Goblin Market that opened its gates in Belvidere on June 29 lived up to its literary inspiration, with a touch of poetic license.
Christian Rosetti’s poem “Goblin Market” describes a fantastical marketplace where wandering humans might buy the fruits of “unknown orchards,” “where summer ripens at all hours.” Summer had certainly ripened in the punishing heat.
“I’m a quirky *ss little market.”
As for the market stalls, no actual goblins were in attendance. But the booths presented a different kind of magic — paintings, cartoons, sculptures, chainmail, beaded bracelets, keychains, carved roses and what felt like hundreds of other colorful pieces of human craftsmanship. Whimsical or somber, saturated or stark, the whole impression of the market felt as all inspired art should feel — otherworldly, with a trace of fey touch.
Fitting for an event with the theme of “Rebel Magic.”
A Growing Community
About ninety vendors pitched their tents to welcome around 200 attendees — a big leap from the market’s humble beginnings as a Halloween pop-up with just six vendors in October 2022.
What’s the secret? What charm is powerful enough to lure nearly 300 people into a sun-baked field when they could be inside enjoying the air conditioning?
Goblin Market founder LisaBeth Klein explains it simply: “I’m a quirky *ss little market.”
Quirky is a good word for the market’s offerings.
The Lay of the Otherland
Just past King’s Gambit Coffee and Tia B’s Street Tacos food truck at the entrance, visitors were greeted by a Gremlin Kissing Booth, starring Thoth, a smiling pup who’s 95 percent Staffordshire Great Dane and 5 percent chihuahua. This time, for Pride Month, donations from Thoth’s kisses supported the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth.
The choice of charity comes at a particularly poignant moment: the federal 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program is set to shut down on July 17.
Beyond Thoth’s tongue-lolling grin, musician Sarah Lanier of Bethlehem-based indie rock band Little Bird & The Bad Eggs performed haunting keyboard-backed tunes.
To her right, visitors browsed a Banned Books table, where each title was paired with a sheet explaining its ban and a QR code linking to bookshop.org, where a local independent bookstore can fulfill orders for the book while earning a percentage of sales.
Across the grass was a massive community mural. Artists and attendees added paint, glue, glitter, fuzzy pompoms and anything else with color and shine. The group project will be auctioned off, with all proceeds also going to the Trevor Project.
Drag story time was at 3:30 p.m.
“Like a Family”
Some artists were newcomers. Others have been part of the Goblin Market since its start in 2022.
“It’s kind of like a family, right? I just feel so honored to like to know people like this,” Klein, who grew up in Buffalo, said.
Juniper Rose of Andover has sold art at every Goblin Market while juggling a full-time job and a master’s program in school psychology.
“She just wanted it to be a fun, accepting space for all types of artists,” remembered Rose. “Very LGBT-friendly — like, anyone who wants to come and sell their art, come along…the main goal was to have as many creative people as possible.”
Creativity was always the goal, not necessarily profit. That philosophy is reflected in both atmosphere and language. Klein calls participants “artists,” not “vendors.”
Transforming the Mass-Produced
“It seems like a lot of people who are living here don’t get to see their interests every day,” Persaud said. “When they get to come to this market, they’re able to see their niche and support the artists, and feel that connection.”
Tina Nixon of Coffee and Creatures has a booth that’s a mix of Dungeons and Dragons and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nixon finds ugly, discarded Christmas decor — think snow-covered village miniatures — and reimagines them, combining them with her own materials, as entirely new, sometimes spooky scenes. A Christmas tree model becomes a haunted Gothic scene.
In her accompanying mini-zines, Nixon explain her approach: her base materials — mass-produced Christmas kitsch — come from “distant factories where beauty cannot thrive, and human beings are slowly broken, because the emphasis is on speed and profit.” Repurposing those discarded, impersonal objects into one-of-a-kind sculptures, isn’t just an idle diversion, it’s “a common, urgent mission to start to change how we see the world of objects around us.”
Representation Matters
For artist Noel Megharaj Persaud, who usually sells in Queens where artsy events are abound, selling fan-themed artwork in rural NJ felt refreshingly different. Persaud decided to fill his June calendar with Pride events and took a chance on the Goblin Market, heading to a part of NJ he had never visited before.
“It seems like a lot of people who are living here don’t get to see their interests every day,” he said. “When they get to come to this market, they’re able to see their niche and support the artists, and feel that connection.”
That connection can be especially meaningful for LGBTQ+ artists and creators at a time when many are worried about the rollback of legal protections.
“It’s nice to seek out those events,” Persaud said, “and to see that, hey, it’s your community here.”
The Magic of Rebellion
For Klein, whose child is nonbinary, “Rebel Magic” was a logical fit for Goblin Market Pride.
“Pride is messy,” she said. “Most of the reason that LGBTQ rights have gotten to where they–” She paused. “I almost want to say were — is due to people who were rebellious. They’re fighting for it, even if it’s subversive.”
That message rang most clearly in the art contest, where anyone present could cast their vote.
The winner: Damiar Lopez of Warwick, NY, owner of Beetletooth Studio.
His piece, “Divine Identity,” depicts a glowing figure with wings, shedding a single tear, a response and emotional conclusion to the artist’s personal diptych. The first painting, “Forsaken Devotion,” shows a figure torn between a golden cross in one hand and a trans symbol in the other. Shadowy figures watch from the background, each silhouette covered with staring eyes. The second, a representation of fully coming into oneself.
“Divine Identity” represents Lopez’s own struggle. “I grew up Christian, and as a trans person, it’s just so difficult in that community,” he said. “Like, grappling with your sense of self versus what you grew up with and what everybody else around you may think.”
In the face of judgment and non-acceptance, self-love is rebellion.
To paraphrase Freddie Mercury, another Pride Month luminary: it’s a kind of magic. In this case, rebel magic.
What’s Next for the Goblin Market?
Klein hopes to keep the momentum going. The next Goblin Market will take place Sunday, October 19.
For more information, follow the Goblin Market on Facebook or Instagram.
Chip O'Chang is an educator, fiction writer, and lifelong resident of New Jersey. He has also written for My Life Publications and NJ Indy. He lives in the NJ Skylands with his partner, two cats, and and a bearded dragon.
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
