A Summer Sunday at the Maxwell Street Market

A bear, cured and stitched up at the seams, lies on a table at a collectibles store.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

A customer braves the heat, walking past a store selling what it claims to be Victoria’s Secret goods.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

A man unloads a bagful of ice into a drum of freshly made horchata. Cold beverages, especially Mexican drinks, were popular on this summer day.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

Handcrafted wristbands on sale, next to Frida-Kahlo-printed kitschy sling purses.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

While stores with cheap household items are still a big part of the market, it is the food-and-drinks stalls that are really popular. The long line here is testing a child’s patience and has him feeling grumpy.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

A taco is handed to a customer.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

Children entertain themselves with a game of cornhole, as their parents wait in line to get seats at a popular food stall.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

Low-Reen & The Maxwell St Blues Band plays to an empty parking lot, under a tent pitched with the help of their own cars. Historically known as the birthplace of the Chicago Blues, the Maxwell Street Market has barely any audience for the music anymore.
Maxwell Street Market, South Desplaines Street. Chicago, 2018. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

CHICAGO: From 7a.m. to 3p.m. every Sunday, the United States’s longest-running open air flea market has much on offer—from household cleaning supplies to incense sticks and essential oils sourced from the Far-East, and Victoria’s Secret lingerie to rare vinyl records from decades ago.

The 105-year-old Maxwell Street market carries its legacy name despite having had to move twice: In 1994, the City of Chicago moved the market from its original location, citing the expansion of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Again, in 2008, the market was moved a few blocks further east, to its current location on South Desplaines Street.

Tighter security and regulations bolstered each move, despite vendors and visitors alike claiming a loss in the market’s original feel and flavor.

Once the hub for Jewish immigrants arriving from Europe in the late 1800s, the Maxwell Street market also proved a haven in the 1920s for many African Americans moving up north during the Great Migration.

Over the next few decades, the market would provide them employment; some would even jam here in their spare time, creating what has come to be known as the Delta-style blues or Chicago blues.

Today too, most of the hawkers here—a little over 100—are immigrants. The food in the market is mostly Mexican.

Outside the Maxwell Street market, there’s a buzz of rumors about the city administration’s deliberate neglect towards it.

Inside, a thick and quiet silence has descended over it, enveloped by a blanket of summer humidity — Maxwell Street’s trademark blues too have been sidelined. ▪️