After shuttering for the apparent final time despite public outcry on Oct. 28 due to quality-of-life concerns, the Fordham Plaza Bronx Night Market is back for a seventh season. Organizers of the bazaar, held the first Saturday of every month, initially announced that last fall’s market would be the end of its uninterrupted run since 2017, save for a four-month pause for COVID-19 in 2020. The Night Market celebrated its return on April 6 with food, festivities and gratitude aplenty to be back.
“After we announced our closure, there were over 10,000 DM texts from the community,” said Bronx Night Market founder Marco Shalma of organizer collective Masc Hospitality Group. “99% were very supportive and appreciative of what we’ve done over the past seven years. 1% stood out: ‘We appreciate what you’ve done, but why can’t we have anything good in the Bronx?’ And that messed with us internally as a company because it brought back every reason why we started doing this in the first place.”
Benjamin Coco, FCRH ’24, is a Resident Assistant (RA) in O’Hare Hall. “The Bronx Night Market’s a really great cultural fixture that we’re really lucky to have so close to Fordham. As a Resident Assistant, I and other RAs have held walkover events to the Market as a program and to help introduce residents to a variety of cultures and support local businesses.” Coco, who’s of Caribbean descent, said that he enjoyed seeing his culinary heritage represented. “It was really fun; the first Bronx Night Market I went to, I got to have some good sweet plantains which I had a lot at home, and I got a taste of home after having moved to Fordham and being away from my family.”
“I remember going to the Night Market my freshman year,” said Aurora Marcianti, FCRH ’26, who visited it as part of an RA’s walkover program. “There was a woman selling custom waist beads, and she was very cool and told me all about the culture behind them. I was always super fascinated by how many different cultures were represented by the Market and how it shows the diversity of the area in which our campus is located.”
Shalma attributed public reaction from Bronxite customers and vendors with igniting the push to reopen the Market. “We have over 700 small businesses, predominantly POC, women-owned, and for them it’s a primary source of income, so they wanted us to create a way to come back. That was the main effect. I’ll be honest, when it comes to that ‘anything good in the Bronx?’ that really affected us, to think, ‘Let’s figure out if we can figure it out.’ After we left there was a big push to get us to return and together work to make all those changes that made us leave in the first place.”
Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson said, “It gives us great pride to know our Bronx Night Market is set to resume another season of delighting both visitors and neighbors on Fordham Plaza. Not only is the site boosting tourism, it’s now a major Market, has become one of our borough’s premier tourist draws, and has transformed into a major well-oiled economic engine providing our Bronx vendors an opportunity to demonstrate our rich diversity in culture and cuisine.” Shalma thanked community leaders Gibson, City Council Member Oswald Feliz and new DOT Borough Commissioner Anthony Perez. “Those three stakeholders have been monumental, pulling everyone in, having conversations with DOT, DSNY and FDNY. So when I say it takes a village, that’s literally what it took to combat certain issues to return.”
The issues Shalma spoke of? “Vandalism. I had to personally clean human feces every time I got to the plaza. There were safety issues with unsavory folks coming and stealing and breaking stuff from my vendors.” Shalma bemoaned unlicensed hawkers touting homemade alcoholic “nutcracker” cocktails. “Though we’re in the realm of social justice for everyone, it came to the point where we had 20-30 illegal vendors every frickin’ time.” He noted that city workers weren’t enforcing security. “Our actual vendors were very discouraged, because they have to go through the processes and get certified. Stakeholder conversations ensured DOT, DNSY, FDNY and NYPD understand we all have a critical situation, and that, if they wanted us to come back to the Plaza, they had to help us.” When community leaders asked Shalma what it would take to reopen the Market, he knew the answers. “We gotta figure out a way to make sure our vendors, customers and teammates feel safe, and have departmental activation throughout Fordham Plaza, not just during the Market. The more activation there is, the less likely we’ll see those issues. We have to think about it in a more holistic approach. We also have to create more activities, events and experiences to tip it over in our favor, and we can reclaim that positive space for the community.”
“I’m honestly really excited for the Night Market’s return and to try an assortment of new foods, some of which I might never have even had an opportunity to try before,” Marcianti said. Coco added, “When I went to the Market and held our walkover as a program, it was a really great opportunity to talk with the residents about our cultures that we grew up in, and learn about them and their backgrounds fairly early in the semester.” Coco added he looks forward to seeing all that it has to offer again.
When asked if the future of the Market is secure, Shalma sighed, “We’re working on it. It’s a work in progress.” He explained the solution to maintain the Market’s stability is to make its reputation as big of an institution as local landmarks. “The intention is to accept the fact that the Bronx Night Market is part of the experiential fabric of the Bronx, like the Botanical Garden, Bronx Zoo, Yankee Stadium. Our stakeholders intend to make sure this happens, because it’s something that represents to the community that: not only can we indeed have good things, but also represent ourselves to the NYC community as fun, loving, diverse people that want to celebrate global cuisine with each other.”
