Sheen's Marketplace of Ideas
With the debut of his eponymous, 11-vendor art fair, Rasheen Kenion offers up a new hub—and, he hopes, a future staple—for creative commerce in the Triangle. PLUS: A Deborah Ross mailbag, and other links this week.
A disclaimer: Super Empty has a vending spot at Sheen’s Market this Saturday, for which we did not pay—technically making this sponsored content. I would’ve covered this, and written about it positively, regardless. But FYI.
Sheen wants to sell my magazine in his store. He wants to feature art prints and apparel from other designers, stock his own clothing line, and bring together like-minded creatives from the area. He’s got ideas, energy, passion. The only thing missing, at this stage, is the “store” part.
For now, the beer garden of Bull McCabe’s will have to do.
That’s where we met for drinks earlier this week, the first-time event organizer pointing to locations around the perimeter where vendor tables will be arranged, where vinyl banners will be hung, where the DJ booth will be, when Sheen’s Market debuts Saturday in the epicenter of downtown Durham. Billed as a “curated experience of art, fashion, music and community” and featuring an inaugural roster of 11 local vendors, the concept builds on Triangle-area event infrastructure that already exists, but rarely puts commerce at the forefront.
“We get chances to market ourselves, but it’s not specific [to the brands/creatives]. It’s like ‘We’re having a day party, and over here there’s gonna be a market,'” Sheen told me. “It’s always an add-on. It’s never the thing.”
Rasheen Kenion grew up around family members who loved fashion. At Northern High School, he selected art classes for as many electives as he could, and after graduating, briefly attended the Art Institute in Durham. For nearly a decade, starting in 2024, he co-ran the clothing line Outsiders Huddle, and for the past couple of years has been developing a new label called Bravo Leor.
This all helps explain why, when he mentions diversity 20 minutes into our conversation, he’s not using the term in the way people typically do. He’s talking about jackets. “How many times am I going to see the same Carhartt? You know what I'm saying? It's like 10 vendors out there with the same product.”
The “out there” he’s referring to can be assumed: the thrift and vintage market culture that is not just succeeding, but absolutely surging, nationwide (here in the Triangle, NC Vintage Bazaar has grown to the point of packing out venues as big as the NC Fairgrounds Expo Center). Carhartt jokes aside, Kenion’s motivation is not contempt for the vintage boom—one of his vendors, Middle Of May Thrift & Design, is a vintage and antiques outlet itself—as much as a passion for the spaces where independent creatives and brands can come together, network, and present their art on its own terms.
When asked about inspiration, he hearkens back to a Durham of an earlier era, and promoter Alex Glenn, aka Allie Capo, whose popups Kenion and his cofounder would frequent back in 2014. “We grew so much from that,” he says. “It was so tight-knit and was so much about the community. Every other month we would go to these popups and just vend.”
A decade-plus later, there are countless tools and techniques available—from mining TikTok trends to AI slop marketing—for the pure selling of a product. But there remains no shortcut for the deeper, in-person connections and sustained relationship-building that is arguably becoming more valuable than ever, as our collective attention gets stretched razor thin. Kenion describes the market as “giving people an opportunity to be seen by real people—not just social media, not during a day party where somebody just took two shots, sees a t-shirt and goes, ‘Oh, that's cool. I'm going to come back and get that,' and they never come back.”
Going over the market’s lineup of vendors, he reels off bits of commentary with the casual familiarity of someone ingrained in the scene and attuned to his peers: “I actually walked in a fashion show for his brand” (The Honorebels); “he just got something on Ochocinco” (Rare Collection); “I see her work everywhere” (Recycled Heart Creative). He’s wearing a new five-panel hat from another vendor, Good Energy., started by Raleigh native Ty Griffis after a stint playing basketball for Guilford College. Griffis says that with the area’s streetwear scene growing but still in its “infancy,” these events are “very much needed… somewhere that people can kind of come and convene, and not only just network, but stimulate the economy by circulating the dollar.”
Throughout our conversation at McCabe’s, whenever I zero in too much on streetwear and fashion, Sheen is quick to steer me back to the event’s medium-agnostic curatorial intentions. Yes, his own and others’ clothing lines will be well-represented on Saturday, but the long-term vision is to be a point of convergence across creative disciplines, not just apparel.
As he explains this to me, it seems he’s also convincing himself of the strength of the concept in real-time. At first, when I’d asked what existed like Sheen’s Market, he'd referenced the clothing bazaars as a close analog. But by the time we’d talked for 30 or 40 minutes—going over the details about this event, his goals for future editions, and what he’s seen come and go in the past—he was striking a different, more confident, tone.
“I take it back. I haven't seen nothing like this, ever.”
Sheen's Market takes place this Saturday, June 6, from 1-6 pm, at Bull McCabe's in Durham, NC.
📨 SE MAILBAG: DEBORAH ROSS EDITION!
Last week we took a detour from the usual Super Empty fare and dove headfirst into the muck of electoral politics instead. How'd it go? SE readers didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, they loved it. I got more notes publicly and privately than I almost ever do, which was a great relief given the gravity of the subject matter, and my going out on a limb to include it in this forum in the first place. A sampling of feedback, in readers' own words:
- "Just finished reading through your article on the Rep. Ross situation. I wanted to say I appreciate how you moved within your unique position... I learned a lot through that piece, and I’m glad to have someone responsible looking after local artists in NC."
- "Supporting artists also means caring about the lives, freedoms and truths threatened by violence and oppression... honesty in art requires honesty about the world around it!"
- "Talk your shit! This really might've been my favorite edition yet, with the connection between politics and art/activism call-out. Keep doing great work."
Thanks again to everyone who read the piece, which I'll attach again below. If you want to write me hate mail about it, there's still time! I'll make sure it gets into the newsletter next week.
Ryan Cocca
🌐 ALSO THIS WEEK(ISH)
- Cyanca just dropped a sun-drenched new single and video, "Get That Bag," featuring fellow Charlottean Benjamin Burdon and directed by PLAY—just the start of the rollout to come. (Apple Music | YouTube)
- Reminder #1: YahZarah in Durham tonight at Hayti Heritage Center
- Reminder #2: Our listening party with Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon at Fuzzy Needle next Wednesday
- Just added to The Calendar:
- POOR DAD capsule & zine release party, June 14 (Durham)
- Pierce Freelon album release party, June 19 (Durham)
- Reuben & Friends Vol. 3, June 19 (Charlotte)
- Saul Goode, Tab-One, Bobby James & more, July 2 (Raleigh)
- After years of ashamedly free consumption, I finally became a paying CABBAGES subscriber this week. If you want to be kept abreast of indie hip-hop by one of the most knowledgeable people about it on Earth (and a great writer on top of that), you should become one too.
- In case you missed it, and/or we never mentioned it: The Roots are headlining NC Folk Fest this September in Greensboro.
Peace,
Ryan
