Cahokia PHX Celebrates Its First Year With a Massive Block Party

Cahokia Socialtech + Artspace, an Indigenous-led community and cultural space downtown, is celebrating its first year of business on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Monday, October 10, with a massive block party centered at First and Garfield streets.

What started as a vision to give a voice to Indigenous people in the downtown arts community has blossomed into a collaborative endeavor for creatives and their allies and advocates. “We are a platform to launch ideas,” says Mike Webb (Chickasaw and Xicano), Cahokia PHX’s community cultivator.

The seed for the block party started last year at the grand opening on Oct. 11, 2021, which was timed to coincide with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. That launch — a gallery poster art show opening — attracted such a huge crowd that the 3,000-square-foot space reached capacity quickly, Webb says.

“It was an almost immediate affirmation that people really liked what we were doing or were interested to see what we were doing here,” he notes. That’s why this year the celebration has become so huge.


The Indigenous Peoples’ Day Phoenix Fest 2022 will run from 3 to 10 p.m. and will include 10 collaborative experiences, including three stages featuring live music and storytellers, a gallery exhibit at Cahokia PHX, Indigenous film screenings courtesy of Indie Film Fest, the Indige Design Collab fourth annual RISE Mural + Projection show, live mural creation, Downtown Showdown Skateboarding Competition by Seven Layer Army Skate Co., an Indigenous pop-up market, food vendors, and appearances by the Phoenix Suns and Cardinals. There’s also a VIP area in The Churchill with a fashion show and musical performances sponsored by NDN Collective.

The block party is free; VIP tickets start at $50 and are sold online. To encourage the use of public transit to attend the festival, the city’s District 7 donated monthlong bus passes; they’re first come, first serve at Cahokia PHX.

The celebration ties in with a burst of exposure to Indigenous people and issues, Webb says: “We felt this is our year because of all the focus on Indigenous people within the media, within politics, in the community.”
Webb adds there’s more momentum for Indigenous voices, from TV series and films like Dark Winds and Prey, which feature all-Indigenous casts, to others like Resident Alien and Rutherford Falls that feature Indigenous characters and writers.

Acclaimed novelists such as Louise Erdrich (The Round House) and Tommy Orange (There There) also are newsmakers, as are Indigenous issues such as awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women and the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have run through sacred and historic sites and ancestral lands.

Although Phoenix is situated on Native land and surrounded by reservations, Indigenous voices had been pushed out and were lacking in its arts and business scene, said founding member Melody Lewis (Mojave, Tewa, and Hopi).


Cahokia PHX, which is 95 percent Indigenous-led, was intended as a space for “creative placekeeping,” or a way of reversing the gentrification.

“I grew up on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation and left my community on a basketball scholarship,” Lewis says, “and when I came into the city, it was culture shock for me.”

She saw a need for increasing Indigenous representation and “getting our voices to the table where decisions are made,” she says, adding, “Being Indigenous folks, we see our voices being muted, especially in big urban spaces such as these.”

Partnering with Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation has helped the mission, Lewis notes. Also, it’s key to have members and ambassadors — about 45 in all — who build consensus, decide what happens in the space, and help each other based on their skill sets: “This is the power of community,” Lewis states.

Cahokia PHX rents space to creatives ranging from jewelry makers and fine artists to podcasters and filmmakers. But unlike other co-working spaces, which are hands off, it offers an “incubation attitude,” Webb says. “We make sure you’re fully supported.”

For example, a member with marketing experience might help an artist who wants to promote an exhibit. Webb makes laser-cut jewelry and offers his machine to others to use it, and some have parlayed connections at the collective into professional jobs.

Phoenix multidisciplinary artist and designer Jeremy Arviso (Navajo/Diné, Hopi, Pima, and Tohono O’odham) organized the inaugural First Friday there when it opened, and continues to be a consultant and ambassador. He also fabricated and installed the space's sign, which was designed by Cahokia PHX cofounding member Eunique Yazzie (Navajo/Diné).

“It’s been a great place to go for inspiration and sharing ideas and having like-minded artists and designers in the same building sharing experiences, stories, and ideas,” Arviso says. “It’s very rare, and as a lifelong resident, this is the first of its kind. It’s really special.”

In less than a year, Cahokia PHX has become a major player in the downtown arts and business communities. It hosts at least two events a month, including photo exhibits, film screenings, album release parties, fashion shows, community forums, and workshops in everything from financial literacy to marketing. It even ran a STEAM summer camp for high school students.

Cahokia PHX also houses a small retail shop that’s open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, and it often hosts pop-up markets on First Fridays with about 14 vendors. Information on all events is on its website, along with a scheduling tool for renting space by the hour or day; prices vary.

Looking to the future, Cahokia PHX has outgrown its space in the ground floor of the luxury Altura high-rise apartment building, says Lewis, and they’d like to buy their own building. The collective wants to be involved in workforce development and economic development strategies as well as arts and culture.

The ultimate goal, Lewis adds, is “to heal and amplify our own voices from our own perspective and our own narrative.”

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Phoenix Fest
3-10 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10
First and Garfield streets
ipdphx.com