MANCHESTER, NH – The city’s most unique collection of alternative and dark-hearted goods, Queen City Black Market, returns to Manchester March 28 for its second year, this time in a brand new highly esoteric location.
Taking over the mysterious New Hampshire Masonic Center for the day, the makers market make a match of shoppers and creatives whose tastes venture toward the macabre, creepy, surreal and gothic; a demographic that exists in high quantity amongst the local populace, but is often underrepresented in retail spaces, and particularly art markets and makerspaces in the region.
It’s all made possible by Janelle Havens, a small businesswoman herself, who designs original footwear and oddities under the brand Lustshroom Etc. Havens’ unique understanding of the space, where artist and alternative shopper intersect, alongside her professional career as Recovery Ready Communities Director for Makin’ It Happen, positions her to create an eccentric delight unlike anything the city has seen.
Reflecting on her impetus behind forming the Queen City Black Market in 2024, Havens, 25, paints a picture of the state of things for alternative creators looking to sell and share their work.
“I was doing the vending thing, in the first year I really started doing the shoes, and I was looking for markets… I was asking around, and had met a couple people who lived up here, like BeeArts and Ghostship Art; I’d see them in like, Connecticut! And I’d be like: ‘Is there nothing going on? Why are we all going three hours away?’ ”
Upon further inquisition among many other vendors, Havens concluded the closest available opportunity for markets lie within Boston, a very culturally and aesthetically diverse city with an audience for nearly everything. But shoppers don’t see the logistical backend that goes into making appearances in Boston, and how even increased foot traffic doesn’t weigh out against the effort and expenditures it takes for artists to be there.
“You’re driving an hour there, paying for gas and parking and food, having to move all your inventory throughout the city… It’s really a pain. Through conversation with everyone, everyone would say, ‘Oh, it would be cool [to have a local alternative market], but it doesn’t exist’. It was the same thing with the Goth Night; all the alternative stuff, all they would say is ‘Go to Boston, Go to Salem Massachusetts.’ But, there is a market up here for it, there is a group of people who would go to this stuff. Someone just needs to do it.”
From there, an idea was born.
This seed of an idea has blossomed into not only Queen City Black Market, but several other opportunities and avenues for Havens and her coterie of creatives, including the community and mutual aide collective New England Artists for Action, collaborations with Kinetic City Events on “Goth Nights” at the Shaskeen featuring gothic dance music and creepy projected silent movies, and even an in-the works “speed friend-ing” event; a creative play on speed dating, allowing individuals with similar alternative interests to meet up in a collective environment and hit it off to spark new friendships over ice breakers and activities. Havens seems eager and excited to continue on the path of carving out spaces for those who walk off the beaten path.
Last year’s debut of the concept, held in Center City’s Henry J Sweeney Post, vastly outperformed Havens’ wildest notions of turnout and success for her vendors, amassing over 1,500 attendees over the course of the event and creating great revenues and connections for artists. The most common feedback, though, was that the event needed a new location with more room to breathe – and more room to increase the capacity of vendors to match the hundreds of applications the Black Market received for 2026.
After having the space recommended by a fellow friend in the maker-market space, Havens knew the Masonic Center was the ideal home for the market’s expansive second year comeback from the moment she stepped foot in the door. The building’s two full floors will allow for a more expansive cast of vendors for shoppers to explore, alongside room for food and drink, and even a day full of music and drag performances.
The Masonic Temple, which remains one of the most historic buildings in Manchester and just celebrated its 100th anniversary last summer, was created as the home and meeting space for the Manchester chapter of the Freemasons, the largest and oldest fraternal organization in the world.
Often shrouded in mystery and misconception, the Freemasons have over 6 million members worldwide, dedicated to promoting fellowship, charity, and self improvement within their individual lodges. Their secrecy, esoteric iconography and ritualistic practices, which are meant to be symbolic and representative of ideas and concepts like integrity, equality, and purposeful living, have given the Mason’s a skewed public image over the years, leading to a decline in membership and funds to support the beautiful historic space. New Hampshire Masonic Center has been working to secure funding and donations for historic preservations to their building since summer of 2025, which requires specialized tradesworkers in industries being lost to time, many of whom will need to be flown across the country due to their specificity. The Masons are excited to offer exclusive tours of the lodge throughout the Black Market to patrons, and will be collecting donations toward their restoration project.
The day’s events will be raucous and jam packed, with two musical performances, a drag showcase, and even a presentation from paranormal investigators 603Para; not to mention double the total number of vendors from last year’s event. The event even has its own official afterparty hosted at the Shaskeen, with a bill full of hardcore punk music.
Havens is excited to see it all play out, even if it is a much larger effort to coordinate, one she manages and oversees solely on her own – besides the occasional helping hand from her fiance, local tattoo artist Matt Baker, and her stepdaughter. She doesn’t earn anything for her efforts building and promoting the market itself: all of the vendor fees collected go toward securing the venue, promotion, posters, and other costs of production. Havens finds that keeping busy helps her mental health, preventing her from falling into dangerous patterns that threaten her recovery.
“I like this, bringing together a bunch of people with little events and markets.”
Havens plans to continue doing more events into 2026 and beyond, including more Goth Nights and her potential speed-friending events in the works.
The Queen City Black Market returns to Manchester in the Masonic Temple at 1505 Elm Street on March 28th from 1-8 p.m.