The Office of Nightlife Economy awarded up to $10,000 in grant money to Boston businesses, totaling $300,000, to help cultivate Boston’s nightlife with its Wake Up the Night grant.
Mayor Michelle Wu and the Office of Nightlife Economy launched the Nightlife Initiative for a Thriving Economy last summer and had their first meeting earlier this year.
TALIA LISSAUER/DFP FILE
NITE is a committee of 26 Boston residents, business owners and civic leaders selected to work with the City to develop “a more vibrant and inclusive nightlife ecosystem that reflects the needs and aspirations of our diverse city,” according to Mayor Wu’s announcement.
“We are actually just getting ramped up,” Christopher Haynes, founder of CBH Communications and a NITE committee member, wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press.
Frank Poindexter, NITE committee member and owner of Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club, said NITE is addressing obstacles for nightlife businesses, including the closing times for nightclubs, blue laws and transportation.
“We’re basically addressing those historical blockades to having a more vibrant nightlife as compared to the other major cities,” Poindexter said.
Hilina Ajakaiye, executive vice president of Meet Boston and a NITE committee member, said she has been involved in discussing how to “activate a nightlife for a tier-one city” like Boston in order to “compete with other destinations.”
“The ultimate objective is to present Mayor Michelle Wu with a comprehensive list of recommendations,” Ajakaiye said.
She said she applied to join the committee because of Meet Boston’s goal to make Boston a tourist destination.
While NITE got its footing, the Office of Nightlife Economy opened Wake Up the Night grant applications in April.
“The Wake Up grant … is to provide funding for people who are interested in curating safe, viable, exciting, culturally sound [and] inclusive nightlife activities,” Ajakaiye said.
The grant awarded $300,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding to award up to $10,000 to 42 businesses, residents and non-profits, according to the City of Boston.
Grantees’ events had to be in Boston and fall under at least one of six categories: accessibility, alcohol-free, cultural expression, intergenerational, for youth or weekday programming.
Friends of the South End Library was awarded the grant for its outdoor summer concert series in the South End Library Park.
“Truly it seems as though [the grantees] represent the diversity and breadth and depth of cultural engagement in the city, and we were just proud to be a part of it,” FOSEL Board Member Nancy Downer said.
The Substation — a Roslindale event space, beer hall and coworking community space — received the grant for an event on Oct. 25, Clubstation: A Haunted Circus, said the Substation Co-owner Laura Charles.
“[The grant] is going to lead to some really creative and unique things,” Charles said. “It kind of continues a lot of the exciting and unique programming that we’ve been doing here.”
Poindexter said students are a major part of Boston’s nightlife scene.
“A majority of the income and the participation is going to come from the enormous amount of students who are in the city,” Poindexter said.
He explained that businesses understand the “different rhythms” of students coming to Boston for school and going on break, which affects the economic side of business.
“I really look forward to all of the students in the colleges and universities taking advantage of these great events that the city is really intentionally putting on,” Ajakaiye said. “The students are our best assets.”
