This is the last place that ties the old world to the new.
Willie James, Blues Musician, comment made at MAX-AID, a Maxwell Street Blues Fest, June 1994
You used to get out on Maxwell Street on a Sunday morning and pick you out a good spot, babe. Dammit, we'd make more money than I ever looked at. Put you out a tub, you know, and put a pasteboard in there, like a newspaper. We were all down there. Muddy Waters was down there; Howlin Wolf was down there; Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers too. I'm telling you, Jewtown was jumpin like a champ, jumpin like mad on Sunday morning.
Hound Dog Taylor, Blues Musician, quoted in Maxwell Street: Survival in an Urban Bazaar, 1977
"Jewtown " still is a name for the Maxwell Street Market. It is a term of respect for the traditions of da place.
Al, a Vendor, from an interview, July 1994
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