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Devante Jackson-Brown is sweating a little as he stands over his smoker, the heat and sweet smoke surrounding him while he flips chicken wings and stirs a vat of black-eyed pea stew with collard greens outside a brewery on a warm September night.

The jazz band playing at Spangalang tonight is setting up on an outdoor stage, and a crowd begins to gather in the beer garden.

Up the block, kids are drawing with chalk on the sidewalk outside Duke’s chopped-cheese and burger stand while their parents jam out to a three-man band of two electric guitarists and a drummer. And a few blocks to the south, Risë Jones is opening a bottle of French wine as she shifts from the daytime crowd to a nighttime one at her TeaLee’s Tea House and Bookstore .

It’s the first Friday of

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