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“Our timeline is that we’re doing this for the beloved community, and it’s to cultivate and grow the one we already have with each other as theTwelve, with the collaborators we are bringing on board who are kindred spirits, but also to extend it out to the city at large,” she added.
The store sells a mix of vintage and sustainable merchandise, from bamboo toothbrushes and reusable beeswax food wrap to mid-1900s glassware and hemp sweaters.
Behind it, the art gallery displays an exhibit focused on people’s relationships to meaningful objects, featuring photographs of items such as a copy of “Muppet Treasure Island” on VHS and a great-grandmother’s sugar bowl.
Photo by Obi Okolo.
There’s a new spot to check out in the Union Market area. The Twelve contains three sections: a lounge area for workshops and conversations, a storefront, and a rotating art gallery. But don’t call it a store. Or a gallery. Or a lounge. The Twelve is a “year-long art/retail/gathering experiment,” according to its website, and will only be open for 12 months, says Amira El-Gawly, one of the co-creators and also the founder of Manifesta and St. Plant.
“It’s a project, not a long-term business, and there’s a difference there,” she says of The Twelve, named for the 12 friends and acquaintances with DC ties who are spearheading the project. “What if we could reimagine what it means to be part of the marketplace? To be in a storefront, but not be a profit-first venture? And what would it look like to put people first and people’s needs first and the community first?”