By Taylor Adams Cogan

People love Deep Ellum for its music scene, the reliably good restaurants, and/or the hundreds of murals we have, making both historic and brand-new buildings special. But fewer know the fuel behind that, and the real reason people love this neighborhood: the community.

Jessica Brodsky has known this for decades.

“In ‘98, I was 17 years old and ended up in Deep Ellum; that was the place to go, I guess, at the time. I didn’t really know where I fit in – going through that young adulthood, trying different things, music, lifestyles, whatever,” she says. “The second time that I went to Deep Ellum, I said, ‘OK, this is where I belong.’ I found a home there pretty quick, I got my piercings there, my first tattoo was at 12:01 at Tiggers on my 18th birthday.”

Brodsky came to be an adult in the era of drinking coffee at Insomnia, taking in punk music at Galaxy Club and metal at Deep Ellum Live, and using dial-up to access AOL chatrooms.

“I met so many people from so many walks of life there. Over the years, I’ve grown and changed, musical interests changed. I got exposed to so many different types of music,” she says. “I’ve always had a love of music and dance, and once I ended up in Deep Ellum, I was like ‘OK, these are my people. This is where I want to be.”

In her 20s, she dove into the local music scene, finding it to be welcoming and nonjudgmental. Weird was normal, and people were embracing it.

As time went on, walking to a bar on Elm Street wasn’t so she could get out for a drink, it was to see her chosen family.

“Deep Ellum played a very, very important part of my life because I wasn’t close to my family. All of these people I met, I knew if I was going through a hard time or I needed to celebrate a good time, I could go to Deep Ellum and find somebody there.”

She did what people did before and after her, strolling the neighborhood feeling confident because these are your streets filled with your people.

“I always went to Deep Ellum by myself. I’d park under the bridge and walk around by myself,” she says. “I hate that throughout the years, I’d see people talking about public safety and things like that, because you can be unsafe anywhere, on vacation, in Plano. Bad things happen anywhere. Throughout the years, all of the good triumphed and outweighed the bad.”

The people she met in the neighborhood allowed her to do some really cool things, she says, including promoting bands, booking bands, touring big acts, and meeting bands. She played in a few, too, taking the stages of Curtain Club, Trees, and Indigo.

She also worked in the restaurant industry, from fancy dinners to quick cocktails.

“I started working high-end restaurants. When I’d get off work, I’d hang out at a bar or go to a show. One day, I was hanging out at July Alley, and heard, ‘Do you want a shift here?’ I used my day off to work there, and I had so much fun, a blast. I listened to music I wanted, dressed how I wanted to,” she says. “We did cool stuff, like holding a benefit for someone who needed funds for whatever; it helped me get involved in the community. Then, it circled around.”

Jessica had lost her restaurant job, and a serious sickness was requiring an expensive procedure, while she needed to figure out how to pay rent.

“Without even asking, the people at July Alley, regulars, they put on a benefit show and raised enough to where I was OK for the next month,” she says. “I’ve seen that with so many people throughout the years. I think that’s one thing that makes my tie to Deep Ellum so genuine and so important. Really, the neighborhood has saved my life so many times.”

There was more than a love of music and space that made Jessica jibe so well with the neighborhood: the commitment to helping and showing up for others.

“I’d always try to welcome people in the way I was welcomed in, and seeing somebody at the bar, asking them, ‘Do you live here, new, visiting?’ and watching people who went from sitting by themself to being more popular than me,” she says. “It’s great to watch that evolution. It always feels really good to watch people find their place like I did.”

Jessica has bartended at a number of Deep Ellum restaurants, getting her feel for the neighborhood across its streets. When she was invited to join the Deep Ellum Community Association board, it gave her more energy, working to promote bars, restaurants, festivals, and whatever else the neighborhood’s boasting at the time.

After getting a new job that took her out of the neighborhood, Jessica finds reasons to go back. If she didn’t, she would find her way to tell others about it – and she was ready to defend it.

“I feel so lucky to have people around me that I met because of the neighborhood,” she says.

It was through Deep Ellum that she got involved in dog rescue, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, mental health support, politics, and helping people experiencing homelessness. 

“The incredible people I’ve met and opportunities to have my voice be heard on subjects that meant so much to me are probably my biggest takeaways from how the neighborhood helped me grow into the person I am today,” she says.