By Howard Pousner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If getting some "retail therapy" is one of the things that attracted you to previous editions of the National Black Arts Festival, or if you've never been but enjoy plowing into a bazaar overflowing with color and patterns, this could be your year.

As part of the NBAF's belt-tightening, its two longtime shopping events, the Artists Market and Vendor Marketplace, always held in different places in the city, are being merged and presented as one undertaking in one central place.

The International Marketplace, featuring more than 120 booths filled with art and goods, opens today at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown and continues through Sunday. Artists and craftspeople will run booths inside the Memorial Arts Building and around Callaway Plaza at 15th and Peachtree streets; the vendor spaces will run along 15th Street, which will be closed to traffic. But there will be some artists and vendors side by side, as well.

"It's going to be different," marketplace co-organizer K. Joy Peters acknowledged, "but this is something that people have asked a lot about in the past: 'Why is the festival all over the place?' "

This weekend, that won't be a question.

Not only is the International Marketplace at the Woodruff, but so are a host of other free or inexpensive events such as three days of nonstop music outdoors on the NBAF Mainstage, the Children's Education Village (whose program is built around a child-size replica of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth home), the Pan African Film Festival and an exhibit of New York artist Whitfield Lovell's assemblages at SCAD-Atlanta's ACA Gallery. There will also be food and drink booths aplenty dotting the grounds.

And there are a host of ticketed concerts and events inside the Woodruff this weekend, too, such as tonight's concert in Symphony Hall, "Sing the Truth: A Tribute to Nina Simone," and the drama "The Night Writers" on the Hertz Stage for six performances this weekend.

"Now you can be shopping and say, 'It's 3 o'clock, want to check out that film?' then walk back to the Marketplace when the movie's over and shop some more," Peters suggested.

While it's called an International Marketplace, most of the artists and vendors are from Africa (including three from Ghana and seven from Senegal) or the United States, and ditto the goods that they will display.

Among the artists and crafts-people will be a blown glass artist, a sweetgrass basket-maker, sculptors, painters, jewelers and leather crafters. Also being shown will be BaBa Blankets' richly hued blankets, throws, duvets and pillow covers, handmade by a collective in Ghana that was founded by an African-American "social entrepreneur," E. Aminata Brown.

The vendors will feature items including large African wooden sculptures, beaded works, masks, Afro-centric clothing, sun hats and tapestries.

Peters says the vendor booths will feel like small stores.

"For those who like the barter," she advised, "it's fun to go from booth to booth for the best price."

International Marketplace at National Black Arts Festival

Noon-9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday; and noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. Free. 404-733-5000, nbaf.org.