SHOPPE BLACK

10 Marcus Garvey Quotes That Can Change Your Life

2 mins read

Born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr aka “Black Moses” was one of the most influential leaders that the global Black community has ever had.

In 1920, Garvey established the Negro Factories Corporation and offered stock for African Americans to buy. He raised one million dollars for the project.

It generated income and provided jobs by its numerous enterprises, including a chain of grocery stores and restaurants, steam laundry, tailor shop, dressmaking shop, millinery store (clothing, fashion, hats, accessories, etc.), publishing house, and a doll factory.

Marcus garvey quotes
In honor of an icon of universal Black pride and excellence, we’ve compiled a list of a few of our favorite Marcus Garvey quotes.

Marcus Garvey Quotes

  1. “If we as a people realized the greatness from which we came we would be less likely to disrespect ourselves.”
  2. “I trust that you will so live today as to realize that you are masters of your own destiny, masters of your fate; if there is anything you want in this world, it is for you to strike out with confidence and faith in self and reach for it.”
  3. “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
  4. “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
  5. “Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself.”
  6. “I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.”
  7. “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.”
  8. “Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.”
  9. “The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.”
  10. “With confidence, you have won before you have started.”

 

-Tony O. Lawson


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10 Toni Morrison Quotes That Show Why She Was A Literary Genius

3 mins read

Toni Morrison, the literary GIANT, who manipulated the English language to illustrate and punctuate our humanity as Black people, children of the Sun, has joined our ancestors.

She was a force to reckon with on this side, she will be indomitable in the other. Thank you for Sula, for Milkman, for Pecola, for Baby Suggs, for Beloved. May we never let your work be in vain. Walk in light.

Here are just a few of our favorite Toni Morrison quotes:

Toni Morrison Quotes

“If there is a book that you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.”

“Now he knew why he loved her so. Without ever leaving the ground, she could fly.”

“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”

Credit: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”

“Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”

toni morrison quotes
Credit: The Guardian

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”

“I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.’”

toni morrison quotes
Credit: Glamour

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

“Perhaps that’s what all human relationships boil down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?”

“if you can only be tall because somebody’s on their knees, you have a serious problem.”

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Bettman/Corbis

 

 

-Tony O. Lawson (IG @thebusyafrican)

Black Owned Yoga Studios You Should Know

1 min read

Regular yoga practice has been shown to have tremendous physical, mental and spiritual health benefits. We’ve compiled a list of Black Owned Yoga Studios for you to support. Let us know which others we should know about!

Black Owned Yoga Studios

Deeply Rooted (Atlanta, GA)

Xude Yoga (Houston, TX)

Sugar and Sage (Dallas, TX)

Anacostia Yogi (Washington D.C.)

Black Owned Yoga Studios

Spiritual Essence Yoga (Upper Marlboro, MD )

Black Owned Yoga Studios

Pies Fitness Yoga (Alexandria, Virginia)

Black Owned Yoga Studios

Eb and Flow Yoga (Chicago, IL)

Black Owned Yoga Studios

Yoga Love (Oakland, CA)

Black Owned Yoga Studios

Yoga with Rocky (San Francisco, CA)

Bianca Yoga Floetry (Los Angeles, CA)

Vitality Meditation (Philadelphia, PA)

Khepera Wellness (Philadelphia, PA)

Bodywork by Bre (Palm Springs, California)

Studio 34 (Philadelphia, PA)

Ase Yoga Studios (Philadelphia, PA)

Sisters of Yoga (New York, NY)

Urban Asanas (Brooklyn, NY) 

Magnolia Yoga Studio (New Orleans, LA)

The Soular Yogi (Gulfport, MS)

More & More I AM (Baton Rouge, LA)

Yoga Noir Project (Baton Rouge, LA)

Your Inner Yogi (Memphis, TN)

Any Body Yoga (Memphis, TN)

Yoganic Flow (Detroit, MI)

Heal Haus (New York, NY)

Yoga House (Houston, TX)

Black Owned Yoga Studios

Level 3 Yoga (Atlanta, GA)

Sankofa Yoga (Laurel, MD)

 

Special thanks to  Ajax Jaxon, owner of Magnolia Yoga Studio, and her community of Yogi’s for helping us create this list!

-Tony O. Lawson

 


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5 Reasons Why the SHOPPE BLACK Global Business Directory & Agency are a Game Changer

5 mins read

Since 2015, we have profiled thousands of businesses and interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and professionals from New York to Nigeria, all in the name of celebrating Black Business excellence and encouraging our community to invest in itself and to SHOPPE BLACK.

Now, we’re officially launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds that will get several initiatives off the ground, including:

  • releasing our highly anticipated international business directory
  • expanding our content
  • launching a business agency

Additionally, we’ll be traveling to cities across the country and the Diaspora to connect with entrepreneurs and folks who are invested in creating holistic and prosperous communities.

black business directory
SHOPPE BLACK Co-founders – Tony and Shantrelle

Reason 1 – More than just a Business Directory

Attracting customers (online or offline) is one of the top challenges that business owners face.  What better place to showcase your business or service than through a website that Google has ranked at the top for searches relating to Black owned businesses?

We won’t just list your business on our directory and pray that potential customers find you, we’ll become actively involved as an extension of your marketing and promotions team.

This will allow you to leverage our expertise as a platform that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors monthly, has amassed over 90k email subscribers, and has grown a highly engaged social media following of over 200K people that are passionate about supporting Black owned businesses.

Reason 2 – Access to Business Funding

http://gph.is/YoA7ge

It’s clear that one of the biggest challenges for Black owned businesses is access to the capital needed to start or grow.

In order to do our part to bridge the funding gap, we’ll be offering access to a variety of business loans and credit via a strategic partnership with a Black owned business funding company.

We’ll also offer access to credit repair services for those who need help qualifying for funding.

Reason 3 – Business Services

Our agency will provide business owners and professionals with several services including:

Customer experience training – We’ve all heard about how the customer service at Black owned businesses, well…sucks. However, let’s be clear, this is a generalization. I know from personal experience that many offer excellent service.

For those business owners who want and need to improve in this area, we’ll provide training on how to build an army of lifelong customers that will sing your praises. This training will allow your customers to have a more pleasant experience with your business and feel good about spending their hard-earned money with you.

Branding – When it comes to the look of a website or images on a business social media account, we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the “could use improvement”. ?

Many businesses are getting it right, but many need some guidance. We’ll be enlisting the services of a team of professionals that will assist in making businesses look like they mean business.

Reason 4 – Results and Receipts

We can talk all we want but at the end of the day, what you need is results, and that’s what we offer.  We have a track record of helping businesses boost their brand awareness and increase sales.

black business directory
Results! – Boon Boona Coffee

 

black business directory
More results! – Nick’s Jerk Seasoning

 

Reason 5 – Support for Black Business Supporters

For individuals who are having trouble finding a resource that offers an accurate and up to date listing of Black owned businesses on a global level, we offer an online community that includes thousands of Black owned businesses and professionals from around the world.

Unlike most other business directories, we offer you the opportunity discover, connect and gain insight into these businesses via features, interviews, product reviews and more.

Stay tuned. The best is yet to come. We’ve got much more in store.

 

Click HERE to support!

 

Peace,

Tony x Shantrelle

National Museum of African American History and Culture to acquire Ebony and Jet Archives

3 mins read

The National Museum of African American History and Culture will acquire a significant portion of the archive of the Johnson Publishing Company, the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines. The acquisition is pending court approval and the closing of the sale.

A consortium of foundations—the Ford Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—is making this acquisition possible. The consortium will transfer the archive to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Getty Research Institute.

National Museum of African American History and Culture

The archive, purchased at auction for $30 million, includes more than four million prints, negatives, and media that explored, celebrated and documented African American life from the 1940s and into the 21st century.

“It is a distinct honor for the museum to be invited to join the Getty Research Institute and other leading cultural institutions to safeguard and share with the world this incomparable collection of photographs,” said Spencer Crew, acting director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“We applaud the generosity of the consortium of foundations that made this acquisition possible.  And we pay homage to the vision of John H. Johnson and his commitment to bringing to the nation and the world, the story of the African American experience—in all its complexity and all its richness. Ebony and Jet were the only places where African Americans could see themselves. They were the visual record of our beauty, humanity, dignity, grace, and our accomplishments.

“Being the steward of the archive is an extraordinary responsibility, and we are humbled to play a critical role in bringing new life to these images. With the depth of its curatorial expertise and the technical skills in digitization, the Museum stands ready to marshall its forces to make this archive accessible to the widest possible audience.  We are honored to work with our recipient colleagues to make this gift to the nation possible.”

National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Museum has built a distinctive photography collection that includes more than 25,000 prints, negatives, and photographic materials. Photographers represented in the collection include Anthony Barboza, Cornelius M. Battey, Arthur P. Bedou, Bruce Davidson, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Danny Lyon, Jack Mitchell, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Gordon Parks, P. H. Polk, Addison Scurlock, Lorna Simpson, Aaron Siskind, James Van Der Zee, Carrie Mae Weems, and Ernest Withers.

Read more about this acquisition on the Smithsonian website.

Black Owned Bonnet Brands That Aren’t Charging $98

1 min read

According to NiteCap Founder Sarah Marantz, she came up with the idea for a satin bonnet “after much consideration, conceptualization, brainstorming, and borderline obsessive research.”

black owned satin bonnet brands
NiteCap Founder Sarah Marantz

Fortunately, for Black women everywhere, someone else had the bright idea of creating appropriate sleepwear to keep their hairdos intact. Black Owned satin bonnet brands have existed for ages. Here are a few of our faves for Black girls who considered hair bonnets when sleeping on their hands wasn’t enough…

Black Owned Bonnet Brands

Regal Ivy

Black Owned Satin Bonnet

Beautiful Curly Me

Chiwrapz

 

Loccrush

Black Owned Satin Bonnet

Purrty Dimples

Black Owned Satin Bonnet

Peace Crown’d

Natural Hair Shop

Black Owned Satin Bonnet

Eboni Curls

Black Owned Satin Bonnet

Glow by Daye

FlorBella Boutique

Goodnight Hair Bonnets

Grace Eleyae

Black Owned Satin Bonnet

Loza Tam

Special thanks to Kami (@frobunni) for helping us compile this list! It takes a village!

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15 Black Architects Who Helped Build America

12 mins read

In the 1930’s, there were about 60 Black Americans were listed as registered architects. Many of their buildings have since been lost or radically changed. Although conditions have improved, many people feel that Black architects today still lack the recognition they deserve.

Here are some of America’s most notable Black architects who paved the way for today’s minority builders. Notice how the university first called Tuskegee Institute, whose School of Architecture is today named after one of these historic figures, played an important role in the careers of many Black American architects.

Black Architects

Robert Robinson Taylor (1868–1942)

black architects
Architect Robert Robinson Taylor on 2015 Black Heritage Stamp Series. U.S. Postal Service
 

Robert Robinson Taylor (born June 8, 1868, Wilmington, North Carolina) is widely considered the first academically trained and credentialed Black architect in America. Growing up in North Carolina, Taylor worked as a carpenter and foreman for his prosperous father, Henry Taylor, the son of a white slaveholder and a Black mother.

Wallace A. Rayfield (1873–1941)

Black architects
16th St. Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama. Carol M. Highsmith/Getty Images (cropped)
 

While Wallace Augustus Rayfield was a student at Columbia University, Booker T. Washington recruited him to head the Architectural and Mechanical Drawing Department at Tuskegee Institute. Rayfield worked alongside Robert Robinson Taylor in establishing Tuskegee as a training ground for future Black architects.

After a few years, Rayfield opened his own practice in Birmingham, Alabama, where he designed many homes and churches — most famously, the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1911. Rayfield was the second professionally-educated Black architect in the United States, right behind Taylor.

William Sidney Pittman (1875–1958)

William Sidney Pittman is thought to be the first Black architect to receive a federal contract — the Negro Building at the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition in Virginia, 1907 — and the first Black architect to practice in the state of Texas.

Like other Black architects, Pittman was educated at Tuskegee University and then went on to study architecture at Drexel Institute in Philadelphia.

Moses McKissack III (1879–1952)

black architects
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C. George Rose/Getty Images (cropped)
 

Moses McKissack III was the grandson of an African-born slave who became a master builder. Moses III joined his brother Calvin to form one of the earliest Black architectural firms in the United States — McKissack & McKissack in Nashville, Tennessee, 1905. Building on the family legacy, today’s McKissack and McKissack has worked on thousands of facilities, including managing the design and construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and being the architect of record for the MLK Memorial, both in Washington, D.C.

Julian Abele (1881–1950)

Duke University Chapel, Durham, Norrh Carolina. Lance King/Getty Images (cropped)
 

Julian F. Abele was one of America’s most important architects, but he never signed his work and he was not publicly acknowledged in his lifetime. As the first Black graduate of architecture (1902) at the University of Pennsylvania, Abele spent his entire career at the Philadelphia firm of the Gilded Age architect Horace Trumbauer.

Abele worked for Trumbauer when they received a commission to expand the campus of a whites-only university in Durham, North Carolina. Although Abele’s original architectural drawings for Duke University have been described as works of art, it has been only since the 1980s that Abele’s efforts have been acknowledged at Duke. Today Abele is celebrated on campus.

Clarence W. (“Cap”) Wigington (1883–1967)

Cap Westley Wigington was the first registered Black architect in Minnesota and the first Black municipal architect in the United States. Born in Kansas, Wigington was raised in Omaha, where he also interned to develop his architecture skills.

At about age 30, he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, took a civil service test, and was hired to be that city’s staff architect. He designed schools, fire stations, park structures, municipal buildings, and other important landmarks that still stand in St. Paul. The pavilion he designed for Harriet Island is now called the Wigington Pavilion.

Vertner Woodson Tandy (1885–1949)

black architects
Villa Lewaro, the Madam C. J. Walker Estate, Irvington, New York. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Born in Kentucky, Vertner Woodson Tandy was the first registered Black architect in New York State, the first Black architect to belong to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the first Black man to pass the military commissioning examination. Tandy designed landmark homes for some of the wealthiest residents of Harlem, including the 1918 Villa Lewaro for the self-made millionaire and cosmetics entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker.

John E. Brent (1889–1962)

The first Black professional architect in Buffalo, New York was John Edmonston Brent. His father, Calvin Brent, was the son of a slave and became the first Black architect in Washington, D.C. where John was born. John Brent was educated at Tuskegee Institute and received his architecture degree from Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. Brent is well-known for designing Buffalo’s Michigan Avenue YMCA, a building that became a cultural center for the Black community in Buffalo.

Louis A. S. Bellinger (1891–1946)

 Born in South Carolina, Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1914 from the historically Black Howard University in Washington, D.C. For more than a quarter of a century, Bellinger designed key buildings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, only a handful of his buildings have survived, and all have been altered. His most important work was the Grand Lodge for the Knights of Pythias (1928), which became financially unsustainable after the Great Depression. In 1937 it was remodeled to become the New Granada Theatre.

Paul R. Williams (1894–1980)

California Residence c. 1927 by Architect Paul Williams. Karol Franks/Getty Images (cropped)

Paul Revere Williams became renowned for designing major buildings in Southern California, including the space-aged LAX Theme Building at the Los Angeles International Airport and over 2000 homes in the hills throughout Los Angeles. Many of the most beautiful residences in Hollywood were created by Paul Williams.

Albert Irvin Cassell (1895–1969)

Albert I. Cassell shaped many academic communities in the United States. He designed buildings for Howard University in Washington D.C., Morgan State University in Baltimore, and Virginia Union University in Richmond. Cassell also designed and built civic structures for the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Norma Merrick Sklarek (1928–2012)

The Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, California. Steve Proehl/Getty Images (cropped)

Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first Black woman to become a licensed architect in New York (1954) and California (1962). She was also the first Black woman honored by a Fellowship in AIA (1966 FAIA). Her many projects included working with and overseeing a design team headed by the Argentine-born César Pelli.

Robert T. Coles (1929– )

Robert Traynham Coles is noted for designing on a grand scale. His works include the Frank Reeves Municipal Center in Washington, D.C., the Ambulatory Care Project for Harlem Hospital, the Frank E. Merriweather Library, the Johnnie B. Wiley Sports Pavilion in Buffalo, and the Alumni Arena at the University of Buffalo. Founded in 1963, Coles’ firm ranks as one of the oldest in the Northeast owned by a Black American.

J. Max Bond, Jr. (1935–2009)

American Architect J. Max Bond. Anthony Barboza/Getty Images (cropped)
 

J. Max Bond, Jr. was born July 17, 1935 in Louisville, Kentucky and educated at Harvard, with a Bachelor’s degree in 1955 and a Master’s degree in 1958.

He studied in Paris at Le Corbusier studio on a 1958 Fulbright scholarship, and then for four years, Bond lived in Ghana, a country newly independent from Britain. The African nation was welcoming to young, Black talent — much more gracious than the cold-shoulders of American architectural firms in the early 1960s. Today, Bond may be best known for actualizing a public part of American history — the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City. Bond remains an inspiration to generations of minority architects.

Harvey Gantt (1943– )

Mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt, Democratic Candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, 1990. Cheryl Chenet/Getty Images

Harvey Bernard Gantt’s political future may have been metaphorically cemented in place on January 16, 1963, when a Federal Court sided with the young student architect and future Mayor of Charlotte. By court order, Gantt integrated Clemson University by becoming its first Black student. Since then, Gantt has inspired generations of minority students and politicians, including a young law student named Barack Obama.

Source: Thought Catalog


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Serena Williams Invests in Mahmee, a Startup Fighting Maternal Mortality

1 min read

After Serena Williams gave birth to her daughter in 2018, she shared the life-threatening complications she experienced—and how, as a Black woman, she was three times more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes.

Now Williams—through her firm Serena Ventures—has invested in digital maternal health care company, Mahmee.

Mahmee  uses predictive analytics to provide personalized, on-demand support to new mothers and infants. Mahmee members can book appointments — both in-home and virtual — with a growing network of highly-qualified postpartum care providers, including registered nurses, board-certified lactation consultants, registered dietitians, certified massage therapists,  and more.

Mahmee also features a private messaging hotline, online support groups led by experts, and a personalized dashboard of content and advice that evolves with mom and baby through every age and stage.

Mahmee, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Melissa Hanna

About 700 women die from pregnancy-related complications in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Three in five of those deaths are preventable, and one-third of those deaths happen up to a year after the birth.

Williams was joined in the $3 million funding round by angel investor Mark Cuban, as well as  Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital.

 

 

Delta Sigma Theta donates 17,000 Meals To New Orleans Disaster Relief

2 mins read

The Delta Sigma Theta sorority donated 17,000 meals to disaster relief efforts in New Orleans after it was forced to cut their biennial national convention short this weekend due to ongoing Tropical Storm Barry.

delta sigma theta
Source: New Orleans Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Facebook

According to The Washington Post, nearly 16,000 people were expected to attend the convention this weekend. But the sorority decided to end the convention ahead of schedule after the storm caused heavy flooding across the Gulf Coast and prompted tens of thousands of homes to lose power.

delta sigma theta
Credit: David Grunfeld – NOLA.com

But Beverly E. Smith, the national president and CEO of the sorority, told the newspaper that members of the sorority were “delighted” to donate food intended for their luncheon to recovery efforts.

“There was inordinate amounts of food that would have been wasted,” she told The Post.

The sorority donated the food to the Second Harvest Food Bank, which will distribute the meals to people affected by the storm in New Orleans and areas nearby.

“To have all these meals ahead of time is really a godsend,” Jay Vise, the communications director for the food bank, told the paper.

delta sigma theta
Latiya White, left, Gina Murray and Gina Holmes, members of Delta Sigma Theta from Atlantic City, N.J., stand in the French Quarter (Washington Post)

Vise added that he feels the food donated – which ranges from macaroni and cheese, chicken, chocolate cake and potatoes au gratin – could also help cheer up victims who have been hit hard by the storms and have limited resources to prepare their own meals.

According to CNN, the storm made landfall in Louisiana on Saturday. At the time, Barry had been categorized as a Category 1 hurricane. However, the storm has since weakened and is currently being labelled a tropical storm.

Source: The Hill

Also read: Oo-oop! Why I’m So Glad I Pledged Alpha Chapter, DST

Black Owned Swimwear Brands for Men and Women

1 min read

Looking for a way to hit up the beach or pool in style? Check out our list of Black owned swimwear brands that will have you turning heads.

Black Owned Swimwear Brands

Ama Saturday

Black owned swimwear

Riot Swim

Allure Swim

Nakimuli 

Black owned swimwear

Eyegasmic Swimwear

Black Owned Swimwear

Andrea Iyamah 

black owned swimwear

Asherah Swimwear 

B Fyne 

Ashanti Swimwear

Black Owned Swimwear

Mint Swim

Ofuure

Black owned swimwear

Koko D.

Black Owned Swimwear

Xhale Swim

 

Tony O. Lawson


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