richardmurray
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(Image: Instagram IamBlackLit)SOCIAL MEDIA SAVES THE DAY RAISING $20K FOR BLACK BOOKSTORE OWNER FACING EVICTION
Sharelle BurtJanuary 26, 2023690When it comes to helping small-owned businesses, call on social media.
AfroTech reported that bookstore owner, Nia-Tayler Clark, has raised $20K, thanks to social media supporters. Before she was even able to open her business, BLACKLIT, in Dallas, Clark was threatened with eviction, and given 10 days to come up with $27,000.
On Jan. 22, she posted her story on Instagram, hoping to turn things around.
“After securing the building for the BLACKLIT Bookstore but not being able to open to the public for 4 months, we have fallen behind on bills and have been fighting to keep our head above water for the past few months,” Clark said.
“We just lost everything.”
Her supporters heard her pleas. Two days later, TikTok supporters shared her donation page and got her where she needed to be. Shortly after, the HBCU alum shared an update with the good news. < https://ifundwomen.com/projects/help-blacklit-bookstore-stay-open >
“Long story short: I pick up my keys tomorrow! And, they gave me 10 days to raise the $7,000,” Clark shared in an update.
The BLACKLIT storefront story started after Clark won a pitch competition during Fort Worth’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, according to Fort Worth Magazine. < https://fwtx.com/culture/blacklit-book-subscription-box-looks-to-encourage/ >
She described her business as a monthly book subscription box featuring the work of Black authors and Black entrepreneurs. Her website states the company’s mission is to “help close the literacy gap, to increase representation, and to cultivate conversations that bring unity across racial divides.” < https://iamblacklit.com/pages/our-story >
The website gave a descriptive moment of why she decided to start her business. “I literally had a student tell me “I don’t read Ms. I’m Black,” the former 10th-grade teacher wrote.
“It broke my heart; but, it also opened my eyes.” The money raised will not only help her keep her business open, but will assist in building a team, whom the Texas business owner told Fort Worth Magazine she needs. “It’s gotten us pretty far, but we need to hire.” < https://fwtx.com/culture/blacklit-book-subscription-box-looks-to-encourage/ >
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(https://theblackpages815.wixsite.com/my-site/about)BLACK WOMAN’S DIRECTORY, ‘THE BLACK PAGES’ HELPS COMMUNITY FIND BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
Stacy JacksonFebruary 16, 2023Find all things Black-owned in this directory.
Courtney Wade is bringing the community together with The Black Pages, a directory she created for easier access to finding local Black-owned businesses.
According to Daily Journal, Wade was motivated to create the directory following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd.
“The community was in arrest, but they were looking for something and wanted to come together,” she said regarding the incident.
Wade observed the needs of the community and, alongside family members and other activists, she developed a festival as part of Juneteenth to celebrate the Black community. She initially imagined the directory as a way to merge the community with local businesses.
"As you go through the festival, there were so many businesses I didn’t know existed,” she said. “After talking to people in the area, especially the older population, they weren’t aware of that either.”
The Black Pages includes more than 70 local businesses and organizations.
“But the idea is for it to become a fully-functional thing,” she said. “So, wherever you go, you can find what you’re looking for.”
A new copy of the directory is published via a local printer around every six months.
Although the primary focus of the directory is Kankakee County, Wade has received involvement from multiple businesses outside the county.
“Overall, my focus and main job — besides my family — is bridging the gaps in the community,” Wade said. “Merging the needs of the community with the resources of the community.”
Wade and her team are working to continue the expansion and growth of the directory this year.
The directory will be available through Facebook and The Black Pages website. < https://theblackpages815.wixsite.com/my-site >
The cost for inclusion is $10, and businesses can reach out via email to submit information for directory inclusion. < theblackpages815@gmail.com >
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Image via Linkedin/Miishe AddyGHANAIAN CEO SECURES $13M FROM INVESTORS FOR STARTUP SHIPPING AND LOGISTICS FIRM
Stacy Jackson
This Ghanaian entrepreneur is helping businesses in Africa expand globally.
Jetstream Africa’s co-founder and CEO, Miishe Addy < https://twitter.com/MiisheAddy , secured $13 million dollars in pre-Series-A equity and debt funding for her shipping and logistics firm.
According to Ghana Web, the funding round included investors, such as development finance institution PROPARCO, through the Digital Africa Bridge Fund, and ASC VC, a venture fund founded by executives of the end-to-end visibility platform, Project44. < https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Meet-the-Ghanaian-entrepreneur-who-led-her-startup-to-raise-13-million-from-investors-1714037>
Nigerian venture capital fund, Octerra, also participated in the funding round, along with Senegal’s Wuri Ventures, Seed9, an association founded by Google alumni, the MBA Fund, the W Fun, and investments from family offices. Alitheia, IDF, and Golden Palm were additional investors in the equity round. < https://jetstreamafrica.com/ >
Fintech lender, Cauris, participated in the debt round as the sole investor.
“All of our major investors have investment or operational experience with the problem we’re solving. They are specialists in supply chain technology like ASCVC, which was founded by Project44 executives, or African value chain and logistics portfolio companies like Alitheia, Golden Palm, Octerra, Wuri, and Proparco,” Addy said.
Jetstream provides services to shippers who need to import or export goods from Ghana and Nigeria. The company’s digital platform allows shippers to pay for and track their cargo.
“Most businesses in Africa make and sell physical things, and you can’t sell what you can’t move. So logistics is really a centerpiece of the entire commerce equation,” Addy said during the virtual Africa Tech Summit Connects. “There are so many e-commerce websites that are coming up to allow SMEs and everyone else to sell products, but it is the people who are running the cargo on the ground who are solving one of the trickiest bottlenecks.”
During a 2021 interview with CNN, Addy discussed her journey as a woman who pursued a male-dominated industry by launching her technology-enabled logistics company. She shared that she takes pride in making an impact through technology and her contributions in an industry creating things that are of value to people across geographical boundaries.
“I would generally say it’s easier to be an entrepreneur as a woman in Ghana than in other countries. Technology specifically is a little harder in Ghana because there are so few women with engineering backgrounds or who have the capabilities to build an engineering or technology-based business,” Addy said at the time.
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How Do You Celebrate Black History Month
richardmurray replied to anonymous50's topic in Culture, Race & Economy
@Pioneer1 fair enough:) -
How Do You Celebrate Black History Month
richardmurray replied to anonymous50's topic in Culture, Race & Economy
@Pioneer1 and thus back to my point, what is the real problem with black history month? I just don't see the logic in the argument from black people who say they have problems with it. I don't see it. russian month/italian month/white jewish month/irish month/polish month/ even french have a week/german week... the whole year is littered with months that overllap for whites and yet, one month for black and it is a crime, it is a grandious negative within the black community itself led by black people like yourself... But, you make a point. Maybe black history month needs to be DOS month though that doesn't sound particularly well.. and to your point, in nyc they have a carribbean month. The carribbean has so many islands, I think even you will realize monthing them all is silly. I disagree, all year in NYC you have black people emitting black culture, all year, no shame or lessening exists by having this month in nyc. maybe where your at , ok. but isn't a lessening or limiting here. Black cultural centers act all year round in nyc, a little month of emphasis isn't limiting them. As for need, or having a special class, again, all communities in nyc have it. The first asian woman to start an asian american studies program died two weeks ago. she was educator in nyc, whose main goal was teaching asian history too... ASIANS... Everyone does it! pioneer. Every group in the usa has a month where they are given an extra media bump communally. every group in the usa deals with their culture all year round. every community in usa has cultural classes in the education system Now maybe where your at black people don't have any activities outside black history month, but not where I am at. so , ask for black history month to be deleted where your at, not the whole country , cause a number of black communities are not limited. -
@Delano the late great donny hathaway... legend I can see the power of the piano forte with you:) nice @Pioneer1 i was being a bit , i admitted the songs I chose were not my favorite:) thanks for your entries @Cynique yes, and thanks for your entries
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in facebook < https://www.facebook.com/groups/162792258578547/permalink/595312771993158/ >
In the literature , carmen is not the villainous, as later in the play or movie. In the play and definitely movie versions carmen is the seductress who tempts a good man away. but in the literature carmen didn't have a part in his original sin so to speak, she simply proves he hasn't changed but is angry when she moves on from him, which all versions have oddly enough. The woman moving on from a fallen guy is the end hook in each:) ... to the white produced film, written by a white man with an all black cast:) I have huge issues with Kleiner's interpretation, like Heyward's porgy and bess. Both stories do not have a proper comprehension of the financial levels or internal social strata's of the black community in the USA. What do I mean? Kleiner suggest that a black woman who has "hoodoo voodoo" is equivalent to a romani woman. the romani are considered another race in spain. A black woman who does "hoodoo voodoo" is not deemed another race in the black community in the usa. From a storytelling perspective, the correct thing for carmen jones is similar to OScar Micheaux's symbol of the unconquered. No disrespect to harry belafonte's joe but in the black community in the usa since world war II is a small, usually high yellow, usually passing, financial black aristocracy who embraced the usa faster than other black people. Joe should be that, like in said michaeux film. So, the vision of the black community is totally false. The reason the movie made money was the same reason cameron's avatar movies make money, the spectacle. A film of black people, with the sexy pearl bailey/dorothy dandrige the handsom well known white female sex symbol [I just quoted or paraphrased james baldwin] is the selling point. For all audiences the image of an all black cast and no mamies, forgive me hattie mcdaniel , during the time of premminger's carmen was the same as the totally digital blue people of cameron's avatar.
in youtube LINK < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBISrX84MpU >
Before 10:15 One key you didn't mention is the role of women inability to own things based on male power.
After 10:15 great point, one of the biggest problems with many later carmen's that the original literature doesn't miss is the other racial category of carmen. Carmen is the tragedy. Dorothy dandrige was clearly very pretty but Carmen isn't the beautiful woman every man needs to fornicate with who when withers if they fornicate with her. Carmen is an outsider , deemed another of the dominant race, who meets a dishonorable/criminal man who still lives a very good life because of his racial status, and when her admiration to him makes him feel better all is good, but when she desires a change and a better man, at least in terms of criminal record, the disgraced man of "a better race" terminates her. That is the lesson of carmen. A person of a potent race can commit crimes and still live affluent or oppulent compared to one of an impotent race, and when the one of an impotent race decides to leave the one of an opulent race the true racial relationship is revealed in the murder.
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hhaha @Pioneer1fair enough, you made me laugh, good one:)
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What can africa do to help itself ?
richardmurray replied to richardmurray's topic in Culture, Race & Economy
well @Pioneer1 for me Haiti/Ethiopia/Nippon/China are the four countries to have reached freedom from white european imperial power completely. and of them china has succeeded. Did you know in the chinese constitution, one of their bill of rights so to speak is that all in china must abide by chinese law. that shows china is very aware of white european domination that in their constitution it is against the law, elementally , for any law to supercede their own in china. think on that, most other countries of color, not white european, don't have anything like that. and in defense of china having some white european trappings, that is why you win wars. Gaul has no one who speaks Gaulish, they all speak a form of common latin, the language of the roman empire. Is that cause the roman empire is around? no, that is because the roman empire annihilated the gauls. War gives the victor a part of the future in the culture to the future humans. It is that simple. Hundreds of years of white european imperial rule will not be washed completely away. That is the history of war throughout all humanity. -
ahh @Pioneer1 fair enough, is the toronto carnival is the closest to your residence? NYC has a miniature in brooklyn.
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@Pioneer1 I know about all the carnivals from canada to argentina. Brasil is the best for me, but I will explain why. In Brasil, when carnaval happens, each community in each city has a carnaval celebration. The carnavals that get on television in Sao Paulo/Rio/Salvador are the ones tourist go to mostly. The average brasilian goes to a smaller, untelevised carnaval celebration in their community in the city. It is like the ball drop in NYC or MArdi Gras in New Orleans, most of the chaos is tourist driven. So, if you want to have a nicer/cleaner/safer experience in new orleans you need to get off bourbon street, in brasilian cities you need to go to the local carnaval celebrations in the cities of brasil. To caribana , I have been there. It's nice. I don't hate it or anything negative. But if I have to chose caribana over mardi gras in new orleans or carnaval in any of the big brasilian cities, caribana losses every time. And, maybe I am just lucky. I am a traveler.
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What can africa do to help itself ?
richardmurray replied to richardmurray's topic in Culture, Race & Economy
@Pioneer1 the same reason why everyone in china or japan each the second largest economy in modern humanity where european suits. White european imperialism did a job on the rest of humanity. It isn't something that can be undone with the snap of a finger but your correct, all non white european people need to reclaim the love to their own heritages or cultures that they lost when dominated by whites over multiple centuries -
How Do You Celebrate Black History Month
richardmurray replied to anonymous50's topic in Culture, Race & Economy
@Pioneer1 In NYC, white irish americans get march , white italian americans get october, white jewish americans get may I don't know where you live in the USA, but where I live, which has 10 million people, individual white communities get months, cause notice I didn't say DOSers get a month. February is Black history, for all blacks. Caribbean american month is in june, not to mention the women's month/the lgbtq+ month/ the people with disabilities month... Where you live in the USA white people don't have months BUT where I live, the biggest city in the USA, there is no white history month BECAUSE each white subcommunity got a month. so.... in NYC, you think black history month shouldn't exist but italian american month/iriish american month/jewish american month/women's month/latino month/ mexican month lgbtq+ month can and all the others can happen ? ok -
@Mel Hopkins She has a personal relationship with his music and performance on stage:) ahh I see, cool about the man to woman or woman to man @Pioneer1 doing something:) we are all adults here. and your correct, simultaneous joys do that.
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Title:Artwork process for - Storm LightningControl
Artist: Clarence BatemanPrior Post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2178&type=statusPost with Clarence Bateman
https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=clarence bateman&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and
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@Mel Hopkins I would not had bet an eric benet would have been presented. I shared this to an offline friend, they went into a negative rant on him:) Nice duet:) lovely sharing the lyrics:) beautiful, have you ever written lyrics? what about man to woman? or woman to man? @Cynique that is a rare sighting, a wilson pickett share Nice man to woman , woman to man:) , and duet which is the most underrated Franklin or Terrell+Gaye song or interpretation? For gaye + Terrell their interpretation collection is deemed a standard so this is a potentially hard question but I wonder your thoughts? For franklin who has a large number of songs, i expect you have one that is not well known you adore alot?
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How Do You Celebrate Black History Month
richardmurray replied to anonymous50's topic in Culture, Race & Economy
@Dee Miller I am being insensitive to our communities uniqueness in the usa. Consider how often Black folk say we celebrate Black History all year I need to figure out how I can view it as a statement of praise not dysfunction. @ProfD I don't disagree that all Black people need to celebrate or know Black history as often as they can. Again, I know I was fortunate, but my youth taught me that black people are the biggest culprit when it comes to our culture not being known by us. My two black DOS parents didn't have magic, they were regular black humans, and not homeless or impoverished but not financially wealthy and they made sure I knew black history, without no need of the school system to help. That whitewash stuff falls flat for me. Why aren't we talking to each other profd? I argue Black parents failed, the white man didn't help, but many black parents simply failed and they failed to tell their children about themselves. Did you Profd? If you had children, did they know about you, the things you were ashamed of that you did or were apart of before you they were 19? -
if you are in atlanta, check out Musashden at momocon https://www.deviantart.com/musashden/journal/Momocon-2023-950129612
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How Do You Celebrate Black History Month
richardmurray replied to anonymous50's topic in Culture, Race & Economy
@anonymous50 In all earnest if I have any issues with black history month it is the lack of creativity, the lack of fun, the lack of a lively nature. I find most activities during black history month are history lessons, things black people shouldn't need. I rather black creativity more. but it doesn't really happen. I can't recall how often I see some health stuff during a black festival. why do black people need healthcare things during a black festival. Black history month maybe needs to be Black cultural month so we can focus on culture, what is grown not history in the usa. @ProfD in New York City, their is jewish heritage month/latino month, asian month/women's month/many various communities month, celebrated loudly. Question, why do black people keep saying they celebrate black history all year round? can I know why? During women's month women don't say , I support being a woman all year round, they simply focus on women. During latino month , you don't hear latino's saying, I am a latino all year round, they focus on being latino for the month . Why is it so necessary for Black people to say they celebrate Black history all year round when so many communities have similar months and during those months get highlights they don't get any other time yet NONE of them feel it necessary to say what you and so many other black people like saying? why? -
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I got the short story collection, the wishing pool,from Tananarive Due. My proof is the penultimate paragraph in the introduction ends with a word, it starts with an o. Any others who have it, private message me if you know the word My two favorite black female writer story collections are: Every Tongue Got To Confess from Zora Neale Hurston, seven best stories from Alice Dunbar Nelson. They each are different. Hurston's are very old. They represent Black life before the war between the states and the period during and after that war ended until the end of reconstruction. Nelson's are more focused. Representing a minority in the minority as a black woman from new orleans. Oddly enough, both writers are not only black women but have a love for the black communities they were raised in which went against, the strong idea from many of their male contemporaries like Richard Wright or Langston Hughes that saw a need to erase or eradicate the cultures of Black people in the USA that predated the war between the states. Sequentially, I expect Tananarive Due's book to be other from Hurton's or Nelson's in subtleties. But it is telling how magic is prevalent in each of their short story collections. Yes, I have only read Due's introduction but I am aware of her enough to know a little of her prefered style. https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2213&type=status
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ah cool @Dee Miller and I am happy to bring positivity
