Courtesy Building Black Bed Stuy
A Building Black Bed Stuy holiday gift guide
From art supplies to accessories to activator, W magazine points us to this list of local goods.
Building Black Bed Stuy is a local initiative that launched over the summer with the mission “to protect and preserve the Black community in Bed Stuy and beyond by providing financial relief for Black-owned businesses was to support Bed-Stuy.”
The brainchild of Kai Avent-deLeon—founder of women’s wear and lifestyle brand Sincerely, Tommy—and her friends Allure creative director Rajni Jacques and dancer Nana Yaa Asare Boadu, Building Black Stuy has been serving a community hit hard by the coronavirus and eroded by gentrification. They provide financial aid to existing businesses and organizations within Black communities, and host epic block parties.
As W Magazine’s Maxine Wally writes:
“Their idea was to bring local artisans together for a weekly marketplace outside of Sincerely, Tommy, and create a crowdsourcing BBB GoFundMe page, with proceeds donated to the community organizations Black Power Blueprint, Life Wellness Center, and the Watoto Freeschool. Building Black Bed Stuy was formed in response to the gentrification of Black communities—an urgent issue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, an area where the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted income, wealth, and social disparities even further.”
That GoFundMe page, incidentally, has hit ticked past $92,000 in donations as of this writing, surpassing its goal of raising $75,000. Check it out. Then go here: From art supplies to accessories to activator, click through for the Building Black Bed Stuy holiday gift guide.
