猫咪社区

It鈥檚 Friday night, and the Nashville Farmers鈥� Market is bustling. It鈥檚 not the usual vendors, though鈥攇one are the baskets of tomatoes and piles of squash. Instead, folks are selling a wide range of products, including cocktails-to-go, beauty products, apparel, and more. Food trucks line the edges of the market, and a saxophone player sets a soundtrack of smooth hip-hop and jazz. On the first Friday of each month, the market鈥檚 physical space transforms into the Nashville Black Market鈥攁 marketplace composed entirely of Black-owned businesses.

Carlos Partee鈥檚 tall frame rises above the milling customers. Partee is one of the co-founders of the Market and the owner of , a clothing brand that sells apparel highlighting Nashville鈥檚 forgotten history. Together with Javvon Jones, who also started his own clothing brand called , he鈥檚 created something special.

The two of them grew up in North Nashville, in the 37208 ZIP code. About two-thirds of the area鈥檚 current residents, including Partee and Jones, are Black, according to from 2020. Partee and Jones met in high school through their early entrepreneurial ventures in the fashion world, but later found out they were cousins. In 2018, they were both looking for locations to do pop-up shops for their brands. Every storefront location they found seemed a little off鈥攖oo expensive, too small, or just not what they were looking for. They wanted to do more than just sell, too, Jones says. 鈥淲e had a conversation about coming together and doing things for the community along with the pop-up shops, so that鈥檚 how we started with the Nashville Black Market.鈥�

From the beginning, it has been clear that Jones and Partee are filling a community need. The first pop-up market they put on in February 2019 had just 15 vendors, but more than 1,000 people showed up. 鈥淔rom that moment,鈥� Partee says, 鈥渨e knew that we had something.鈥� The market has only grown from there. Since then, more than 380 vendors have participated in the market events, averaging 65 vendors per market. In 2021, the market grossed approximately $205,000 for Black entrepreneurs, despite the COVID-19 pandemic restricting the market to just four events that year.

鈥淚 sell out every time. Every single time,鈥� says De鈥橨enea Shaw, owner of health food company . Other vendors echoed this sentiment.

Hailey Wesley, a professional self-taught painter and owner of , heard about the market from a friend, 鈥渂ecause I wasn鈥檛 doing so well at the other markets,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd the first night I came here, I sold literally everything, and it was truly amazing.鈥� Wesley also sells through the but emphasized, 鈥淗ere is where I gross the most money.鈥�

For some vendors, it鈥檚 less about making money and more about exposure. Many of the vendors sell mainly online and at pop-up shops. 鈥淥nline sales can get stagnant month to month,鈥� says Shardae Robinson, owner of , which sells children鈥檚 books and novels that feature Black characters and Black culture. The Nashville Black Market, she says, 鈥淕enerates a buzz about my business, and it鈥檚 an opportunity for me to interact with my potential customers.鈥�

Lea Avery, founder of the game and event facilitation company , notes, 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of hard to get exposure for your business in Nashville being a Black entrepreneur, so it鈥檚 great to have these events once a month to let people know that we are here and we need the support as well.鈥�

For other vendors, entrepreneurship isn鈥檛 their full-time job. The market 鈥済ives you confidence because you know you can sell,鈥� says Reuben Dobson, creator of an all-purpose spice rub called . 鈥淚鈥檓 a normal guy just like everybody else; I have a regular job, but I have something that I think people might like. It took me 10 years to have enough confidence to think that I could actually sell it.鈥�

It鈥檚 not just confidence that you need to start a business, though; it鈥檚 capital too. Often, Black-owned businesses don鈥檛 have access to the same opportunities as White-owned businesses鈥� from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta showed that Black-owned businesses have a harder time getting approved for the financing they apply for. As a result, nationwide, of businesses are Black-owned, despite the fact that the U.S. population is 14.2% Black.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a higher percentage of Black-owned businesses reported financial hardship, a problem that was further exacerbated when Black-owned businesses received less pandemic relief than their White-owned counterparts, both in and in the . And though Black buying power is close to , only a of that is spent at Black-owned businesses.

Beyond that, there is a long history of discrimination against Black-owned business, especially in a city like Nashville, where the construction of interstate highways in Black neighborhoods and meant Black people had a much harder time accumulating wealth through homeownership.

As Nashville grows, too, its are rapidly shifting, in part due to rising housing prices.

鈥淣ashville is an amazing city,鈥� says Stephanie Pruitt Gaines, who is in the process of launching her business, , which sells peel-and-press nail polish wraps. 鈥淚 was born and raised here, but it鈥檚 changed so significantly, especially in the last five, 10, 15 years.鈥�

Partee seconds that concern. 鈥淚t鈥檚 heartbreaking to see a lot of the places you grew up 鈥� or the people you grew up with not here anymore, not being able to stay here due to gentrification.鈥�

Gaines goes on to say that the diversity, in part, is what brings people to a city like Nashville. But 鈥渦nless we take very intentional steps to ensure that Black people and Black businesses can stay, you鈥檙e going to see a totally different Nashville, and a lot of the things that attracted people to Nashville in the first place鈥攖he culture, the diversity, the music, the food鈥攑eople are being priced out of that, and it鈥檚 no longer going to be the Nashville that we all actually want to live in.鈥�

Gaines sees spaces like the Nashville Black Market as playing a key role in keeping the city diverse and thriving. 鈥淭hey stimulate the Black economy, which is crucial, but it also creates kind of a cultural and social hub that allows all Nashvillians to really be a part of the rich culture that is here,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd, you know, owning a business in a city that is growing very, very quickly is one way to make sure that the growth is spread across all people.鈥�

Though increasing the number of Black-owned businesses won鈥檛 by itself solve racial inequality in Nashville, it does have the 鈥減otential to in Black neighborhoods, including health care, child care, and food,鈥� as a recent Center for American Progress report put it.

As Jones and Partee work to grow the market, they are taking notes from similar efforts in other cities. In Atlanta, the provides not only a marketplace, but also serves as an incubation center, offering classes and mentorship to aspiring Black entrepreneurs. In Stonecrest, Georgia, is a mall, named for the thriving community that was destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, that gives Black-owned businesses a brick-and-mortar location. And in Los Angeles, the nonprofit Black-owned and -operated community land trust has a cooperative retail space and an incubator program that helps Black business owners get their projects off the ground.

Partee and Jones are hoping for all of that and more for Nashville. They imagine a future where they have a permanent location where culture and commerce come together. Where, whatever you need, you can go there and get it from a Black-owned business. Where kids can come and see people who look like them, who are from their community, having the kind of success they dream about. Someday, Jones hopes, 鈥渨hen you think about Nashville, you鈥檒l think about the Nashville Black Market.鈥�

The co-founders at the Nashville Black Market know it takes a community to cultivate change; that it鈥檚 less about what they alone can do and more about how they can empower the people around them. 鈥淧eople say, 鈥極h, you know, it鈥檚 just another market,鈥� or 鈥業t鈥檚 just another pop-up shop,鈥欌�� Partee says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 like, no, we鈥檙e putting value into our community.鈥�