DUDLEY ROOTS: KAI GRANT OF BLACK MARKET IN ROXBURY ON CREATING, SHOPPING, AND SELLING WITH A PURPOSE

INTERVIEW BY C. SHARDAE JOBSON

We asked Kai Grant of Black Market, which is fast-becoming a Roxbury cultural institution, about the importance of shopping local and supporting artisans who aren’t represented in big box stores and shopping malls…

On their vision…

Black Market is a pop-up market that happens on the weekends, and our mission is to eradicate the wealth gap, which is about a quarter of a million dollars. For every $8 a black indigenous Boston family has, a white indigenous Boston family has $247,500. So, we’re here to ensure that black businesses, local businesses, female-led businesses have a platform to be able to sell their goods and their services. We launched in June 2017, and we’ve had over 150 businesses represented here… They set up their businesses like a boutique within a boutique.

On the diverse vendors…

We have East Africa, we have South Africa, we have West Africa, we have Cape Verde, Jamaica, we’ve had Trinidad, we’ve had Russia. We’ve had all kinds of different countries represented here, and it’s incredible artisanship. We have one vendor whose husband is from Senegal, and he sews here in Roxbury. So his products are made in Roxbury, but they’re actually transported from Senegal. We have another vendor who actually does business from Zimbabwe. She has jewelry and accessories. Anything that comes over, it comes from women that are actually being paid. We have a soap purveyor who makes organic soaps that are all small batch, handmade. He gets his products and raw ingredients from Uganda.

On success so far…

We had an amazing time for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, and also Black Sunday, which we enduringly call [the following day]. We generated $50,000 for small businesses in three days. We estimated around 1,350 people walking in and out of this space, having the opportunity to shop small, to shop black, to shop local, to shop female, and they literally made a decision to not go to the mall, but to bring their money to Dudley Square in Roxbury. It was very special.

On Dudley then and now…

Dudley is really our anchor, and we’re here to really help ignite the creative economy, which is so necessary. There are eight storefronts that are empty, there’s such a loss of vibrancy. This used to be a destination. You’d shop Dudley, you’d get your goods, you’d come here on a Saturday and it would be bustling. Dudley Square was second only to Downtown Boston. It’s struggling, it’s struggling with its identity, it’s struggling to remember its roots.

The great thing about Black Market is we have the ancestral kind of vibe going on when it comes to what was here before us that lent the spirit of Afrocentricity and commerce within the community… We’re kind of taking on the mantle, and continuing the legacy for the next generation.

On a positive trend…

There is a real movement around shopping local. And Black Market is kind of the hotbed for that. Dudley Square in particular has been deemed an arts and culture district by the state of Massachusetts, so we’re filling a gap in that area. We’re very proud to say that most of our vendors are artists.

On innovation in and around Dudley…

We are trying to eradicate that wealth gap, Boston is number one in wealth inequality in the country. But our second mission is to really lend our platform for arts and culture. There’s a lot of innovation going on here, in particular with black artists who don’t have a lot of platforms to make and create and also showcase and sell. It’s important that we do both, and that we do both excellently.

This interview was done in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and Beyond Creative as part of “Beyond Boston,” a monthly news digest that BINJ produces with several cable access centers in the region.