If you’re white, like me, perhaps you haven’t consciously thought about seeking out Black-owned businesses and shops to buy from. My own seeking-out was prompted by the marvellous Nova Reid (whose antiracism course has taught me so much about my own racism and how to unearth, interrogate and set about dismantling it). Here are some Black-owned businesses and a handful of Black writers (some of whom I found here):
Handmade soaps from Saboon Alee
Cards & printed mugs from Hood Greetings
Cushions and scrunchies and beautiful masks from The Cushion Maven
Incredible socks from Sock of a Kind
All kinds of Teddy Bears from Grin and Bear
Jewellery from AsaArtshop
Cards and wrapping paper and rubik’s cubes and more from Kazvare Made It
And then there’s poetry (and prose) from 4 Brown Girls Who Write
4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE are a poetry collective and sisterhood made up of Roshni Goyate, Sharan Hunjan, Sheena Patel and Sunnah Khan.
The collective was born on the waters of the Thames in 2017 where Sheena gathered friends on a boat to share in creativity and vulnerability. The four … formed a WhatsApp group that became a safe place to share and receive each other’s writing. They are a harbour and a sisterhood—each other’s biggest fans and fairest critics. This is their first collective offering of solo works.
And, finally, Nova Reid’s The Good Ally:
Happy everything, and may 2022 be the year we learn to live with coronavirus the way we live with flu, as Chris Whitty said last April.
