How to Support Black-Owned Brooklyn Businesses

June 7, 2020

Right now so many of us are looking for ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Of course, one way to help is to donate to a number of great organizations, but we also recommend supporting Black-owned Brooklyn businesses. Here are some lists to check out.

Digital publication Black-Owned Brooklyn is a great place to start. Founded by husband-and-wife team Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa, Black-Owned Brooklyn provides a gift guide, culturally rich stories and a map of featured businesses.

Brooklyn Tea Merchandise

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Tea, a Bed-Stuy favorite

The NYCityBlack.com directory lists Black-owned art galleries, business services, community organizations, legal services and so much more.

Head to Philly-based Shoppe Black and type “Brooklyn” into their search bar to populate a list of articles about local Black-owned businesses.

The Strategist recently published a list of 125 Black-owned businesses and if you skim through for Brooklyn you will find a number of them right here in our backyard.

This Infatuation article on Black-owned NYC restaurants also has a comprehensive Brooklyn section.

Flowers on Shelves at Nursery

Photo by Seasons, a nursery and garden center in Bed-Stuy

Earlier this year, Bon Appétit shared a story about How to Spend a Big Black Weekend in Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights which features restaurants, vintage stores, wine shops and more.

Lots of people are making useful spreadsheets, including this comprehensive list featuring over 250 Black-owned bars, bakeries, wine stores, coffee shops and pop-ups.

PureWow has a list of Black-owned NYC restaurants doing take out, as does V Magazine.

While just one of the options on this Strategist list of Black-owned cosmetics businesses is Brooklyn based, we wanted to include it since you can still order the products from your Brooklyn apartment. Fashionista provides 250+ more Black-owned beauty and wellness brands, five of which are Brooklyn based.

Ethiopian Food

Photo courtesy of Ras Plant Based , an Ethiopian restaurant in Crown Heights

Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership highlights dining, beauty, hair and plenty of other services along and near Myrtle Ave.

Check out this article on Black-owned bookstores for a few right here in the city.

Though Bed-Stuy’s BLK MKT Vintage storefront is temporarily closed, you can still shop carefully curated items online.

Recently launched, Five Fifths maintains a comprehensive list of Black-owned restaurants and online businesses, and curates Black business news and interviews with Black entrepreneurs. The purpose of the site is to empower those who have up until this point been systemically overlooked.

You can also download the EatOkra app and search for Black-owned restaurants by location.


         
                  
         
                  
         
        
         
         
                  
         
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