ST. LOUIS — While it is Black Friday all across America, it is Black-Owned Black Friday in south St. Louis.
Black-Owned Black Friday is a chance for entrepreneurs along Cherokee Street to showcase their products and services, and hopefully make the rest of the area aware of them.
Vendor Danielle Guyton, the owner of My Tangled Roots, is selling her hand-made ceramic, plastic and concrete plants, pots, and pet accessories. Many of them feature a pun.
“Some of them read ‘Rooting for every Black.’ So, it’s a pun for rooting. I have different things, like ‘I wet my plants.’ When people come into my booth they just laugh," Guyton said.
Organizer Sarita Moody says this is the sixth-annual Black-Owned Black Friday pop-up market.
“A lot of the things you see here today are made by hand,” added Moody. “These are things people have honed in on their crafts over the years. We think it’s a good opportunity for people to spend money in this neighborhood located in their community, instead of going to big-box shopping stores.”
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Moody said vendors and brick and mortar businesses participated all up and down Cherokee Street. Those include the award-winning Teatopia, owned by Reginald Quarles.
“The biggest thing I like about this is the community aspect of it," Quarles said. "People from outside of Cherokee Street come to this area and see how tight-knit this community really is, and how they can become a part of it. We’re accepting to the idea of other people coming to the area.”
Justin Harris owns St. Louis Hop Shop, which features an impressive array of a St. Louis staple – beer.
Harris said, “I just hope to keep the tradition going. We’ve done Black-Owned Black Friday. I’m not one of the organizers, but we’ve participated for the last three or four years and it seems like it’s grown every year.”
Moody said in all more than 30 vendors and brick and mortar businesses took part in Black-Owned Black Friday, this year.