According to the National Retail Federation, holiday retail sales in the United States reached over $950 billion in 2023, with online sales accounting for nearly 20% of that figure. 

Black Market was established in 2017 as a pop-market with a vision to help close Boston’s $247,500 wealth gap and mission to reignite Roxbury’s creative economy. 

Black-owned businesses can tap into this expanding market by offering unique products and services that cater to niche audiences…and no one does that better than Black Market Nubian. I sit down with founder, Kai Grant. 

One of the world's best-known African-American poets,Nikki Giovanni ‘s work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. 

We’re talking to Tatiana (she/her) is the author of Nocturne in Joy (2023), winner of the Julia Ward Howe Award in Poetry and Amanda She, a two-time Boston Music Award-winning Spoken Word Artist. 

Election Eve on Common Narrative, where we break down some of the major civic and social issues with the change agents at the center of it all. 

Our weekly series, we go deep with leading subject-matter experts AND the real folx at the center of the stories impacting communities.

It’s our season premiere and election special! Today’s show is gonna be a good one with PHOEBE SEGAL of the MFA talking about the new POWER OF THE PEOPLE EXHIBIT which presents diverse perspectives on democracy through 180 works of art. 

In her book, The New Bostonians,  Marilynn Johnson examines the historical confluence of recent immigration and urban transformation in greater Boston, a region that underwent dramatic decline after World War II.

To understand the stakes here is to understand what the next four years and possibly more will look like. To help break it all down is my dear friend and the best politico I know, Jaquetta Van Zandt, host of  Politics and Prosecco here on SPARK FM. 

Common Narrative streams Monday 1-3pm on SPARKFM online and replays Wednesdays on Apple Podcasts.

It's an ugly truth in the U.S. -- black women are three times more likely to die due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth. I share my own experience carrying my son with complications with Massachusetts State Rep. Liz Miranda.

**note: Rep. Miranda is now Senator-elect 

Almost 1000 people have died at the hands of police and methods for tracking those numbers are still evolving. 

I sit down with Mapping Police Violence (mappingpoliceviolence.us) founder Samuel Sinyangwe who says data science is the key to saving lives. 

Boston police say they expect to make dozens of arrests in the summer of 2022 in an effort to address a rise in violent crimes and open drug use in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, also known as Methadone Mile. 

Parents with kids who go to school in the area, and those live and work near Mass and Cass have turned to activism after years of inaction by local and state lawmakers. It's now a central issue of the Boston mayoral race. 

Joining us in conversation are three members of the South End Roxbury Partnership

Controversy continues across the commonwealth over the use of Native American images for school mascots. 

The town of Wakefield voted to keep their mascot after the school committee voted to get rid of it over concerns the warriors logo was offensive to Native Americans. 

I spoke with tribal leaders about that vote and a push at the statehouse to ban the use of Native American mascots in all Massachusetts communities.

Teacher shortages are happening across the country and here in Massachusetts. Or are they? 

Educators for Excellence’s ED Lisa Lazare on why teachers in the space say it’s the student shortage that’s the problem and it goes beyond the pandemic.

Black Panther, Ms Marvel, Luke Cage, Blade -- they’re not just blockbuster comic book franchises they’re a source of representation in a space that often excludes people of color. 

This week, I sit down with Comics in Color co-founder Cagen Luse on creating spaces for black and brown folks who just want to nerd out.

The stakes are high and the takes are HOT in this midterm election…we’re talking all things politics with Jacquetta Van Zandt of Politics and Prosecco podcast.

Common Narrative Airs Mondays 1-3 on SPARK-FM Online.