SHOPPE BLACK

According to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 U.S. adults is living with a disability — 61 million in total.

The global market for assistive technology estimated at $23.3 billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a size of $32 billion by 2026.

Accessibility or assistive technology can include mobility devices such as walkers and wheelchairs, as well as hardware, software, and peripherals that assist people with disabilities in accessing computers or other information technologies.

Moaz Hamid is the founder of Mvmt Ventures, a venture studio and venture fund on a mission to advance accessibility and disability technology.

He previously served as general manager and partner with Google and helped with the emerging market growth for Maps, Apps, and Search. Before that, he helped Microsoft bring smartphones to the forefront of its agenda in the emerging market. Moaz also led the investment, strategy, and launch of the smartphone company HTC and many other global brands.

In this interview with Moaz, he shares:

• Common misconceptions about what it means to be disabled.

-Tony O. Lawson

The post Investing in Assistive Technology to Empower The Disabled appeared first on SHOPPE BLACK.

Black-led community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are at the forefront of channeling financial resources to Black communities across the country.

However, white-led CDFIs have six times the assets that Black-led CDFIs do, and while white-led CDFIs’ assets have increased over time, Black-led CDFIs’ assets have remained stagnant.

Lenwood Long, the President and CEO of the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs (The Alliance) is on a mission to change that.

The Alliance supports and empowers CDFI CEOs to lead and grow their institutional operations, teams, and social impact.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The difference between CDFIs and other financial institutions.

-Tony O. Lawson

The post Empowering Black-led CDFIs to Create Wealth in Black Communities appeared first on SHOPPE BLACK.

There’s no denying that African Tradition Religions and African Diasporic Spiritual practices are experiencing a reawakening as more people, particularly Black millennials, become disillusioned by Judeo-Christian institutions and dogma. Within that framework, Black Americans are also increasingly finding their way back to Hoodoo, which has finally been afforded the same status as a formal African Diasporic religious system alongside more well-known systems such as Candomble, Haitian Vodou, Santeria, and Lukumi. Within that framework, a variety of traditional European divination tools have also been reworked and reimagined by Black creatives. The Black Gold Lenormand created by Tea is one of them.

My first experience working with a Lenormand deck was several months ago while my family and I were staying at the home of some close friends during our home renovation. I was in a difficult place personally, stressed beyond imagination, and facing tough decisions. My acupuncturist asked if she could pull a card for me after one of my sessions and she used a Lenormand deck. It was my first time even hearing about it. My traditional tarot deck was useful (along with of course more formalized support from my godparents and Orisa, I am a Sango priest and Lukumi practitioner after all).

But as it relates to some of my day to day communicating with Spirit, I was looking for some direct answers to a particular situation. In my own practice, some things are so trivial that I wouldn’t even think to go to Orisa with them. Also, I think there’s something to be said about discerning when it’s time to go to Orisa and when it’s time to go to Egun for those of us who are both spiritualists and Lukumi priests. Needless to say, the Lenormand deck was so direct that I was blown.

Many of you like me when my acupuncturist brought it up, are probably wondering what the hell is a Lenormand deck? Similar to tarot, it’s a system of divination that originated in Europe a couple centuries ago. Based on 36 cards with simple imagery, the cards address more tangible issues in a questioner’s life. Named for a French woman, Madame Marie Anne Lenormand, the cards became more famous upon her death.

Also like Tarot, given its origins, most Lenormand decks are Eurocentric which is why I wasn’t surprised when I only found one deck to include in my list of Black created tarot and oracle decks. However, after posting and launching beaucoup hoodoo,  I learned about one more. Someone (who I oddly can’t recall now) suggested that I check out the Kickstarter Campaign for the Black Gold Lenormand Deck. The deck seemed right on time! Spirit also led me to reach out to its creator, Tea, to learn more about the inspiration behind the project, her foray into Hoodoo and ultimately how Hoodoo saved her life.

You can check out Tea’s Kickstarter Campaign and purchase a deck (or a bundle wholesale for your shop or to gift to family and friends HERE.

– Shantrelle P. Lewis, retired curator, Sango Lukumi priest and Hoodooist. You can catch me at @beaucouphoodoo.

My entry point was being a sex worker and an activist living in New York City. Being a part of a marginalized and criminalized community, where I met others who were committed to using every tool we have available to us. There are a lot of Black healers and mediums living and working in the margins. Where folks need the medicine the most, there’s Black spiritual workers, trust.

These were my first encounters with folks who saw not only me but the ancestors around me. Specifically my paternal grandmother. And cards were a way for me to receive these communications, so I could hear their messages more clearly. I didn’t just want to listen to folks relaying messages from my grandmother. I knew I needed to be able to speak directly with her, too.

At the time my maternal grandmother was transitioning, I had begun working in a Black-owned apothecary in my hometown. I used my employee discount to buy her plant medicine to help ease her aches and pains. And the last photo I took of her was her hands cupped around a balm lovingly prepared by the woman who owned the apothecary, another sort of grandmother in my community. I turned up at her shop door without a real resume, and after one conversation she hired me in the shop.

The role of these Black matriarchs in my life––from my paternal Granny’s spirit coming to me when I was at my most vulnerable and frightened, to my maternal grandmother who loved me loudly and unconditionally, to this woman running an apothecary who saw me and said I had a gift I needed to share––these women saved my life. Any work I do I owe to them. I am honoring them. And of course, there’s Grandma Baby Suggs of Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’. I read that book after I reached Australia when I was wondering what the hell I was going to do with my life. That novel, too, was a balm. The Grannies I know by blood, the community Granny who adopted me, and even the fictional one in Morrison’s novel. Have 100% inspired me to be where I am today, doing what I’m doing.

I’m not gonna lie, tarot isn’t exactly my jam. Not by itself. It’s taken me a long time to pick up the language of tarot. There’s hella cards, and some of them are a little redundant. I’m someone for whom less is more. Simple spreads, basic symbols––or my thoughts get disorganized and messy and my mind wanders all over the place. When I discovered Lenormand it just felt so intuitive for me. The symbols, their accessibility, the way my folks speak through them…it clicked. I structure my readings like a highschool essay. I have Lenormand at the top, bringing the main argument, and Akamara tarot on the bottom row, rounding out the argument with some nice details and supportive evidence.

When I was in college a very traumatic thing happened to me, and I was far away from my family and that support system. That was just how it was. And it was too much to handle on my own. But it became clear to me the people who were around me at that time couldn’t save me and didn’t really see me, so I intuitively began crafting a way to cope. I bought wax for candles, I bought Black dolls and covered my dorm walls with pictures of beautiful Black people. I built a shrine with fairy lights and Black sculptures. I was never someone who smoked or was attracted to smoking but I was absolutely chain-smoking American Spirits.

Up to then, I’d lived about half my life in the church and half resenting any kind of religious institution for the blatant hypocrisy and corruption they facilitated. I didn’t know who the hell I was calling on in my dorm with that altar, or what I was doing. And it probably could have been dangerous, from what I know now about conjuring without discernment. But I remember I made a wax figure I put in an old glass bottle, and on the face of the bottle I put a photo of my paternal grandmother. And I kept that in my room. I kept the names and faces of people who loved me. And years later, when I no longer had that room or those photos or bottles, when I was in New York and sleeping on a mattress on the floor and too depressed to leave my room––she came for me.

So loudly folks could see and hear her around me. My guy at the botanica was handing me my purchases and said, “That’s your grandmother!” My relationship to Hoodoo is by blood and by spirit. I had Hoodoo before I knew Hoodoo had a name. I had it coded into my blood and my spirit, for me to use when I needed it.

I found my way into this formally by stumbling across an article interviewing real witches for their thoughts on Netflix’s Sabrina series. A Blitch (Black + Witch) called Daizy of ‘The AfroMystic’ mentioned she had a group for Black folks to learn about and discuss our indigenous traditions. So I found that group of Black folks, found valuable resources and community support. A lot of things began to resonate with me. I realized African Traditional Spirituality was something I needed to commit to practicing. Not just dabble in or stumble my way through blindly.

I’m an artist, and I typically work with found objects/materials. When my mom was hyping up Little Fires Everywhere to me, she was like “Kerry Washington is playing YOU!” If you watch her creative process on the show, it’s me but without the weed, haha. I went to art college, and that taught me I was expecting way too much from formal art institutions. I was in an on campus group called B.A.A.D. (Black Artists And Designers) and we were a bunch of kids who became increasingly more disillusioned with the state of the art world. Spoiler: there’s hella racism and theft there.

A non-Blac...

The ABC sitcom, “Black-ish,” rarely shies away from controversial issues about race or police brutality. In one of the Emmy-nominated shows most memorable and powerful scenes, Anthony Anderson’s character, “Dre”, responds to a co-worker who suggests he doesn’t love America because he isn’t contributing much to a discussion about the recent election.

“I love this country even though at times it doesn’t love me back. For my whole life, my parents, my grandparents, me, for most Black people, this system has never worked for us.”

“But we still play ball, tried to do our best to live by the rules even though we knew they would never work out in our favor, had to live in neighborhoods that you wouldn’t drive through, send our kids to schools with books so beat up you couldn’t read them, work jobs that you wouldn’t consider in your nightmares.”

“Black people wake up every day believing our lives are gonna change even though everything around us says it’s not. Truth be told, you ask most black people and they tell you no matter who won the election, they don’t expect the hood to get better. But they still voted because that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

“You think I’m not sad that Hillary didn’t win? That I’m not terrified about what Trump’s about to do? I’m used to things not going my way. I’m sorry that you’re not and it’s blowing your mind, so excuse me if I get a little offended because I didn’t see all of this outrage when everything was happening to all of my people since we were stuffed on boats in chains. I love this country as much — if not more — than you do. And don’t you ever forget that.”

– Tony Oluwatoyin Lawson

The post Watch This Powerful ” Black-ish ” Scene About Race In America appeared first on SHOPPE BLACK.