Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

August 24, 2022

Black Wall Street Festival to highlight Black-owned businesses

Photo | Liese Klein Athena Murphy of Lip Lock beauty company speaks with Arden Santana of SAHGE Academy at an event promoting New Haven’s Black Wall Street Festival on Aug. 24, 2022, with Mayor Justin Elicker and Director of Arts, Culture & Tourism Adriane Jefferson (far left).
By Liese Klein

Athena Murphy’s Lip Lock vegan beauty products will be at an inaugural Black Wall Street Festival, along with information about Arden Santana’s SAHGE Academy learning program.

They are just a couple of the 25 Black business owners to be featured Saturday at the event in New Haven.

“It’s very important to me to give back to my community – it’s very important to be a representation of us as we are women and young black women growing up in this world today,” said Murphy.

The Black Wall Street Festival is scheduled to take place from 12 noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, in Temple Plaza in downtown New Haven. In addition to the vendors, the event features food and drinks, live performances and a DJ.

Addressing young people Wednesday at an event promoting the festival, Murphy added, “We're here showing you guys that everybody starts from the bottom and eventually will be at the top.”

Photo | Liese Klein
New Haven Director of Arts, Culture & Tourism Adriane Jefferson speaks at an event promoting the city’s first Black Wall Street Festival, scheduled for Aug. 27, 2022.

The first event of its kind in the city, the Black Wall Street Festival both pays respect to vibrant Black business districts of the past and celebrates the thriving Black entrepreneurial community of today, said Adriane Jefferson, New Haven’s director of arts, culture and tourism.

“So many of our residents who have been unseen, unheard – who feel like they haven't had a platform to thrive for a very long time now – are going to be able to show their talents, their skills and be able to build back economic wealth,” Jefferson said. 

The event gets its name from historic Black businesses districts across the country, several of which were destroyed in eruptions of anti-Black violence in the last century. 

“What we're doing is honoring and commemorating the history of Black Wall Streets, and we're revitalizing and restoring Black Wall Streets – economic growth, economic well being and wealth in the Black and brown community,” Jefferson said. 

Over the past several years, 28 new Black-owned businesses have opened their doors in New Haven, Mayor Justin Elicker said. 

“It’s exciting to see this kind of energy in this event that we are having here,” Elicker said of the festival. “It’s a statement of the kind of community that we are, one that prioritizes the people that haven't been prioritized for decades and decades and decades.”

Jefferson and Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli emphasized that promoting Black businesses is key to New Haven's cultural equity plans. 

"Think of Black Wall Street as an opportunity for both reparations with value and true quality," Piscitelli said. “The vendors that we have coming out are of the best quality that you will find anywhere in the city.” 

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.
 

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF