The Nashville Black Market ‘feels like a family reunion,’ as consumers shop their values

The Nashville Black Market started with a need.

Black entrepreneurs trying to start their own retail shops didn’t have the capital to open storefronts.

“And so what we did was start the market,” Cashville and Nashville Black Market business owner Carlos Partee says. “We started off with 15 vendors, and it’s grown ever since then.”

That was back in 2018. Now, they’ve hosted almost a dozen events around the city with close to 500 vendors, raking in half a million dollars.

Outside of making money, they’re also creating community around shared values and working to increase the political influence of Black businesses for years to come.

That’s why The Magik Trap owner Karii Jones stayed up all night making sure she had enough inventory. Back in 2020, Jones couldn’t find a local Black-owned business that sold crystals. So she decided to start her own.

“I’m very adamant about circulating the Black dollar,” she says. “And to support our community and the people that live in the community with us.”

During a two-day event in February at The Wedge Building she made almost $3,000. For now, she’s working full-time and running her business on the side. Eventually, she’d like The Magik Trap to be her main focus.

She’s not the only one hopping into business.

Throughout the nation, Black people accounted for 26% of all new microbusinesses since the start of the pandemic. The Brookings Institution says that’s a significant jump compared to before.

But if the microbusinesses wanted to go macro, they’d need to scale up.

This is where someone like Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce President Carolyn Waller comes in.

“It’s important to me that businesses that may have just been in business one year are also associated with businesses that have been in business five to 10 years because that helps to create a mentoring environment,” she explains.

Mentorship and partners are two things the founders of the Nashville Black Market are interested in creating — and getting too.

They’ll need it as they restart their search for a brick and mortar to strengthen the sense of community, political influence and generational wealth.

“It feels like a family reunion,” shopper Henry Henderson says as he wonders through the event looking for art. “You don’t know these people, but it feels like you’ve known them for a long time.”