Fair Trade newsletter is an online extension of the ideas and information we’ve exchanged with the people we’ve met through stay silent + Trade. For this installment of the newsletter, we interview Aiyah of Bintimani PVD, a new West African restaurant opening in Downtown Providence, and a highlight of Georgina Sarpong, co-founder of Black Lives Biz, following their Black Business Week in February.
You’re from MA but relocated to Providence, what brought you to the city?
I came to Providence in 2009 as a college freshman at Brown. But being on College Hill really wasn’t being in the city to me, even though I thoroughly enjoyed my time up there. It was actually a class assignment that sent me to Broad St. to “study” the city. That felt weird, so I didn’t randomly interview any local folks, I just walked around, saw and listened to the streets, ate some of the best food I’ve had in my life at that point, and took in the culture. Coming from Dorchester, I was familiar with diverse urban communities, but Providence, the South Side in particular, was different, it was vibrant, communal, LOUD but subtle, and humble. I was genuinely and deeply in love.
Your family owned and operated the Bintimani restaurant in Boston for 15 years. Can you describe what that space meant to you?
I can’t hear Ye’s “Champion” without thinking about my pops, “cause every summer he'd get some // brand new harebrained scheme to get rich from.” My dad is an electrical engineer by training, but a hustler and entrepreneur innately. The restaurant, which started as a curbside fruit market, that me and my siblings would spend out of school hours helping to run, we really watched and helped my dad and stepmom build from the ground up. The space they used was in a neglected building, commonly used as a hangout for addicts, and unregistered events, but on the first floor were 14 or so, East and West African small business retailers and restaurants using space that really wasn’t set up for their needs, but everyone made it work in order to get by. As I was finishing high school, watching my parents and this community of entrepreneurs, their plight became my own. I saw the immense potential and tireless work ethic of my family and our community, and became missioned on one day ensuring folks like us had the opportunities and resources we need to thrive, because it was clear there was no larger system or structure really on our side.
You’ve recently been promoting a campaign and have had a good amount of press about the reasons why your family has to relocate Bintimani to Providence. What happened and what is it going to take to relocate and how can people help if they are interested?
What happened in short was, capitalism capitalismed. This aforementioned dilapidated building in the heart of Roxbury was bought by the Boston Real Estate Collaborative, who are real estate developers, young white men, with their parents’ money, who envisioned converting the building into luxury co-living condos. In order to do so, they needed the current tenants to “temporarily vacate for 12 months atleast” for renovations. This was an eviction by another name. Once I found out about this, we brought in City Life Vida Urbana, a tenants rights organization in Boston, and city officials to step in. They were able to delay the evictions, but a target was drawn on our backs. The pandemic hit and their plans were foiled, but they still had it out for my parents, so as soon as the moratorium on evictions was lifted, they served us a notice to vacate.
Fortunately we had love and support here in Providence. Buff Chace stepped in to offer us a space right in the heart of downtown Providence, on main street, at 326 Westminster St. the former Tom’s BaoBao. We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity and are in the process of raising the needed funds to execute on the vision we have for the new location which we hope to also utilize as a launching space for other entrepreneurs as well as a community gathering and event space.
To support folks can either invest in our Wefunder, which is a community sourcing investment platform, that lets folks invest a minimum of $100, that gets paid back, plus interest over 5 years as we grow. We also have a more traditional GoFundMe for the more immediate transition costs for the family’s move to Providence. We also really appreciate folks just sharing and uplifting our story, as I feel especially for communities of color, there’s deep resonance with our journey, and it's a community win if we’re able to make it out of this on our feet.
What do you think the state + city need to do to support entrepreneurs of color?
What we need most of all from city and state leadership is uplifting and funding resources like the RI Small Business Development Center, affiliated with URI. We’ve found their support critical to our establishment and growth, and I was able to find out about them by a LinkedIn reach out, which isn’t a privilege others would be as easily able to access.
What do you feel about the state of the Black business landscape in New England?
I think we’re currently significantly far behind every other region in the US in terms of Black/Brown entrepreneurial prosperity, but I think we have the most potential given our diversity, unique very college educated talent pool, and our proximity to New York, the epicenter and undebatable birthplace of culture. I’m actually hopeful that once we make collaboration the norm when it comes to Black businesses, that once we see our spaces, our business models, our platforms, all as parts of a shared ecosystem, here in New England we can model the blueprint for other Black and Brown communities to follow when it comes to solidarity economies.
You’re currently getting your MBA at MIT and are a master in City Planning. How did you get on that path?
The Masters in City Planning was always the goal, likely earlier than I even realized. Before coming to Boston, I was born and spent my early years in West Virginia and Alexandria, Virginia. It was hood suburban, reminiscent of LA neighborhoods, where we had section 8 townhouses, rather than apartments. So when I came to Boston, and lived in different neighborhoods and saw the differences and unique issues facing urban communities, I felt compelled to uplift these places.
The MBA, I was not really for. As an anti-capitalist, I didn’t think it was the right environment for me to best formulate my thoughts and ideas on Black liberation. However I was convinced by an alumni of the program, a Black Woman, that the environment itself gave her the discipline to execute her own plan/vision. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was the beginning of my own entrepreneurial journey and B school, although I’ve spent most of my time pushing against the problematic aspects of the experience and fundamental philosophy, I’ve been able to develop valuable financial, management and communication skill sets vital to uplifting Black and Brown entrepreneurship as a pathway to collective and community economic self-determination.
As a future city planner, what is your personal philosophy on what a successful community looks like?
Inspired by the Co-Op movement and solidarity economies, my personal philosophy is rooted in self-determination: people of color within urban communities need the opportunity to have community funded, owned, and controlled systems: economic, education, health, community safety, etc. Our communities would ideally exist *outside* of the current capitalist structure, where we can govern ourselves and structure our economy and social orientation as we see fit, whether there’s more sharing or still individualistic, but collectively coordinated as we see fit.
While I understand that it’s a long way until we’re Wakanda, and that that’s very idealist and futuristic, 1) they already exist, indigenous native American communities have Sovereign Nations, however they’re under resourced and the entire culture has been so depleted that it’s difficult to have the strength in numbers for those communities to thrive and 2) we need to build that collective muscle beforehand to get used to working together, collective decision making, and sharing, which is why I hope Bintimani can serve as an opportunity for this form of community practice.
For those who don't know you, what's your name and title/occupation?
Georgina Sarpong - co founder of Black Lives Biz, co-owner of Abundance Farm and a gal who’s interested in African-tech
What motivated you to start Black Lives Biz? What is your 'why'?
Our ‘why’ is because we believe in the primary anchors of building community and businesses are one of those anchors. So creating a space that has a database where all black businesses live only made sense.
What would you say to any Black entrepreneurs or people with a business idea reading this?
Go for it! It's not meant to be perfect, once you act, the world will respond. Entrepreneurs take risks and most entrepreneurs are afraid of the first risk (which is starting), dont worry its a natural feeling. But if that feeling is over powering then this might not be the season for you to become an entrepreneur.
To find out more about Black Lives Biz, go here: https://www.blacklivesbiz.com
