More than 20 Black entrepreneurs set up shop at the Yeadon Public Library for this year’s rendition of the Black Saturday Shopping Extravaganza.
“We just want the public to get in here and buy,” Denise Stinson, president of the Friends of the Yeadon Public Library, said. “Most people are doing things online because they don’t want it to go out. But, these are unique items and that’s why we want people to come out.
“You’re not going to find these online,” she added. “You’re not going to find these in the store and these people work hard making these things.”
Stinson noted the variety of vendors this year and offerings from African cloth to natural butters to jewelry and Eagles doll dresses and wreaths.
“It’s all unique stuff that you’re not going to find online,” she reiterated. “That’s why people need to come in and support this.”
Having just returned from Mozambique in October, Olivia Faison was selling cupulanas from that African country at the event for $20 each. She plans to return in January.
“This is what the women wear. This is the garb,” she said as she opened one up, stretching the length of both her arms. “They use them for tablecloths. They carry their babies. They use it for wall art. They put it on their couch. If you don’t know what to do, sleep on it, because the frequency, the energy from the colors … this is therapeutic.”
Faison said her family is from Mozambique.
“When I started going there and seeing them, I was like, ‘This is so beautiful,’ ” she said. “I’d bring one back and people were like, ‘Where did you get that?’ “
From there, she saw a grassroots business opportunity.
“They’re so affordable in Mozambique,” Faison said. “I can bring them here and make a profit without overpricing, making it so people can buy it. I want them to be able to buy it. I’m not going to price it so it’s unaffordable.”
She spoke about the support her business gives.
“The ladies sell them and I buy from them,” Faison said. “They appreciate it. Then, it goes, I know, right to their families.”
Arlene Reid, a multi-talented entrepreneur, teaches chair yoga at the library on Fridays from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., and this weekend, she was selling scarves and fabrics.
She saw the chance to participate in Saturday’s event as “the opportunity to support and give back.”
Reid, who also performs as Lady A, said that what she doesn’t sell at the event Saturday, she planned to donate to charitable causes.
Renee Lucas Wayne, artist director for Black Magic Women Productions, was showcasing her handmade winter collection of pillows Saturday through her business, Sister Love Perfect Pillows.
“All the pillows are different in their design for women to celebrate and encourage other women,” Lucas Wayne said. “All of them have a Scripture reference.”
She shared how the pillows have provided during times of need.
“The goal is just for women to have something that they can hand off to another women,” she said. “I’ve given them to women who were going into major surgery. They have something comfortable in the hospital to take with them or the nursing home to have something comfortable while they’re there or to have something comfortable when they come home from the hospital and it’s there. And it specifically speaks to their heart.”
Lucas Wayne was also selling her spoken-word CD, “Daughter of Zion,” a collection of original spoken word poems she wrote under her pen name, Sister Scribe.
“It’s all to uplift and encourage women,” she said. “I’ve been told once they listen to the CD it’s like they felt like they got a hug.”
She said she’s going to be featured at a reading at the 2020 House at 20 Lansdowne Court in Lansdowne on the second Monday in January at 6 p.m.
The Yeadon resident spoke of the importance of participating in the event.
“I believe in Small Business Saturday and especially now when everything is so more expensive and when we’re trying to cultivate Black business and we’re trying to sort of uplift our community Yeadon, and bond together and bring some economic development to our particular location,” Lucas Wayne said. “I thought it was important to do it here in our community on a day when we’re all trying to do something to uplift Yeadon and the library in particular.”
Gloria Gray was selling her exquisite creations from Gloria’s Creations, with skills she’s cultivated for more than 20 years, with one-of-a-kind dresses for dolls, such as sports team-themed dresses, as well as Eagles wreaths and people-sized hats and tote bags.
“I like them all,” she smiled. “I like all of them … Each dress is different because they’re freehand. Every piece is different because I wrap it and whatever it comes out, it is.”
Stinson shared what she hoped visitors to the Black Saturday Extravaganza would remember.
“I want them to take away that they know they got something from a small business that’s unique and they will not find this anywhere else,” she said. “And we need to support our small businesses. That’s what this day is all about.”
