Shop Local 2020: Support 330 Minority-owned Businesses
Smart Ways to Shop Local
-The Akronite app (available for iOS and Android) lets you earn $1 blimp rewards at participating businesses and the city reimburses them, so you get a deal and they get foot traffic. Plus, there's a list of minority-owned businesses.
-Text friends and family members a digital ShopLocal330 gift card. It can be used at over 25 participating stores in Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson, Stow and Munroe Falls. app.yiftee.com/gift-card/shop-local-330
-Get a digital Medina Bucks E-card for $5 to $250 that can be used at over 20 participating stores and restaurants in Medina.
This year has been about neighbors supporting neighbors. Make a difference by giving your loved ones gifts from minority-owned businesses, and celebrate the people behind the purchase.
Eye Opener
Like most students, Green native Rachel Cargle read classic American works for school. While novels such as “Little Women” are hailed as masterpieces, they didn’t represent what her life as a Black girl would have been like in the Civil War era. So Cargle sought out books she related with, such as the “American Girl” series about Addy, who escaped slavery during the Civil War.
“It was incredibly thrilling to be able to see a little Black girl in a story,” says Cargle. She couldn’t always find similar books at the library, so her mom would ask friends. “My mom made a lot of effort to curate books that I may be able to see myself in, but it wasn’t super accessible.”
In September, Cargle filled that gap in Akron by opening Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre, which has pop-up shelves at Compass coffee until it moves to a permanent space in Akron. It’s an extension of the Great Unlearn, an online collective Cargle launched to share content by diverse academics unpacking how to unlearn whitewashed societal norms and understand issues from a minority perspective. Elizabeth’s spurs readers to pick up books by Black, Asian, Latino, disabled, LGBTQ and other marginalized authors, giving them the power to tell their own stories.
“It offers options for people to be seen, options for people to learn, options for people to have a new lens through which we view the world,” says Cargle, who has become a prominent anti-racism activist with over 1.9 million social media followers.
Her collection aims to evoke community, justice, curiosity and joy, showing all sides of marginalized people. Offerings at the pop-up and online span sci-fi, romance, poetry, biographies and other genres. She gives back by donating a portion of sales to her Loveland Foundation, which helps make mental health care more accessible to Black women and youth.
Elizabeth’s is more than a bookstore. It’s also a writing center that she hopes will become a safe space for marginalized people to learn how to tell their own stories. Events are online now, and the first workshop taught participants how to strip away expectations and define and live out their highest values.
THREE TO BUY
Small actions, like buying a book by a marginalized author, could impact others and enlighten you. Elizabeth’s website offers topical recommendations such as a #Revolution Reading List featuring “The Half Has Never Been Told,” an award-winning examination of how slavery propelled America to become the wealthiest nation.
Cargle herself is penning the book, “I Don’t Want Your Light and Love,” set to be released in 2021. It’s a mix of research and memoir on how outrage over racism isn’t enough — we need to educate ourselves, empathize and take action so our society, our schools, our bookstores — everything is truly for all people.
Elizabeth’s is a spark to light a fire of change, and it starts with one book.
“It’s taking the time to invest their money into marginalized voices, invest time to learn, time to take action on what they’re learning,” Cargle says, “and being critical of who they decide to consume to have an understanding of the world.”
Compass, 647 E. Market St., Akron, bookshop.org/shop/elizabeths
Style Assist
Frank Miller III saw an opening. A few days before the Cleveland Cavaliers played Game 7 of the NBA Finals, he called up his childhood friend, Preston Clark, with a proposition: I’m broke. I need you to design this shirt. Clark delivered a 2016 World Champs T-shirt, and they took 100 in a duffle to a watch party. Their leap of faith paid off — they sold out in 15 minutes after the Cavs won, and their streetwear company, 7th Floor Clothing, was born.
“It was all grit and grind,” Clark says. “When you’re an entrepreneur, you gotta hustle.”
Soon after, Clark struck gold again with a hat featuring a frog kissing the Larry O’Brien trophy, a spin on a hat worn by Cavs star LeBron James with the meme that’s a clapback at haters. James, who received it from a mutual friend of theirs, posted a photo of him wearing it on Instagram twice, propelling them to sell thousands.
They kept the momentum going by dropping a “Stay Home 23” line featured in The New York Times, doing a rock star-esque national tour as a top 1,000 seller in eBay’s Retail Revival accelerator and starring in “Saving Main,” a short documentary made by American Express.
It may seem like a string of luck, but each boost was earned by doggedly tapping into the zeitgeist, working contacts and cranking out products. They’ve spent cold nights outside the Quicken Loans Arena selling hats and T-shirts and have wondered how they are going to provide for their kids.
“It’s not all glitz and glamour,” Miller says. “The pressure is on you whether you’re going to eat tonight, whether you’re going to make this next thing stick.”
They call their relationship a brotherhood and put faith at the center of 7th Floor, which is named after the holy number seven that represents physical and spiritual completeness.
“This is where we stand. We believe in God. Every day we come in, we do a Bible verse and then go on to business,” says Miller.
THREE TO BUY
They give back by mentoring kids interested in fashion through a career path program at their alma mater, Firestone Community Learning Center.
“We put that above all of the successes,” Clark says. “If we can help a student or even an adult achieve a goal or dream, that’s the ultimate full-circle moment.”
The duo also reaches out to support local Black entrepreneurs and collaborate. Last month, they dropped a luxury eyewear line that Clark designed on a tablet and Cleveland designer David Ford handcrafted. In June, they partnered with Akron streetwear store Kicks Lounge to sell Black Lives Matter T-shirts and donated the proceeds to the family of Na’Kia Crawford, a Black Akron teen killed in a shooting.
When they team up, competition doesn’t worry them. Rather, 7th Floor is a testament that paying it forward is the key to ascending.
“Akron has to support Akron at all costs,” Miller says. “You have to keep that mentality if you want to survive this industry. You have to be willing to help the next man.” 7thfloorclothing.com
Taste of Home
The story of Kinfolk Bakery began in a culinary school in Hong Kong. That’s where Nancy Leung first learned to bake pastries and cakes over 30 years ago. She and her husband, Tom, have since immigrated to the United States with their daughter, Kitty Salyer.
Leung transitioned to cooking lunches and dinners when the couple opened Tai Wah Asian Cuisine in Hudson in 1992. Some of her customers asked for traditional Asian-style cakes they had overseas, so she started baking again. While working long hours at the restaurant, she taught her daughter how to bake the cakes.
“I remember going over to their house some late nights and mom teaching me,” Salyer says.
The family relocated the restaurant to Streetsboro, and in 2018, Salyer opened Kinfolk Bakery, which sells pastries, cakes, coffee and tea, in the same building as Tai Wah.
The bakery offers both European and Asian pastries. Find creative confections like Earl Grey, tiramisu, mango cream and green tea cakes. Especially popular items include birthday cakes, macarons, themed cookies, tarts and bao, which are buns traditionally served during brunch in Hong Kong. Salyer’s bao have a milk bread base and sweet or savory fillings and toppings such as roast pork or coconut.
“I like to make bread a lot,” Salyer says. “It’s fun to me. You get to get out any pent-up emotions. … It’s very tactile.”
THREE TO BUY
The traditional Asian-style cakes generally use a lighter cake base, a less-sweet whipped cream frosting and fruits that aren’t as popular in the U.S. One example Salyer gives is the durian cake, which is made with vanilla chiffon and durian mousse that comes from durian fruit. The cake is a frequent choice for people who are accustomed to the Asian fruit that’s pungent yet creamy.
“That’s something special or inspiring for me — to make something that Asian customers are familiar with and they enjoy,” she says.
These and other Asian-style cakes can’t be as easily found, especially in a smaller city like Streetsboro.
“When we have Asian-style bakeries in a given area, it’s usually in a bigger metropolitan area,” Salyer says. “There’s nothing really available in more of a suburban or rural area, and I like to be able to provide that for people … because there are a lot of Asian people in these areas, too.”
Access to diverse food options also creates exposure for those who haven’t experienced them before. Salyer says they sometimes put out samples of bao at Tai Wah. People often discover they like it and order some from Kinfolk.
“I think that’s important, not just for the people from the home countries who crave stuff,” she says. “It’s important to introduce to American people or people who are not familiar with it. It’s really nice to expand the palate that way.”
Carryout and dine in available, 9160 state Route 14, Streetsboro, 440-305-6190, kinfolkbakeries.com
Proudly Worn
The colors of the rainbow appeared on a crosswalk, the bridge over the Cuyahoga River and in storefronts throughout downtown Kent. In March, Main Street Kent hosted its inaugural Rainbow Weekend, and Danny Likar’s artistic jewelry was showcased.
“I’m very, very proud to be part of the LGBT community, which inadvertently impacts my art,” says Likar, who identifies as a gay man. “It opened up the opportunity for me to be part of that pride festival.”
Likar graduated from Kent State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and now has a studio in Cuyahoga Falls.
He made eight brooches for the festival that were displayed at Squirrel City Jewelers. Each brooch represents a stripe on the original pride flag, which had eight colors instead of today’s typical six.
Charms like a fire, flower, turtle, dove and pink triangle (a reclaimed symbol of the LGBTQ community) hang from each of the brooches. Each color — pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo and violet — has a meaning associated to it: sexuality, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic, harmony and spirit. He linked each color and meaning in its own brooch.
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“I wanted to touch on this LGBT icon,” Likar says. “That was definitely one project that I feel embodies me a lot. It has a lot of personality, personal issues from the LGBT community and also embodies my bold, playful, iconic vibe.”
His passion for art began long before Rainbow Weekend. “I always liked to draw and get crafty,” Likar says. “I used to draw my mom thousands of pictures.”
He started making jewelry during a crafts class he took in high school, and he honed his skills at Kent State as a crafts major with a concentration in jewelry, metals and enameling. Once, he spotted someone he didn’t know wearing a piece of his jewelry in class, and that solidified his desire to make jewelry that’s both artful and functional.
“I’m like, Wow, random people who I don’t know want to wear my jewelry,” he says. “That meant a lot to me.”
He wants his jewelry to be exciting and appeal to everyone’s inner child. His creations for sale on his website or at Kent shops Squirrel City Jewelers and Handcrafted include a bright watermelon pin, a warm pair of sunset orange disc earrings, a yellow Bee Happy Pin and a keychain depicting a UFO with the words “I believe (in myself).”
“I want people to take away from my art the idea that you don’t have to be too serious with anything. Just have fun with it,” Likar says. “I want something that they can wear regularly and get as much happiness the 30th time wearing it as they did when they bought it.”