Inspiration Behind ALBB's Black Owned Business Directory - Property Ownership Matters
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Back when the pandemic was declared a pandemic, Ahmaud Arbery was killed - shot - hunted down - by two white men in a pickup truck near Brunswick, GA. I watched the video on Twitter. Unfiltered. Un-”Graphic Warning.” I followed the local GA news for legal developments. Events happened to other Black people that did not make it to social media, but then George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis. Also video taped by many people as it happened. Everyone video taping stayed in their corners as events played out. That’s what we are used to - staying in our places in our corners. Thankfully these images made it to our newsfeeds, so that we could experience how Black people are seen, not seen.
Most people watching the social revolution/re-awakening of 2020 experienced deep feelings, and some people who are not Black wanted to do something. Black people started shouting: “Silence is Violence, Speak!” mainly to the white people in the room who have been bred to be mainly silent. To stay safe. To keep the place. The ground started shaking, and white people wanted to speak. White people wanted to support. But how?
The designer of ALBB’s Black Owned Business Directory logo, Perry Crosson (right), of the Hyacinth Group, a digital design firm founded and directed by Lauren Johnson (left).
Media across the country started making Black Owned Business Directories. Readers were writing in to ALBB: “Where can we support? Who can we support? What Black owned businesses can we support?” Here at A Little Beacon Blog, our fingers started typing. Writer Izdihar DaBashi feverishly emailed: “Are you making a Black Owned Business Directory? I want to make one - can we make one?” Designer Allie Bopp heard this, and said: “It needs a logo - I can make a logo!”
So we started on this Black Owned Business Directory. Right before I emailed Allie to brainstorm the logo, I realized: “Wait. We need to talk to someone who is Black, who experiences being an artist and business owner as a Black person. They are going to feel this, and this logo needs to be theirs. We need to find them to design the logo. Sadly, it has just occurred to me that I don’t know any Black graphic designers in Beacon, and I’m sure there are quire a few.”
ALBB Put Out The Call For A Logo Designer From The Black Community
And thank gosh we did. Because that’s how we met the architectural designer, Perry Crosson, and Lauren Johnson, a digital brander and founder of The Hyacinth Group (@thehyacinthgroup). We did the same for a Juneteenth logo for 2020. Did a call for artists, and met Nickeya Allen who answered the call on behalf of her children, which has blossomed into a beautiful friendship.
To Be Seen
Black owned businesses are here, they just aren’t always seen. Stereotypes could get in the way, blocking the vision of what is true. When I spoke to Perry to give him direction for the logo, my only direction was: “It could include many shades of color, to show different racial identities, but whatever strikes you. Take it and own it.”
Perry ruminated in it. As he developed it, his mother asked him what he was working on, and he told her. She suggested that he use the Alsdorf building in Newburgh as inspiration. It was a no-brainer for her. The building was built in 1915 as the Alsdorf School of Music and Dancing, a business started started in 1849 by Professor Dubois Alsdorf, formerly a slave in Ulster County who (acquired, gained, earned, was granted….what is the word here?) manumission. Manumission is something that frees a person from slavery. According to NewburghNY.org, George Alsdorf and his wife Caroline headed to Newburgh “within 20 years of his manumission) at 260-262 Washington Street.
Perry’s curiosity was piqued. He pursued it, dove into the research, looked into the rights of the building to make sure he could use it as a logo, and delivered. Perry’s background is in architecture, so this subject matter was even more up his ally.
The Alsdorf Building As Part Of The Logo
In preparation for the IG Live I did with Lauren and Perry on Wednesday (2/24/2021) about Black businesses locally and in general, I took a pause to reflect on why I loved the logo. Of course brick and mortar buildings are often used when representing businesses. But…
Black people owning property is a big deal. They were written out of property ownership - and voting rights - in the United States Constitution and had to work themselves into the Bill of Rights over many years. Undocumented practices that excluded Black people from property ownership (vague deterrences, suggestions to take education classes before owning property, things that white people do not usually get recommended to do) may not have been written into laws, were conducted that simply made it hard for Black people to acquire the title to property. A recent example: maybe the date of a contract to close on the home was 30 days, but suddenly move to 20 days (just happened to my Black friend in December 2020). Nothing that can be proven as racist, but something that keeps a friend who is Black out of almost owning her home in Poughkeepsie. When she appealed to the homeowner to have patience with the all of the documents they needed to file, his response was “It’s not me! It’s the bank!” And the hot potato hops around the room. Thankfully, she closed on the house.
The concept of “Generational Wealth” - is a term that is new to me, but is one that is common in my white community as “old money.” People in the Black community tend to speak of “Generational Wealth” as the goal of what needs acquired in order to help their children’s paths to security be more…secure.
“Old money” takes less effort, is usually something stepped into, is sometimes squandered, and is possibly not understood, if finances are not discussed in the open within families.
Hence, the selection of the building for this logo by the designer Perry takes even more meaning. Thank you for reading this far, and please do go visit and explore the businesses listed in the Black Owned Businesses section of ALBB’s business directory. There are other sections, but none that serve the purpose of elevating people otherwise not seen. Or not seen at their core for what they offer or make.
A Little Beacon Blog is always eager to hear from Black Owned Businesses to add to this directory - in any capacity - from construction to baking - so tell us about yourself. Other sections of the Business Directory are paid (we really appreciate and rely on the support!) but the Black Owned section is not.
