Halifax pop-up shops celebrate Black-owned businesses

Eight vendors gathered in Halifax on Saturday for a pop-up shop showcasing local Black-owned businesses, organized by the Black Business Initiative and Develop Nova Scotia.

Vendor Jessica Bowden, used this platform for more than just exposure.

“People want to be allies,” Bowden said. “By wearing these pieces, you are helping to give back to the community.”

For 30 years, Bowden has worked closely with the organization Youth for Now. More recently, she has been selling apparel promoting the Black Lives Matter movement, with most of the proceeds going back to the community.

“We help provide children around Nova Scotia with backpacks for school, something not many are fortunate to have,” Bowden said.

She noted that it’s important to help the youth in the province and that starts by being more mindful.

“They say it takes a village to raise a child,” Bowden said. “Well we’re a village now.”

Cedric Smiley, another business owner, was setting up his line of shirts celebrating Nova Scotia’s Viola Desmond.

“This is not just Black history but world history,” Smiley said. “I just found it valid because of the fact that she was 10 years before Rosa Parks and it’s an untold story.”

Originally from the U.S., Smiley said it wasn’t until he moved to Nova Scotia that he learned that there is more Black history to celebrate. He said he uses these pop-up shops to continue to spread awareness and highlight Black excellence.

“It hasn’t been highlighted,” he said. “I think that it’s been taken for granted, shoved under a rug and overlooked. I think it needs to be highlighted to a point where more youth can grab on to it.”

Vendors are set to continue their pop-up shops on the Halifax waterfront on Sunday.

With files from CTV’s Hafsa Arif