Creative entrepreneurs, skilled craftspeople and community-lovers of all sorts are setting up shop in Oakland this weekend at the second annual BlackOut Holiday Market.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Friday, Nov. 24 and Saturday, Nov. 25, Oakstop’s 23rd and Broadway location will be bustling, as nearly 50 Black business owners fill a marketplace for folks looking to purchase clothing, candles and other items on their holiday shopping lists.
The days that follow Thanksgiving, Black Friday through Cyber Monday, are notoriously one of the biggest shopping periods in this country. For BlackOut’s organizers — Janay Masters, who owns Hella Plants, and Xenia St. Charles, owner of the skincare line BRASH — the market is a way to keep some of those dollars in the community, and combat larger issues impacting local businesses.
Masters and St. Charles, both Black women who were born and raised in Oakland, say this year’s event feels especially meaningful: in the face of a narrative about how car break-ins, robberies and burglaries have pushed Oakland businesses to their brink, here are community members creating a space where independent artists and entrepreneurs can flourish.
“With entrepreneurs feeling the weight of gentrification, inflation and recovery from a global pandemic, curating opportunities like this is important and necessary,” says St. Charles. “We are striving to redirect the way our community spends during the holidays by creating opportunities for them to shop with local businesses instead of big corporations.”
“When our small businesses thrive,” she says, “we all do.”
The BlackOut Holiday Market takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 24 and Saturday, Nov. 25 at Oakstop (2323 Broadway, Oakland). Tickets start at $3; more information here.
