'Building Black Bed-Stuy' Founders Featured In Vogue

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Bed-Stuy's newest nonprofit has made it to the pages of Vogue.

The four women who created "Building Black Bed-Stuy" — a new organization providing financial support to Black residents — got a shout-out in the magazine this week.

The feature comes after Rajni Jacques, Kai Avent-deLeon, Nana Yaa Asare-Boadu and Dana Yolanda started the Building Black Bed Stuy Committee with a fundraiser over the summer. The GoFundMe brought in more than $88,000 for the new initiative, which is committed to uplifting "the community that has built this rich black culture."

“Bed-Stuy is the center of Black Brooklyn and, for us, is the heart of this beautiful borough," the founders told Vogue.

"It is also the fastest-growing gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn. Gentrification not only threatens the sustainability of this Black community, but alongside COVID-19 the chances of survival are less and less. Businesses shutting down means empty real estate, which means a drop in pricing, which creates an open season for the neighborhood to be taken over by large developers and big-box companies.”

The share of Black residents in Bed-Stuy has shrunk from 74.6 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2018, according to a study by NYU’s Furman Center, Vogue notes.

The pandemic has exacerbated the gentrification by disproportionately impacting Black businesses and residents.

With Building Black Bed-Stuy, the women hold a weekly outdoor marketplace that Building Black Bed-Stuy hosts in front of Sincerely, Tommy, a store owned by Avent-deLeon. The weekly event showcases local businesses and talent.

Read their full interview in Vogue here.