ETHS hosts Black History Month Pop Up Shop for student entrepreneurs
April 3, 2020
On Feb. 28 during periods 4, 5 and 6, the first-ever ETHS Black History Month Pop Up Shop was held to empower black student entrepreneurs by giving them a platform
to sell and advertise their products.
Counselors Alana Amaker and Amber Greer came up with the idea and the Black History Month event planning committee including Extracurricular Activities Coordinator Denise Clarke, Equity Analyst Lauren Hamilton and College & Career Services Specialist Llyoandra Cooper helped plan it.
Students volunteered to participate and were recruited partly through the Entrepreneurs Club led by senior Tatyana Moore.
“Some of them are barbers in the making, some are braiders who don’t get a wide variety of people to come to them, so this is a way of exposing them to new audiences in the building and in the community of ETHS,” Clarke said.
Senior Maia Hadaway was one of the students who had a table at the pop-up shop. Her brand is called Happy-Go-Lefty Art.
“My art is inspired largely by the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of black people in the media,” Hadaway said. “I paint and draw what I don’t see in the museums and try to speak out on stereotypes and uplift the black community.”
For many students, the event was inspiring and something they hope to see continued in the future.
“This event was amazing and it felt so good to be surrounded by success and get recognition as black people in a positive light,” Hadaway said. “There isn’t always space for the expression of black creativity and this was like our time, our space to show that.”
Students made money from their sales at the pop-up shop and decided collectively to donate 10% of their earnings back to the school as a thank you for the opportunity.
“It was an awesome way to see that you don’t have to be an athlete, you don’t have to be involved in all the clubs and activities in this building,” Clarke said. “If you find your niche, we want to give you an opportunity to showcase it to the world, and that’s what we did.”
