Spending Black Matters

As we close out Black History Month 2022, I wanted to share one of several events that I had the priviledge of not only attending but also being a participant in as the moderator for a panel discussion.

However, because it was such a major and history making event for Wilmington, created by a group of dedicated young men, I felt that it would be best served if I could share their words, so the following was written by Malcolm Coley, one of the creators of Spending Black Matters, and Founders of IFLEVENTS.COM.

Written by Malcolm Coley

What can I say about our first pop up marketplace, it was utterly amazing!!!

So many amazing Melanated people in one place supporting and uplifting one another.

Sometimes we are so deep in the weeds that we don’t typically look up to see the flowers growing and Spending Black Matters is a definite flower that’s growing!

Spending black matters was created in the midst of COVID to help circulate and recycle the Black Dollar.

We had abundance of people come to the Wilmington Public library and support,network, and spend money with multiple black businesses.

Not only that, our amazing panel, which consisted of black thought leaders and gurus, gave them access to resources that are priceless.

Thank you to that panel (Tamara N. Varella, Van Hampton, President of True Access Capital, Destrian Wells, and Leonard Young, and our moderator Toni CrossBlake) for coming and blessing the people with their knowledge.

Not only that one of our sponsors, The treasurer of The city of Wilmington, Dawayne Simms, blessed the entire crowd with words of wisdom and a look towards the future.

Majority of the businesses did extremely well or sold out of all product!

Gotta give a huge shoutout to our hosts Stephanie Dawkins and RadioShach, they brought a supreme level of energy and they are appreciated!!!

Our live art exhibition curated by Hashim Ahmad (7God) was dope! And it really highlighted the importance of mental health for black people!

Thank you to our vendors , Dustin Davis VP of SiVad PPE, Queon Jackson of Summer J. Artisan Ice Pops LLC., True Acces, Radioshach , and The treasury department of the City of Wilmington.

Thank you to all of our business owners, vendors, consumers and supporters who came out!

Big huge shoutout to Rose Britt, the unsung hero on the backend!

We wouldn’t have the library without Carl Shaw who literally curated a ton of

amazing events for black history month.