Buzzin’ Black Friday offers learning opportunities on circulation of Black dollar, showcases products by Black-owned vendors

By JILLIAN SMITH Contributing Writer

Baldwin Wallace students were able to engage in the first-ever Buzzin’ Black Friday event on Feb. 17 from 3-6 p.m. in the Student Activity Center.

Buzzin' Black Friday is a pop-up shop created by sophomore political science student Daisjah Brown, a Brain Center fellow. The event brings in local Black vendors selling products ranging from hair oils to candles, press-on nails, hair line-ups and much more.

The goal for the event is “to help create an inclusive community here at BW between our students and faculty of color and showing them in a positive light that the university really hasn't done before,” Brown said.

The inspiration for this idea struck while Brown was on a civil rights alternative break trip last year to Montgomery, Ala., and Atlanta. While on the trip, Brown saw that many businesses were gas stations or liquor stores, and that not many people of color owned any businesses. She talked to fellow students about the idea of bringing local black vendors to campus, and the student recommended she become a Brain Fellow. She then joined the Brain Fellows team, where the idea began to blossom and became a campus event.

“[I want] people leaving feeling like they learned something, and I want people to leave feeling like