March 22 - 28, 2021

March 22 - 28, 2021 Vol. 29 No. 12

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$1.10 goes to vendor

Madam Walker Family Archives

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Arts & (Home) Entertainment

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SportsWise

We are replacing our usual calendar with virtual events and recommendations from StreetWise vendors, readers and staff to keep you entertained at home!

Chicago Cubs games are no longer on WGN. John Hagan discusses the ramifications with Patrick Edwards.

Cover Story: Madam C.J. Walker

Madam C. J. Walker created a hair care product and simultaneously a distribution system by women entrepreneurs who could earn more money selling her product than in jobs commonly available to Black women of the period. Her story is the inspiration for the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago's new women of color business accelerator, which will partner with the DePaul University Women in Entrepreneurship Institute to develop women-owned businesses as a means of community development.

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Inside StreetWise

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The Playground

StreetWise Vendor A. Allen finds a connection to the work and life of Madam C.J. Walker and being a vendor today.

ON THE COVER: Madam C. J. Walker, ca. 1912 by Addison N. Scurlock.

THIS PAGE: Madam C. J. Walker, ca. 1909.

Both images provided by Madam Walker Family Archives / A'Lelia Bundles.

Dave Hamilton, Creative Director/Publisher

dhamilton@streetwise.org

StreetWiseChicago @StreetWise_CHI

Suzanne Hanney, Editor-In-Chief

suzannestreetwise@yahoo.com

Amanda Jones, Director of programs

ajones@streetwise.org

Julie Youngquist, Executive director

jyoungquist@streetwise.org

Ph: 773-334-6600 Office: 2009 S. State St., Chicago, IL, 60616

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ARTS & (HOME) ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS Since being stuck inside, which shows have you been watching? Which movies? Have you read any good books lately? Any new music releases have you dancing in your living room? StreetWise vendors, readers and staff are sharing what is occupying their attention during this unprecedented time.

To be featured in a future edition, send your recommendations of things to do at home and why you love them to: Creative Director / Publisher Dave Hamilton at dhamilton@streetwise.org

Author Talk!

'Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy' Seminary Co-op Bookstore, in partnership with University of Chicago Press, presents an author talk on March 24 at 4 p.m. Fiona Greenland will discuss “Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy.” She will be joined in conversation by Christine Mehring. Through much of its history, Italy was Europe’s heart of the arts, an artistic playground for foreign elites and powers who bought, sold, and sometimes plundered countless artworks and antiquities. Now, more than any other country, Italy asserts control over its cultural heritage through a famously effective artcrime squad. In its efforts to bring their cultural artifacts home, Italy has entered into legal battles against some of the world’s major museums. It has turned heritage into patrimony capital—a powerful and controversial convergence of art, money, and politics. With “Ruling Culture,” Fiona Greenland traces how Italy came to wield such extensive legal authority, global power, and cultural influence—from the 19th century unification of Italy and the passage of novel heritage laws, to current battles with the international art market. Drawing on years in Italy interviewing key figures and following leads, Greenland presents a multifaceted story of art crime, cultural diplomacy, and struggles between international powers. Visit www.semcoop.com/event for more information.

(HOME) ENTERTAINMENT

World Premiere!

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'B O R D E R S' The Joffrey Ballet presents Chanel DaSilva’s world premiere of “B O R D E R S,” which will stream March 25 at 7 p.m. “B O R D E R S” imagines the boundaries— both literal and figurative—that people place on themselves and others. DaSilva challenges the audience to look at how they separate themselves from others in the world, whether through physical means or psychological ones. Find more information on the 13-minute piece at joffrey.org/season-and-tickets/performances/

Dining Out(ish)!

Chicago Restaurant Week Chicago Restaurant Week is upon us. Things look different this year, but over 250 restaurants are participating, giving diners a large selection. During Chicago Restaurant Week, diners can enjoy special prix fixe menus from restaurants throughout Chicago and nearby suburbs. These multi-course meals are $25 for brunch or lunch, and $39 and/or $55 for dinner (excluding beverages, tax, gratuity, and delivery fees). This year, diners will have the flexibility to experience Chicago Restaurant Week through indoor and outdoor dining, or at home with delivery and takeout options. This event is running now through April 4.

See a list of participating restaurants at www.choosechicago.com/chicago-restaurant-week/

Iconic Characters!

The FRIENDS Experience: The One in Chicago After going “on a break” to comply with COVID-19 city mandates, The FRIENDS Experience: The One in Chicago is back! The experience offers fans of the popular television show, FRIENDS, an interactive, two-story experience featuring 12 nostalgia-packed rooms with set recreations, original props and costumes, a retail store and more. Fans will have the opportunity to explore the show’s history, recreate favorite moments and learn behind-the-scenes information. The FRIENDS Experience remains “Monica Clean” and is taking measures throughout the space to ensure a safe environment for its staff and guests. The experience is located at The Shops at North Bridge on the Magnificent Mile and runs now through May 31. Timed entry visits are available with a ticket priced at $35 plus taxes and fees. Private access tickets are also available for groups of six or 10 guests.

Visit www.friendstheexperience.com/chicago/ for more information.

Streaming Play!

'How To Catch Creation' Goodman Theatre productions presents Encore – a new series of free and on-demand video streams of hit plays.

Streaming now through March 28 is “How to Catch Creation” by Christina Anderson, directed by Niegel Smith. A young writer’s life turns upside down when her girlfriend drops some unexpected news. Fifty years later, four artists feel the reverberations of that moment—and its unexpected consequences—as their lives intersect in pursuit of creative passion and legacy. In this bold, imaginative work, Christina Anderson dissects the universal act of creation to inspire the dreamers and idealists in us all. Find more information on how to stream this performance at www.goodmantheatre.org.

Emerging Talent!

'Ground Floor' “Ground Floor,” an ongoing biennial exhibition since 2010 that is now in its sixth iteration, brings together work by Chicago’s most promising emerging talent. The exhibition offers a single destination to discover artists who have recently graduated (in 2019 and 2020) from one of Chicago’s five top-tier MFA programs. Ground Floor gives exhibiting artists a major public venue in which to display their works at a critical juncture in their careers, helping to build, support and ensure a strong and vibrant community of artists in Chicago. The exhibition will present for the first time in person the thesis work of ten 2020 graduates, whose theses exhibitions were largely presented online because of the ongoing pandemic. This exhibition is generously supported by The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and The University of Chicago and is on display through April 3. Find more information, including when to visit, at www.hydeparkart.org/exhibition-archive/ground-floor/

Ballet at Home!

'Brushstroke' The Joffrey Academy presents Tsai Hsi Hung’s world premiere in “Brushstroke,” which will stream on March 26 at 7 p.m. “Brushstroke” takes inspiration from the work of designer Alexander McQueen and painter Jackson Pollock. Using “the line” as a central theme, Hung weaves a series of complex textures through movement that create the effect of currents of wind winding around each other. The 12-minute piece features a cast of 11 artists—eight women and three men.

Find more information at joffrey.org/season-and-tickets/performances/

-Compiled by Hannah Ross

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John Hagan discusses the ramifications with Executive Assistant Patrick Edwards.

SPORTSWISE

Chicago Cubs Patrick: John, let’s talk. Ron Madere, StreetWise’s Sales Manager, came to me and presented a discussion topic: the Cubs no longer being on WGN. I immediately thought about you. Your impeccable research into anything sports-related has led me and the crew to present a solo discussion to you.

John: I’m in.

Patrick: So, talk about it.

What do you think about our Cubs no longer airing on WGN? John: Thank you, Patrick.

Okay, a little bit of background. So, I grew up racing home from school to watch Chicago Cubs baseball on WGN-TV. Some of my earliest memories were during the time I attended Lincoln Elementary School in River Forest, Illinois, between 1979-1981. I heard Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse say “Hey, Hey” and the Chicago White Sox’s Harry Caray shouting “Holy Cow!” When Caray came over to the Cubs—replacing Jack Brickhouse—in 1981, that “Holy Cow!” became a staple of our lovable Cubbies and I truly miss it. My two favorite Cubs games I can remember are the “Phenom New York Mets pitcher crushed by the Cubs in 1984” and “Kerry Wood strikes out 20” ones.

Patrick: Yes, awesome, awe-

games are no longer on

some games. And we didn’t even mention Ron Cey, Leon Durham, Keith Moreland, Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston, and the rest of them cats.

John: Agreed. Now, the way this works is that the Marquee Sports Network (MSN) will air the games if you live in the Cubs TV market, which includes part of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin. If you don’t have cable or don’t have Marquee Sports Network in your package, there will be options to stream.

One option is AT&T TV, which carries MSN. However, to gain access, one must subscribe to its “Entertainment” package for $69.99 per month— Patrick: Wow. John: No contract, but it’s still not WGN’s “free.”

Patrick: $0 to $69 is a big increase. So, what about the cost within a package, such as Xfinity?

John: Well, it’s not directly that costly, but it is an additional $6.20 per month within Xfinity. So, regardless if you watch sports or not, cable subscribers must pay.

Patrick: Is this the regional sports network fee? The one that covers NBC Sports Chicago: the only other regional sports network?

John: Yep. With just NBC Sports Chicago, the cost was $8.25 per month; with the addition of MSN, the total fee increases to $14.45.

Patrick: So, no choice but to pay this?

John: Yeah…but you know what? It’s not just the cost that’s throwing me; it’s simply that the Cubs are no longer on WGN—especially the day games. WGN not being quite as “digitally” sharp as, say, ABC and NBC was key, too. Not only did the picture quality seem a bit “less” from those other channels, but everything else about the

WGN

games, the day — everything — just felt good and comfortable. It felt like home.

It’s also going to take a very long time to increase Cubs fandom, plus we’ll perhaps lose a lot of those fans who didn’t live in the immediate area, e.g., Davenport, IA; Sioux Falls, SD; and, even, Provo, UT; none of these cities have a Major League Baseball team, so they have adopted the Chicago Cubs as their own. I believe the Cubs being on WGN helped keep that connection.

So, yeah, the Cubs now airing on Marquee Sports Network, plus playing a majority of their games at night, it feels un-baseball like. Rather, more un-Cubs like. It’s hard to explain it…

Obviously, a decline in fans and TV ratings are to be expected, and it’s unfortunate.

Any comments or suggestions?

Email pedwards@streetwise.org

Madam C. J. Walker, ca. 1912, by Addison Scurlock (Madam Walker Family Archives / A'Lelia Bundles).

BELOW: A'Lelia Bundles (Que Duong / courtesy photo).

inspires ywca / depaul women's business accelerator

by Suzanne Hanney

Madam C. J. Walker is known for developing a Black hair product early in the 20th century, but according to her greatgreat-granddaughter, her legacy also is that she developed businesswomen, part of her framework for philanthropy and political activism.

Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 on a Louisiana plantation, Walker created her hair growth ointment out of her own need and experimentation, much the way modern businesses do, said her great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles, in a presentation with YWCA Metropolitan Chicago CEO Dorri McWhorter. During the 1890s, Breedlove was losing her hair at a time most Americans didn’t have indoor plumbing. By 1905, she developed an ointment with sulfur (and a masking fragrance) and preached that washing hair more often was healthier for the scalp.

But besides healthy hair, she created job opportunities, Bundles said. In an era when most Black women could work only as farmhands or domestics, she took out newspaper ads with testimonials from Walker Agents saying things like, “you have made it possible for a Black woman to make more in a day than she could in a month working in somebody’s kitchen.” Literally thousands of women took her course in person or by mail order and traveled all over the United States and the Caribbean selling it.

Growing up, Bundles heard the myth about Walker inventing the hot comb (which was actually around when she was a girl on the plantation), but the bigger discussion was that “she provided jobs for women, helping them become economically involved,” Bundles said. “She was a political radical, a patron of the arts.”

It is noteworthy, she said, that Walker was the first generation out of slavery. For too many people, Black history has a huge gap between the end of slavery in 1863 and the Civil Rights Movement nearly 100 years later.

“But they were creating the NAACP and economic empowerment, fashioning their own citizenship rights,” Bundles said. Near the end of her life, Walker was part of a delegation that went to the White House to urge President Woodrow Wilson to make lynching a crime “She was part of that generation that included [journalist/suffragist] Ida B. Wells and [educator] Mary McLeod Bethune. They were the Black Lives Matter of their day.”

“Sometimes history gets wasted when we teach it so young,” McWhorter responded. “We need to teach it again and again. The issues we’re fighting today look a little different, but they’re still there. What I really love about her legacy is that she used her money and her influence to make a difference. She helped women become independent, create generational wealth.”

Madam Walker’s story is so inspiring, McWhorter said, that the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago is collaborating on a women of color business accelerator with the DePaul University Women in Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI).

The YWCA Metropolitan Chicago’s mission is to eliminate racism and to close the racial wealth gap, so the women of color business accelerator will be a mechanism for achieving those goals, said Kelly Evans. As YWCA Metropolitan Chicago vice president of entrepreneurship and community economic development, Evans will oversee the business accelerator.

“The spirit we’re creating this in is her image,” Evans said.

“Yes, Madam C. J. Walker was the first Black woman millionaire, but the more important story is not just that she created wealth for herself and her family, but for people who could have been domestic workers. She gave them other income-producing opportunities on a much higher level than they would have been able to get.”

As a pioneer in community development, Walker created an “ecosystem” for other women’s growth, Evans said. They could learn to read, to ask questions, to replicate her business model. “That’s what economic development is: to create an engine that enables not just women to be successful but to bring that to the communities they’re in.”

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Everything she learned about Madam Walker has lessons for business today, McWhorter said.

Orphaned at age 7, Breedlove was married at 14. She became a mother at 17 and was widowed at 20, when she left Mississippi with her young daughter A’Lelia to settle in St. Louis. She worked as a washerwoman but joined St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, which had a long tradition of teaching African Americans to read and write, even when it was illegal, Bundles said.

“Sarah Breedlove the washerwoman had a good enough voice to be in the choir and she modeled herself after the more educated women,” Bundles said. She gave to their philanthropies, even if it was only a penny. Her first major gift was $1,000 to the building fund of the YMCA in Indianapolis, where she later located her factory.

“People learned of her because of her philanthropy, not just hair care,” Bundles said. By the time she had her first convention in 1917, she gave prizes not only to women who sold the most products, but to those who gave the most to charity. “‘As Walker Agents, I want you to know your first duty is to humanity,’” she preached.

“Her genius was in picking women who would be good leaders for the community,” Bundles said. In an era when motion pictures were still new, her method was to do a presentation of glass photo slides to a large audience and then to host a class to recruit sales agents in a smaller venue like a church basement. She watched to see who asked the best questions, who had the most magnetic personalities.

What about resources in starting her business? McWhorter asked.

There was no Small Business Administration to offer free advice and she was unsuccessful in getting investors, Bundles said. Initially, people still saw her as the former washer-

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woman, so she had to push herself forward. Even Booker T. Washington refused to recognize her at a 1912 National Negro Business League Conference.

Walker stood up and confronted Washington. “Surely you are not going to shut the door in my face. I feel that I am in a business that is a credit to the womanhood of our race.

I am a woman who came up from the cotton fields of the South. I was promoted from there to the washtub. Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen and from there I promoted myself. I have built my factory on my own ground.”

The next year, Walker was the keynote speaker, Bundles told an audience at the Library of Congress.

A graduate of Harvard and the Columbia University School of Journalism, Bundles is a former deputy bureau chief of ABC News Washington. Her New York Times-bestselling book, “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker,” (Scribner 2001) was the nonfiction source for the March 2020 Netflix series, “Self-Made,” featuring Octavia Spencer, Tiffany Haddish and Carmen Ejogo.

Bundles has written of her pleasure in seeing her greatgreat-grandmother portrayed in an all-Black production, but she noted that while she had “script review” she was not allowed final “script approval.” She provided extensive notes to the script writer, producers and show runners, but could not veto their final decisions. She particularly objected to the “Self-Made” storyline that focused on a rivalry between Madam Walker (Spencer) and Annie Monroe (Ejogo) rather than the relationships with people like Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, the AME churchwomen in St. Louis, her sales agents and her attorney, Freeman B. Ransom, who ultimately had a greater impact.

“People saw this former washerwoman, so she had to push herself forward,” Bundles said in the YWCA presentation.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Ohio Walker Agents. Madam Walker stands with Booker T. Washington, (hatless, to her left) at the dedication of the Senate Avenue YMCA in Indianapolis in 1913. Madam Walker donated $1,000 to the project and helped with fundraising. Standing behind her is Walker Company attorney Freeman B. Ransom.

Original packaging for Madam C. J. Walker's hair grower (all images courtesy of Madam Walker Family Archives / A'Lelia Bundles).

CENTER: The promotional images for Netflix's "Self Made," inspired by the life of Madam C. J. Walker (Netflix photo).

ABOVE: The YWCA Metropolitan Chicago team: CEO Dorri McWhorter (courtesy photo); Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Community Economic Development Kelly Evans (courtesy photo); and Chief Economic Inclusion Officer & General Counsel Robert Johnson, Esq. (courtesy photo).

“You can get 100 noes before you get your first yes. You have to push yourself. When she started to make $10 a week, her husband thought that was enough and so that’s when they parted ways.”

tracts, said WEI Director Abigail Ingram. Since its inception in 2018, 50 to 60 percent of WEI participants have been women of color. The partnership with the YWCA will allow WEI to serve more of this population.

Charles Joseph Walker became her third husband in 1906 in Denver, where she had moved the previous year because she had a widowed sister-in-law and nieces there who could help make her product. She became Madam C. J. Walker in part to acknowledge Paris as the center of beauty and fashion, and because other businesswomen –seamstresses, boarding house landlords, Black opera singers – added the courtesy title. “It was a bit of an affectation but a way to give yourself some dignity,” Bundles said.

“We live in a very divided city and if we are starting in Chicago and the goal is equal access to opportunity, we have to look at where that opportunity is most lacking,” said Ingram, who received both her master’s and law degrees from DePaul.

By 1910 Walker moved her business to Indianapolis because of its large African American population and network of railroads for distribution.

What advice could we glean from her life, McWhorter asked.

“That education is key,” Bundles responded. “She was a person who did not have a lot of formal education, but she really valued it.”

Once Walker was able to afford self-improvement, she hired a former dean of a girls’ Black boarding school as her factory manager and traveling companion, so that they could refine Walker’s presentations together. When Walker was at her headquarters in Indianapolis, she would read the newspaper every morning with her female office staff and they would look up words they didn’t know in the dictionary. “‘There is no shame in not knowing,’” Bundles said. “She wanted them to know ‘we are all learning.’”

DePaul University’s Women in Entrepreneurship Institute has a goal of advancing women business owners, who typically have little access to investor funding or big con-

“During one of our strategic planning meetings, we asked the committee to describe why the institute is important,” Ingram said. “The No. 1 item that kept coming back was the idea of fairness and the fact that it is much harder to start, grow and capitalize a business as a woman than as a man. We know that the ROI [Return on Investment] on female-founded businesses tends to be higher than on male-founded businesses. We also know that there is nothing inherent in women that makes us less likely to run a successful business, but there are barriers put up to stop us from accessing success. If we can simply remove the roadblocks that are preventing us from being successful and follow a path of launching and scaling a business, be profitable, and add to the GDP, that’s really the motivation.”

Too often, businesses that pertain to women, such as childcare, are treated as “niche markets.” Just as in Madam Walker’s case, investors won’t touch them, she said. “But we’re more than half the population. If you take this hidden majority of people and empower them to start and run businesses, you’re going to see the GDP double, an explosion of job creation.”

Diversity is in DePaul’s DNA, she said. The university was founded by the Vincentian religious order in the late 1800s to educate immigrant and working class families who didn’t otherwise have an opportunity for education. “Vincentian values include making a high-quality education accessible

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regardless of background and recognizing our community benefits by having such a diverse community. The bottom line is realizing equal access to opportunity in our country and Chicago, and DePaul is very much focused on that equal access,” Ingram said. This year’s freshman class, for example, is 56 percent women, 49 percent people of color and 34 percent first generation college students.

Ingram initiated the partnership last October when she approached YWCA CEO McWhorter, who is a founding member of WEI. McWhorter in turn introduced her to Evans and to Robert Johnson, YWCA chief economic inclusion officer and general counsel, to determine where their two missions align.

LEFT: Women in Entrepreneurship Institute Director Abigail Ingram (courtesy photo).

by the end of 2019

OPPOSITE PAGE: WEI participants, from top: Stan Mansion founder Cera Stan works with a bridal client at the mansion (stanmansion.com); CEO of Catan Pisco Catalina Bentz (courtesy photo); CEO and Co-Founder of Mission Propelle Annie Warsaw (left) with president Jill Carey (right) (courtesy photo); and Le'Flair Hair Lounge owner Ashley Wallace-Peters (courtesy photo).

“We’re all sick of hearing statistics about how difficult it is for women to be entrepreneurs,” Ingram said. “We’re shifting the conversation about women growing our companies.

Because we have such a strong board, we are watching this domino effect. When women have economic security and independence, they are more likely to create opportunities for other women and others in society at large.”

75%+

REMAINED PROFITABLE through COVID

65%+

SUCCESSFULLY PIVOTED during COVID (new products/services/ markets)

75%+

diversified client portfolio (i.e. no one client accounts for 50%+ of business revenue)

120-250% ANNUAL REVENUE INCREASE

Cohort 1 2018 to 2019

$951,400 LOANS SECURED

$413,900 forgivable

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JOBS CREATED at cohort companies: 43 W-2s / 26 1099s / 64 jobs for women

40% INCREASED THEIR REVENUES during COVID

0

BUSINESSES CLOSED as a result of COVID19

Please note: a full report will be available once all cohort companies have provided data.

This data reflects the 71.2% of WEI cohort companies that have responded fully.

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Ingram talked also of the lifestyle flexibility and leadership that entrepreneurship provides, since even job sectors traditionally thought of as feminine – childcare, beauty, fashion – have C-suites that are dominated by men.

The WEI, on the other hand, is taught entirely by successful women entrepreneurs, its “Founding 40” board members.

They meet four hours a week for nine weeks, with outside assignments.

Outcomes Snapshot PROFITABLE

There is a $1 billion gap of restaurants and retail in Bronzeville alone, that people would like but that do not exist. Creating spaces for Black-owned businesses to grow here would create jobs for local people, Johnson said.

BELOW: The Women in Entrepreneurship Institute by the numbers (DePaul University Driehaus College of Business).

THE ACCELERATOR AT THE WOMEN IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP INSTITUTE

100%

“Our whole soul is in this,” Johnson said in a Feb. 24 video presentation with Ingram, Evans, and Alexandria Cummings, YWCA director of financial inclusion. “We want to create a community where folks can live, work, pray and play: have all the assets in the community.”

Four WEI participants say the experience was truly valuable.

What’s more, they have already hired additional staff or plan to do so.

Cera Stan has been in business 28 years, but she says she still learned to look at her financials in a better way. “I also learned to work less and be more productive: the two things I enjoyed the most."

Stan has hired two more people for her business, the Stan Mansion on Kedzie Boulevard in Logan Square. The nearly century-old historic building is a special events and wedding venue with a luxury two-bedroom, two-bath bridal suite where brides can dress.

“I’ve taken a lot of classes over the years and this is the best,” Stan said of WEI. “The people you get to meet there.

Everyone is passionate about what they do. They share experiences with you, give you advice. Two or three weeks ago I was asking for advice; everybody was jumping in: ‘Do this.

Do that.’ They are all women, so you feel that power. I love all of them. They’re really cool and down to Earth people.”

Networking was likewise the most valuable thing that Catalina Bentz, founder and CEO of Catan Pisco, took away from WEI. The entrepreneurs and board members were generous with their time and “I see some of these connections being lifelong friendships,” Bentz said in a text.

Pisco is a South American spirit distilled from grapes. Bentz was born in Santiago, Chile and her website calls Pisco a “cornerstone of Chilean culture.” Pisco served neat or in sours was a prelude to every family meal.

Bentz is now in the final stages of closing her first seed round of funding, bringing on an active investor who will become a full-time partner in her business.

Mission Propelle is a gender equity consulting company that partners with corporations and nonprofits to create sustainable solutions for their employees and the company’s work culture. CEO and Co-founder Annie Warshaw said WEI offered networking opportunities otherwise constrained by the pandemic.

WEI taught Mission Propelle to package its product more strategically, which has meant more contracts and the need to expand its team in the next year, Warshaw said.

“The most important thing I learned at WEI was to step back as an entrepreneur and hire and allocate tasks for other people to complete instead of trying to do everything myself,” said Ashley Wallace-Peters, owner of Le’Flair Hair Lounge in Oakbrook Terrace. Le’Flair creates eye-catching coiffures for nights on the town, sedate cuts for day to day and “extensions that lengthen locks with aplomb.”

Wallace-Peters has hired people to do graphics and social media and to convert her website. As a result, she has brochures instead of just business cards. She is looking at a retail cabinet as a way of generating revenue and possibly even her own product line. She is proud to have accomplished a lot in a very short time. And as a wife and mother of a 16-year-old and a 2-year-old, she’s also grateful. “The body has to rest,” she said.

“As women, as leaders, as entrepreneurs, a lot of times we have this thing we want to be so hands on with everything that we have to take a step back, let go, say ‘It’s OK to lose money if you are reinvesting in your business.’ Do what you’re good at doing, seek help and allocate, delegate otherwise.

“You still have that oversight at the end of the day even though someone else is doing it,” Wallace-Peters said. “That was the problem. I was feeling like I was going to lose control, but I did not. That’s part of being a leader that you have to understand.”

Wallace-Peters paid it forward by hiring a part-time cosmetology graduate. The young mom cleans, does salon laundry and comes up with hair care tips and inspirational sayings to post. Besides getting behind a chair, Wallace-Peters says that she could consider a sales or administrative career in the beauty industry.

One hundred percent of the WEI’s first cohort was profitable by the end of a year. No businesses closed during the pandemic. In fact, 40 percent actually increased revenue and 75 percent remained profitable.

The YWCA women of color business accelerator is also open to women of all industries who have gained traction, with revenues of at least $500,000 who are ready to scale up their businesses but who do not have the resources to do so, Evans said. The cohort of eight to 12 women set to begin April 2 includes people in construction, PR, supply and food.

Black female entrepreneurs get only 0.6 percent of venture capital, while Latinas get .37 percent, which means women of color still get less than 1% of all capital funding, Evans said, citing Fortune magazine. The program will encourage networking and exchange of information around banking and even mergers & acquisitions.

Geography will be the main difference between the original WEI program and the YWCA women of color business accelerator. The accelerator will operate specifically in the communities the YWCA serves “so that we can be sure those resources are in the community,” Evans said. “That’s why it’s not only entrepreneurship, but community economic development.”

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StreetWise vendor A. Allen finds a connection in the work of Madam C.J. Walker Madam C.J. Walker was the first Black woman millionaire, an accomplished entrepreneur. She built a business empire with two dollars and a dream.

The self-made millionaire used her fortune to fund scholarships for women at Tuskegee Institute and donated some of her wealth to the NAACP and the Black YMCA. She was not only successful, but she reached out to help others become successful.

Her sales team consisted of women entrepreneurs who sold her hair product door to door or through other community organizations such as churches and beauty shops in which she stepped up and trained women how to use the products.

INSIDE STREETWISE

I’m really proud of her for stepping out and stepping up as a Black entrepreneur to help so many women back in the day. She left a legacy that continues to this day in the hairstyles women wear today, the NAACP and the YMCA.

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I am glad the YWCA continues to be active in helping the poor and marginalized. Since YWCA Metropolitan Chicago joined with StreetWise, her legacy of people helping themselves through entrepreneurship is demonstrated with vendors selling the StreetWise magazine.

Wait, hold ’em up. Did I mention that she started with two dollars and a dream?

A 1960s advertisement for the Madam C.J. Walker brand (Madam Walker Family Archives / A'Lelia Bundles).

StreetWise Vendor A. Allen.

Well, the way I see it, you too can be a Madam C.J. Walker. All you need is two dollars and a dream.

Two dollars for the magazine and a dream that you are helping to make a better world by supporting self-employed entrepreneurs who are trying to earn an honest living. “StreetWise is powered by the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago." Madame Walker's spirit still speaks to us through StreetWise.

Streetwise 3/21/16 Crossword numbers 1 to 9.

Sudoku

To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the

PuzzleJu

Crossword Across

©2016 PuzzleJunction.com

62 It towers over Taormina 64 Dispatched 66 Faux pas 67 Haggis ingredient 68 Celestial bear 69 Mary of “The Maltese Falcon” 70 Fencing sword 71 Part of a process

7 8 9 10

Expunction 39 Excavated Choir voices 40 Wish undone Tangle 41 Cause stomach Place for a problems throne 42 “Peter and the 11 Barely manage, Wolf” bird with “out” 44 Ice over 12 Door word 47 Heavy 13 Commercials overcoat 21 Salves 48 Long fish 23 Authorize 50 Kind of 26 Actress Christie monkey Down 27 Actress 53 “Silly” birds Samantha 55 Undisguised 1 Long, long time 28 Lord’s 56 Have a feeling 2 “The Lord of attendant 57 The skinny 30 Frick collection 59 ___ Khan the Rings” 32 Blockhead figure 60 Filling station 3 Object 33 Contour filler 34 Buckets 4 Lack of vigor 61 Newt, once 35 Actresses Faris 63 Born 5 Banter Copyright ©2016 PuzzleJunction.com 6 “Gotcha!” and Berglund 65 Kind of dance

©PuzzleJunction.com Copyright ©2016 PuzzleJunction.com

Sudoku Solution last week's Puzzle Answers

Solution

Sudoku Solution

1 Nectar source 5 Common sense 10 Daytime TV offering 14 Fair 15 Embarrass 16 Doing nothing 17 Turns right 18 Pokeweed 19 Boxing prize 20 Doctrines 22 Perceive 24 Make yawn 25 Beauty parlor 28 Contract provision 31 Young fox 32 “Bad Behavior” star, 1993 34 Hot condiment 37 Pinch 38 Individually 39 Kitten’s cry 40 Adriatic seaport 41 Gasteyer of “Saturday Night Live” 42 Narrowminded 46 Jack’s inferior 47 Walker, briefly 48 Suburb of Boston 49 Postpone 51 Entreaty 52 Charity 54 Change, as a map 57 Greek letters 60 Kind of ink

©2016 PuzzleJunction.com

62 Bird venerated by ancient Egyptians 64 Hit the road 65 Part of some joints 66 Aquatic plant 67 Diner sign 68 Parches 69 Hatchling’s home Down 1 2 3 4 5 6

Game piece Business V.I.P. Impersonator Garden shrub Hired hand Corpulent

7 Hoedown participant 8 Capri, for one 9 Auto skeleton 10 Lady prophet 11 Tribute, of sorts 12 Solely 13 Favorite 21 Doctor’s order 23 Trodden track 26 Baroque 27 Closer 28 Swindler 29 Advanced, as money 30 Esoteric 31 Fuzzy fruit 33 Stomach 35 During

36 Kind of mother 40 Muenchen native 42 German automaker 43 Allows 44 City on the Loire 45 Requirement 50 Diets 51 Former 53 Old dagger 55 ___-bodied 56 Hairpieces 57 Farm animal 58 Leaves in a bag 59 Queen, maybe 61 Genetic material 63 Gained a lap

Find your nearest StreetWise Vendor at www.streetwise.org

How StreetWise Works

All vendors go through an orientation focusing on their rights and responsibilities as a StreetWise Magazine Vendor. Authorized vendors have badges with their name, picture and current year.

Buy the Magazine, Take the Magazine Vendors purchase When you buy the magazine, take the the magazine for $.90 and sell it for magazine, and $2.00 plus tips. The read the vendor keeps all of magazine, you are supporting our their earnings. microentrepreneu rs earning an income with dignity.

New vendor orientation is every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 a.m. at 2009 S. State St. Find your nearest vendor at www.streetwise.org

THE PLAYGROUND

StreetWise exists to elevate marginalized voices and provide opportunities for individuals to earn an income and gain employment. Anyone who wants to work has the opportunity to move themselves out of crisis.

StreetWise provides “a hand up, not a handout.”

Solution

15