By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — Nashville Black Market is kicking things off with a bang this past Friday by featuring live music, local vendors, and a wide variety of food and family fun. The event was held at the open, outside space of the Nashville Farmers Market, hosting many local Black businesses looking to show the community the products that they have been working so hard on. Vendors were met with an eager and lively crowd, excited to shop around with the intent of supporting local Black businesses as well as starting their weekend off on a fun note.
The environment cultivated around the Nashville Black Market is also what many whom both work and attend the day’s event look forward to.
“We’re sometimes neighbors and we’ve known each other for years now,” said Tina Sutton of, co-founder, owner, and sole baker of independent Black-owned business Candy Creations Nashville, who has at this point been working with the Nashville Black Market every month for about a year and a half now.
“This is a different vibe when you come here because it almost feels like there’s a purpose when you come here because you want to buy and support Black businesses. So, the people, and the customers that come here, it’s kind of a feeling of comradery.”
Candy Creations is just one example of the many fun different dessert tables that are typically present at the Nashville Black Market, other tables include other desserts such as cookies, personal care products such as lotions or oils, art celebrating African heritage and its intersection with Black American identity, as well as much more.
The large and diverse array of local Black-owned businesses is a huge reason why Javvon Jones and his business partner Carlos Partee began the Nashville Black Market effort in 2018, going on to hold their first event on February 2nd, 2019.
“We’re both entrepreneurs, we both have businesses, so we knew in Nashville with the rate of brick-and-mortar prices goin’ up it was hard to find a location to sell your products to the masses,” said Jones next to his booth during a brief pause in selling Nashville Black Market merch.
It was this realization that inspired Jones and Partee to start the Nashville Black Market, to create a meeting place to allow Black businesses space to showcase their goods. Jones also said that the Market has provided a great place for businesses to network with each other while setting up their locations. Something that certainly echoes both what Tina Sutton of Candy Creations said, as well as the general overt and celebratory atmosphere around vendors when interacting with each other.
Throughout the event, various DJs were featured on top of a large stage set up in between the two barns hosting many of the day’s vendors. The spacious gap in between the two barns held tables and chairs placed throughout, allowing attendees a place to sit down with their families and enjoy their refreshments. The DJs were often met with several attendees at once dancing and singing the night away, even once featuring a violinist playing along.
The Nashville Black Market takes place the first Friday of every month from 6 pm-10 pm at the Nashville Farmers Market, operating between the months of March and November. The Nashville Black Market accepts applications for potential vendors on their website www.thenashvilleblackmarket.com, and is also available for people to follow on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
