RECIPE is opening January 2017 at 1831 S. Ewing Ave with a fresh juice bar and market!
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Tag: Oak Cliff
May 7 Market and Resource Fair
Vermont Village Neighborhood Festival, May 7th 2016, 10 AM – 3 PM
Special Guests: Michelle Gibson and the Kickin Brass Band at 12 noon
Saturday May 7, add to the ‘to-do’ list a stop at 903 Vermont and Ewing Ave in Oak Cliff, TX. You are invited to check out the new mural, shop for a special Mother’s Day gift, pick up neighborhood resource materials, jump in the bouncy house and celebrate community. If you plan your schedule right, you will arrive before noon and catch the phenomenal Michelle Gibson‘s ‘pop up performance’ with Kickin Brass Band. ❤
Vendors: Black Vegetarian Society of Texas providing resources and tools for sustaining a plant based diet.; Zolie Zi Anti-Bullying Books and Dolls; Sacred Instruments hand crafted jewelry; Habesha Naturals and Qi Elements Spa with natural skin and hair products; decorative baskets; shea butter balm with Bodywork by Patrick AND MORE!
Flashback Spring Forward: Susu Partners & Neighborhood Space
Spring is almost here and Susu has BIG NEWS blooming for this season! A great start in the neighborhood thus far!
Susu has been working with so many great community partners this year and the fruits of the labor have been beautifully rewarding! Here’s a look back at a short list of the partnerships we are thankful for:
Flashback 1: This time last year Susu Incubator completed a season of PopUp Markets with a host of incredible local creative and cultural businesses. We activated vacant spaces throughout Oak Cliff with our unique market style of hand crafted and brand vendors in cultural retail, education and literacy, health/wellness and vegan foods. This popup market model was an effort to prove the economic viability of our ‘low income’ neighborhood.
2015 marked the beginning of partnerships that pushed us forward toward the goal of property ownership and developing a healthy neighborhood business hub. In January 2015, Susu joined the Small Scale Developers group led by Dallas developer Monte Anderson. March 2015, Susu vendors gave a presentation to the developers group and answered the question: What would you do with 1000 SF?
The small business owners shared with the developers group their storefront dreams to house jewelry, apparel, home decor and culinary goods. The vendors talked about the value of space to sell and to teach their craft to others, especially the youth.
Flashback 2: In late 2014, Susu participated in the event Dallas Faces Race (DFR), sponsored in part by the Embrey Family Foundation (EFF) as a forum to address racial equity. This monumental event introduced Susu to the value of a business coach exemplified through a series of workshops led by Rha Goddess of Move of The Crowd . And, most importantly, the DFR sparked a dialogue between Susu and the Embrey Family Foundation about developing space in Susu’s target area of South Oak Cliff to launch a healthy business hub with an initial project focused on food and food security.
This partnership with the Embrey Family Foundation provided Susu with financial support and technical assistance partnerships with The Real Estate Council Community Fund to access alternate means to traditional loans and capital to fund the initial development project.
(BIG OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT IN APRIL 2016!!!)
Spring Forward: One of Susu’s key partnerships is working with our neighborhood association,’Vermont Village’, named by one of the residents and shared dreamer Mathis Perkins. We have joined the forces of several of the neighborhood associations to form a ‘super neighborhood association’ called Cedar Haven to work in Vermont Village. So far, we have planned a 4-part series of neighborhood events for the last Saturday of each month. We started in January 2016 with a tree planting project in which close to 30 oak trees went in the ground down Vermont Avenue. (Big shout out to Ryan Behring of Grow South Vista, the neighborhood leaders Mathis Perkins, Lester Houston, Jeff and Audrie Mills, Jan Taylor, Tisha Crear and Wana Smith)
Our second event in February brought over 100 volunteers and the Mayor to the neighborhood for a clean-up and to start the mural project.
We are on the move! Join us this Saturday March 26 for more neighborhood clean-up and Part 2 of the mural. And, stay tuned for our big spring market and resource event on April 30, 2016!
Susu is infinitely thankful to the local vendors that we have had the pleasure to popup market with! Susu is thankful to the neighborhood and community partners for the working collaborations that are building our community stronger! Thank you EFF and TREC Community Fund!
THANK YOU!!!
It takes a village.
Vid: Juice Dreams
Naturally Isis‘ Sweet Beets and Sassafras vision for a juice bar is a shared dream in alignment with Susu’s mission to assist in the launch of socially responsible business in the Southern sector of Dallas, Tx. We are excited to make our juicy dreams come true with the launch of this popUp Juice Bar collaboration. Check the video!
THANK YOU for supporting healthy business in the community. Continue reading “Vid: Juice Dreams”
PopUp Juice Bar: Blue Moon Toast 7/31
“Once in a Blue Moon” is happening right now!! You are invited to celebrate with us this Friday, July 31 from 8 PM to 12 midnight and toast to your health.
Susu is partnering with The Institute for Ancestral Braiding to launch the Sweet Beets & Sassafras Juice Bar! Come sip fresh organic vegetable and fruit juice blends, almond milks sweetened with dates & cinnamon, and brewed teas. You can get a henna tattoo by local artist & yogi, Jaquai Wade and vibe to the beats of DJ Kevin Walker of #BYOV (Bring Your Own Vinyl). Stop by and support your new to-go juice spot! ❤
Moon bathing encouraged! 🙂 txt: 760.933.SUSU(7878) for location
Why Pop-Up?
Essence Watkins and Tonya Crear spend Mother Daughter time at the Susu PopUp Shop #OC3.
We ‘pop-up’ Susu markets and shops as a community building tool and an exercise in economic development and exchange. The ‘POP-UP’ is a temporary space that illuminates the potential for the location and of local business to serve and thrive in its surrounding community. We ‘pop-up’ in our neighborhoods, these areas that are considered ‘blight’ and promoted as unsafe; The areas of the Grow South Initiative here in Dallas, Texas (and reflected in so many neighborhoods around the country and world). My neighbor calls it ‘The Take Over Spirit’. Some call it ‘Genny’, short for gentrification. You know the story: urban area lacking resources and slated for urban renewal.
In this familiar narrative of displacement, Susu work is to strengthen local business that builds the economic exchange of the community members as a tool to secure a place in this wave of new urbanization.
Susu vendors spent spring and summer 2014 popping up in empty lots in Oak Cliff and South Dallas. Susu completed a grant in Tenth Street with a pop-up market at (click the links for more info) Greater El Bethel Baptist Church, Benny’s Island in the Hood and on Historic Show Hill. Susu pop-up market continued in the summer with a partnership with Top Dollar Tax Service and Starlight Bethel for the beginnings of The Bridge Market located on Cedar Crest at the bridge between South Dallas and Oak Cliff. We look forward to developing the Bridge Market into a Farmers Market in 2015! Susu also partnered with Soul Rep Theatre Company to provide a market with the New Plays Festival at the Margo Jones in Fair Park.
As winter changes the outside dynamic and we shift to activating indoor vacant spaces, We want to thank our partners, supporters, and community for the commitment to developing good business and strong community. And doing it with style!
Meet the vendors from the POPUP Shop at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center on Nov. 29, 2014
Urban Poetry – UPcycled, Handmade, Eco Friendly Fashion
Anukah Accessories
True Artist Brand Pop Urban & Luxury Streetwear
Sacred Instruments – Custom Hand-made Jewelry and Repair
LNS Designs – Fine Art Ceramics and Prints
Demarcus Jones and the Solar Calendar – Black History Learning Series: audio books, video learning, and mini-workbooks
The Adventures of Zolie Zi – Anti-Bullying Children’s Book Series
Qi Elements Spa – Anja Natural Skin Care Products and Services
Crafts Wombman – natural candles, body scrubs and more.
Honey Child Beadwork
Southern Girl Granola 
Guest Vendor Femi
Photos by: Angelique Westerfield, Anukah, True Artist Brand, Anja SkinCare Community and Tonya Crear
Special Thank you to Karla Arte for creating signage, Rafael Tamayo and Gerardo Robles of the Oak Cliff Cultural Center.
Let’s Build! Contact: Tisha Crear susuVendor@gmail.com
Summer Solstice On Historic Show Hill: Market Pop Up
Summer Solstice, June 21, 2014
Show Hill is located on 8th Street in the Tenth Street Historic District in Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas at the top of an area called’The Bottoms’ due to its low-lying location. The Show Hill land was once a vibrant community hub for retail, food and socializing on the hill.
The lot sits empty and filled with rocks, fringed by lush green and fanned by the hum of cars flying around the dead man’s curve that serves as the hill’s front door. Atop this historic ground, boasting one of the best views of downtown Dallas available, on this once vital block of business, we payed homage to its great history by ‘activating the vacancy’ with a fresh business presence.
The design and build crew included bcWorkshop and neighborhood members and Activating Vacancies grantees that created market booths from the bamboo that grows freely throughout the area.
The result was a simple and beautiful market layout. The far side of the hill was designed with a walkway of market booths, the bcworkshop’s multi-purpose deck served as the stage, and there was a little food market and cafe. Graduates from the Susu Cultural Business Incubator’s Vendor Certification Program and other local businesses brought the Hill to life.
The day was a sun kissed affair with plenty of great activities. The prolific DJ O kept the scene vibrant with the good music vibes for everyone. Live music from Don Bell Blues and a T-Bone Walker tribute serenaded the Tenth Street District. The activity list was packed with education and fun for everyone. In addition to the market activities like: face painting with storyteller Melody Bell, interactive art workshops with Oil and Cotton, the midday Zumba workout, you did not want to miss Benny Walker’s Bob Cat ride! Another Activating Vacancy project, ‘Ghost Bridges’,with urban design innovators Rabble Workshop, provided walking tours of the neighborhood.
The vendors for the Show Hill Market really ‘showed out’ with a wide selection of unique hand-crafted goods and specialty services offered in the market. Vendors displayed clothing, jewelry, art, bath & body products, and natural foods and artisanal drinks.
Meet some of the vendors:
Pop Up Market Place
Vendor Certified: LNS Designs
LNS Designs
Body & Beauty Section
Local artist & vendor Emotion Brown experiences the Pyramid Therapy at Tracey Butterfly Clarke’s healing section.
Vendor Certified: Tracey Butterfly Clarke of Mariposa’s Garden
Teen Vendor Nerayah Maat
Nerayah Maat
Vendor Certified: Sacred Instruments
Sacred Instruments
Sacred Instruments
Vendor Certified: Kathy Aziz, Bead Suite & Classic
Vendor Participant: Shaunte McMillan
Vendor Certified: Mimi Chic, Jamila Mendez
Vendor Certified: Sara Mendez
Guest Vendor Robin Fahmi, Doll Collection
Vendor Participant: Tudiliscous Natural BBQ Sauce
Vegan and Live food: Walnut meat Tacos on Butter leaf w Jicama Fries & lime, Kale Salad and cashew red pepper cheese
Guest Vendor: Rhianna Mack True Artist Brand
Tenth Street Historic District, The Bottoms, Oak Cliff, South Dallas, The Hood: Home to a Neighborhood Market where you can sample home-brewed Kombucha and organic vegan tacos after a massage under the trees and some quick gift shopping while listening to live blues music overlooking the Dallas early summer skyline!
bcWorkshop crew take a break to enjoy a bit of the day
rare Kombucha Mane siting
We are on a mission to develop local business, stimulate economic exchange and community re investment as a means to build neighborhood and guide the tide of re-urbanization. We would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below. Join us for the next Susu Market on July 12, 2014. Vendor Certification classes begin in August 2014. Send an email to susuVendor@gmail.com . Your positive participation and contributions are welcome.
Photo Credits: bcWorkshop, Jamila Mendez, Herschel Yelder, Tracey Clarke, Twymeka Jendayi Hill-Jones
– Tisha Crear
Graduation Ceremony Pics: 10th Street Vendors
Meet some of the graduates of the Susu Cultural Business Incubator Vendor Certification Program in Tenth Street Historic District. Graduates completed well over 20 hours of business training in March/April 2014. Participants received certificates and graduates were gifted an TENTH STREET VENDOR Apron. The ceremony was followed by a pop-up market at Benny’s Island.
Graduation Ceremony at Lundy Recreation Center May 31, 2014; Oak Cliff, Texas
Read more about the bcWorkshop Activating Vacancy Project >>HERE<<
Tenth Street Historic District Vendor Certification Graduation May 2014
Chesley Williams of cantoinette studios
#cantoinetteStudios
Denise Smith-Ladd – From Now On Purses
Jamila Mendez- Mimi’s Creations
LaMetra Martin – Sacred Instruments
LaMetra Martin – Sacred Instruments
Lou Nell Sims – LNS Designs
Tracey BUTTERFLY Clark – Mariposas Healing Garden
Lynn Saahir- Oh My Doodles!
Iv Amenti – Activating Vacancy
Chesley Williams & James Mardis
Iv Amenti & Tisha Crear
Vendor apron & Certificate
Local Entrepreneurs complete Vendor Certification training
susuEco 