From Streets of Promise
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On December 11, 1998, my mother woke me up and told me that we were no longer selling Haitian artwork at the Sunrise Highway Flea Market. Later on that day, she opened up for business at the Jamaica Coliseum Mall, on the first floor under booth number 137. For the next 12 years, I became intertwined with the business, assuming key functional roles, including marketing, budget planning, and eventually store management. I found it to be a unique business featuring Haitian imported wood and canvas artwork combined with Black media photography from iconic African American artists. The entrepreneurial successes and lessons from this business laid the building blocks for my future interests in business education and entrepreneurial pursuits.
As I matured over the years, the paths chosen to achieve these pursuits differed to accommodate opportunities as I saw fit, but the end goal of achieving entrepreneurial success through an expansion of my mother’s Haitian art business was always intact. My plans took a radical shift in January of 2010, when Haiti faced one of the most catastrophic earthquakes of its 200-year history. Our business relied heavily on Haitian imports, and the fate of our business was sealed weeks later when exports were suspended till further notice.
While packing my mother’s remaining merchandise in 2010, I re-evaluated my goals and aspirations and realized that it was impossible to walk away from a dream that had consumed me for the past 12 years. So I went back to the drawing board and laid out my plans once again on paper. It was like previous work chart experiences before it—inspiring—and I spent the remaining part of my college years putting together business drafts for these ideas. Layouts include write-ups of a business line of Haitian canvas artwork (since that import supply is relatively more stable than wood artwork) and a new business line of self-created image photography products (clothing line, office products, home art) that I created over the last two years.
But wait, I have to entertain a flashback. This business had a sad end, but it had such a beautiful spark. When my mother was sent to New York by her parents in Haiti, she didn’t have many to turn to until she met my father. Together they became a team and struggled to make ends meet, working job to job. Their marriage wasn’t perfect because hard times can strain relationships, but my birth gave them the hope to keep moving forward. Once the need for night duty job opportunities came into play, I was sent to Haiti to live with my family while they pursued the American dream.
By 1995 the struggle was profound. And in that year of despair, my mother thought of an idea. She admired the talent of Haitian street vendors and bought some items during a visit to Haiti. Once she returned to the states, she ignored the threat of police officers and cornered a busy street in Columbus Circle, Manhattan. She took a leap of faith and showcased the wood artwork over a quilted blanket. She nearly sold out her bag of items. My mother had experienced entrepreneurship. She was never the same since.
She spent the next few years selling at different street avenues across Queens and Manhattan and eventually got weekend gigs at local flea markets. 1998 was the first year that Guelma’s Haitian Art & Gift Shop had a roof to call home.
Now it’s 2013, and that business that consumed my family for so many years is no longer there. Sometimes I walk down the hallway to Booth 137 in the Jamaica Colosseum Mall. I’m brought to tears to know that my mother’s face won’t be there beaming back at me anymore. But the dream is still with us all in spirit. One day, the world will know of the woman who sparked the fire of entrepreneurship in me, like her mother before her, a food street vendor who also turned to entrepreneurship to raise a family. So Grandma Marie and Mama Guelma, I have the torch now, and I promise to let this business rise up from its ashes like a phoenix. Because endings are never truly endings without a fight.
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