Today we’d like to introduce you to Dawn Curling.
Hi Dawn, We’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. Before we get into specifics, could you briefly describe how you got to where you are today?
I started making tee shirts in the Norwood Fleamarket in 2005; I was inspired by the death of a 16-year-old lady who worked as a graphic designer in my business. She was murdered while attending a Halloween party. At that moment, I saw her peers’ hurt and despair, which made me want to help make a difference to help other young ladies and men continue their education and find some constructive things to do in the community. So, I formed Operation S.O.A.P. to save ourselves and our peers. I focused on helping them get their GED and stay in school if they attended a local school. I also provided jobs for them at the Fleamarket. They did volunteer projects when I organized community events like back-to-school jams, summer splashes, easter events, and autumn festivals. I have done this since 2006. I had started a new location with my business while still working at the Norwood Fleamarket and would go back and forth to both each week. So, in 2016, while OUTEAST, where my 2nd location is located, I was approached by a local organization that wanted to have a marketplace event in the community and asked the people who had shops on that corridor what they wanted to see at this marketplace. So, we shared our ideas with Dec 2016. This organization set up its marketplace but didn’t include the businesses on the corridor; it just set up where nothing but parking lots were. So, me and my partner at the time got on the phone and started calling people we knew to come and set up on the sidewalk; then our event turned out better than we expected. That inspired the Eastside arts and vendors market Black History parade in 2017. About 100 black-owned businesses and over 800 people participated in our parade. So that was the start of what you have today. The Melanin Market is now still in its infancy. We are approaching 8 years in 2025. We hold 4 quarterly markets a year: Black History Market and Parade, Juneteenth Market, and Wildcard Market. We make up a theme for that one, and then you have our Black Friday market the day after Thanksgiving. We also host business workshops that give additional assistance to help business owners with scaling their business, social media marketing, access to capital, business taxes, credit repair, accounting services, and payroll services; we also provide mini-grants, to name a few. I am passionate about finding ways to help small black-owned businesses because I am also a black-owned woman business, and no company has ever approached my business with any tools or resources that can help me to scale or just let me know what is available for a woman-owned business. So that is why We do what We do. I couldn’t do any of this without my excellent staff and team. No, we have over 250 black-owned businesses and over 8k shoppers intending to support black-owned businesses. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Dawn Curling, and I’m a 3rd generation resident and business owner of OUTEAST.
I was born and raised in the community where the melanin market was birthed. My grandfather, father, uncles, and aunts had businesses up and down the corridor my business and the melanin market are in. Working the same roads my grandparents and parents worked, lived, and played is an honor and a privilege. We are also located in a Designated Historical Place; this place has a lot of rich history, including A. Philip Randolph, the name of the road on which the business is located. Bob Hayes, James Weldon Johnson/Rosman Johnson, Earth White, Clara White, Viola Muse, A. L. Lewis, Sally B Mathis, Joseph E. Lee, to name a few. Thank you so much for taking this time to tell a little bit of my story; I have done so much that I can’t put it all in a box. Thanks for the opportunity. If there is anything additional you need, please let me know.
Can you tell us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth?
It has been challenging; when you start a business from a hobby, you don’t know where and who can help you get it off the ground, so you must adopt the hustle mentality. So that’s what I did: get in the meat of the streets, go to funeral homes, and start talking to people I knew who had businesses that may have needed printing services. Thank God I was in a new Fleamarket, so people just wanted to see what was inside, and it was pretty cool the way it was set up; so many different businesses started popping up. So, over time, I had to be consistent and have a good quality product. When it comes to the melanin market, it was hard to get the people engaged to come out and support other black-owned businesses in a community that was known for violence. So people feared being there, so that was a threat for us. But once we grew enough to hire more officers, people started coming out more. So we kept pushing because a lot of the funding came primarily out of the pocket of myself and my partner at the time. But in 2020, the year of covid 19, we just blew up out of nowhere. It was because we were an outside event, and people just wanted to be out, but we got some excellent attention then. So fast forward to now; we must find sustainable ways since we have grown so much. So that means we need to be able to make money more often than 4 times a year, and that is the challenge; now that is more money that we don’t have that we must spend to find a space to host and staff to run the markets. Without sponsorships or grants, it makes it much harder. Every source you think you have for sponsorship has exhausted their funds, so now you must wait until next year or the next few months. Who has time to wait when business owners look to you to help them be sustainable? So the struggle never ends, so you have to push through the no’s. I can’t, sorry, not this time. Try back in a few months and do what you can to find a way to create some revenue stream if you want to last in the business that you created.
Thanks for sharing that. You could tell us more about your work.
I am a community organizer, graphic designer, and tee shirt printer. I am proud of everything I do because I put my heart and soul into everything. That’s why I’m a 20-year veteran business owner and a 20-year community organizer. In my community, I’m known as Ms. Dawn, Tee Shirt Lady, and Ms. Melanin Market. I’ve earned those names fair and square. I’ve been in the community working in the booth and the streets. I get in the nitty-gritty of it all. I’m in underrepresented communities representing.
What do you think about happiness?
Being self-employed allows me to serve the community naturally. I don’t have anyone to answer to, and I can create what I like to see in my community. I can also give opportunities to people others would turn their backs on.
Contact Info:
- Website: jaxmelaninmarket.com, wemaketheshirt.com
- Instagram: jaxmelaninmarket/ wemaketheshirt2
- Facebook: jaxmelaninmarket/ dawn curling
- Linkedin: Dawn Curling
