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Patrona Jones-Rowser had the idea to start a market space in Syracuse for Black-owned businesses in 2017. While visiting her sister in Atlanta this March, Jones-Rowser stopped at an outdoor market space.

“We went to a really small strip mall area, and it had two little vendors in a grassy area,” Jones-Rowser said. “And that was my eye-opener. I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to do it this year.’”

Urban Market Space, created by Jones-Rowser, will operate every other Saturday at Sankofa Park in Syracuse’s Southside neighborhood starting this weekend. The market’s hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it will run until Aug. 28. The market will feature about eight businesses, as well as music and food trucks. Jones-Rowser’s desire to start the biweekly market stems from wanting to have more Black-owned businesses and businesses owned by people of color “get together in one space,” she said.

The market space will offer a variety of products including organic teas, baked goods and jewelry. Jones-Rowser owns the event planning company StayMonet Opulent Events. Because she is in the event planning industry, she already knew businesses to invite to participate, she said.

Shankevia Dean, owner of Kevi’s Treats, said her participation in the market is partially due to her business’s supporters tagging her in a social media post by Jones-Rowser. Dean, who sells treats like lemon drop cookies and banana pudding, anticipates her customers showing up to buy her goods, too.

“I expect to sell out,” Dean said. “My customers follow me wherever I go.”

While the market is meant to provide a platform for smaller Black-owned businesses and other businesses owned by people of color in Syracuse this summer, it’s also an opportunity for vendors to network and learn new marketing skills, Jones-Rowser said.

She would also like to host meet and greet events in the fall so business owners can continue to network, maintain relationships they built over the summer and build marketing skills, especially on social media.

“They can say, ‘Oh, I know someone who does this,’ and they’re able to pass along some names based on the people that they’ve met in the market,” Jones-Rowser said.

The idea of creating a shared space for Black business owners in Syracuse is important to Stacey Bailey, owner of Touched By Honey, who sells organic teas, soaps and candles meant to heal aches and inflammation.

About 75% of the purchases Bailey makes on a regular basis are from people of color, she said. She also likes that the market is a space for the Black community to spend money on Black-owned businesses, but she hopes the market also attracts a broad customer base.

With the start of the Urban Market Space, Bailey, who will sell at three Saturday markets including this week’s, is glad there is a space for Black entrepreneurs to showcase their products, support other Black businesses and interact with customers in person.

“This is one of the times where we can get out there, showcase (and) spend our money with each other so that we can uplift our race,” Bailey said.

The logo for the market includes the Sankofa bird symbol, designed to show the bird’s feet facing forward while its head is turned backward reaching for an egg. Sankofa is a word from the Akan tribe in Ghana, and it means to “look to the past to inform the future.”

Jones-Rowser added two rings, which mean excellence, around the bird and filled them with Kente print to signify the return of Black excellence, she said.

“Our logo was designed to really speak to what we’re trying to do,” Jones-Rowser said.

Originally, Jones-Rowser had a space in mind to host the market near Martin Luther King East and South Salina Street, but she finds it fitting that it ultimately landed at Sankofa Park.

As a kid, Jones-Rowser recalled going to markets within her community in Syracuse and buying from people that she knew. The proximity of Jones-Rowser’s home to the park contributed to her decision to host the market there.

“I probably live less than 1,000 feet from the park,” Jones-Rowser said. “And for the last few years I’ve been wanting to do something in the park because the park isn’t well utilized.”

Now, she has the chance to restart the tradition from her childhood in Syracuse’s Southside.

Published on June 5, 2021 at 12:20 am

Contact Louis: louis@dailyorange.com | @JBL__98