In light of this year’s Black History Month theme: The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity, throughout February we are featuring Bay Area Black owned businesses that are family operated or family focused. In our third and final of this three part series, we are featuring three Bay Area businesses that are family focused:
A Monique Affair – Event Planner
African American Art & Culture Complex – Cultural Arts Center
Marcus Books – Bookstore
African American Art & Culture Complex, San Francisco
The African American Art & Culture Complex is a space for black creative and communities to thrive. They collaborate with individuals and organizations to provide space for galleries, dance and music studios, classrooms and more. With a 32,000 square foot facility in the historic Fillmore/Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco, they provide a wide variety of art and cultural programming for youth, adults and families, including visual, digital and performance.
A Monique Affair, Oakland
A Monique Affair was created in 1999 by Chanda Monique Eddens as her contribution to the wedding event and design industry. Born out of her simple love for designing and planning beautiful events, A Monique Affair aims to deliver a sophistication that’s custom made for each client. In conjunction of utilizing long lasting vendor connections, the company combines creative vision, unique touches, and novel party elements that add glamour to any wedding, company party, charity event or signature birthday.
Marcus Books, Oakland
As the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore, Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere. It is a space that affirms and reflects back every beautiful shade of black. Marcus Books understands that literature is essential to building cultural competency and intellectual awareness. Marcus Books stocks an essential catalogue of works including children’s and young adult fiction and nonfiction, classics, bestsellers, cookbooks, ancient and contemporary history, poetry, biography and graphic novels.