Mizizi by Street Chef Shaw is located on Plainfield Avenue in the city’s growing Creston Neighborhood. It opened to its first customers on Friday, January 5.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — A small, brick building was full of buzz and delicious smells on Friday night as the crew from Mizizi by Street Chef Shaw prepared for its first customers. “Fifteen minutes!” someone yelled from the back of the house as executive chef Kirel Shaw, better known as Street Chef Shaw, went over some last-minute details to make sure everything was perfect.
At 4 p.m., it was go time. The “OPEN” sign in the window turned on for the first time, the door was unlocked, and a group of die-hard fans filed in to be Mizizi’s first customers. It’s a moment that Shaw has been working hard for.
“This space is our branch-off takeout location. We are really trying to dig into our roots and where we came from as a team, and as individuals, and as a culture. We’re studying Afro-American cuisine and native African cuisine and fusing it with different types of other cultures and cuisines. As of right now, we’re focusing on Latin American street food and East African street food,” Shaw said.
“It means a lot for me to show a lot of West Michigan and Grand Rapids the story of African American culture and native African culture and bringing it to the forefront. Hopefully it inspires some other chefs to explore their own cuisines and show the rest of West Michigan what we have to offer.”
Shaw says one of the most common questions he gets is how spicy the food is.
“It’s definitely more flavorful than spicy. I have four-year-old daughters that eat it all day, every day and I have a six-year-old son that eats it all day, every day. So there’s nothing really to be scared about. It might be a little exotic, but it’s something new.”
Shaw was born in Detroit, but his family moved to West Michigan when he was around two years old. He says opening up a restaurant in the Creston Neighborhood means a lot because it’s close to home.
“I grew up over in the Plainfield area and graduated from Northview, so it’s good to come home and put the roots down here,” he said.
“We just want to say thank you for all the support over the past four years to everybody who’s come out and supported our food truck. We hope to see you guys here at the takeout spot, the brick and mortar Mizizi. We wouldn’t be able to be here without you guys.”
Regular hours will be from Tuesday to Thursday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. The address is 1539 Plainfield Avenue NE.
… was a dehumanising injustice against African Americans. After more than 150 years … efforts being made to affirm African Americans; whether these efforts are adequate … engineering policy that deeply institutionalised racism and revolved around land. Between … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
David Steward II, founder and chief executive officer of Polarity and an Academy Award-winning producer, is the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year.
Steward founded Polarity in 2018. It encompasses a portfolio of content companies that produce graphic novels and comics, animated television, streaming, cinematic features, and gaming. In 2019, he launched Lion Forge Animation and producedHair Love, which won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Animated Short. That company was rebranded to include a wider range of content as Lion Forge Entertainment in 2023. Steward founded his first entertainment company, The Lion Forge, LLC, to publish comic books in 2011.
Steward has maintained his initial mission – to publish comics and graphic novels with content for everyone, regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, or cultural background – and expanded it to cover more forms of content. Executing this mission has led him to build unusually diverse rosters of talent. Polarity and its subsidiaries employ more than 60 staff, 70% of them minorities and women. Of its more than 35 productions, 90% feature minorities and women.
For his inclusive leadership, Steward was recognized inVariety’s2022 Inclusion Impact Report, highlighting the entertainment industry’s most impactful advocates for inclusivity. TheHollywood Reporter listed Steward among the 75 Most Powerful People in Kids Entertainment in 2023, another mainstream industry accolade.
Steward’s namesake father – David Steward, founder and chair of World Wide Technology – received the St. Louis American Foundation’s inaugural Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2000.The Americanasked Steward Sr. about his son following in his footsteps.
“My son honors his family legacy of faith-filled entrepreneurship. I know his grandfather, Harold Steward, the original Steward entrepreneur, would be overcome with emotion at the work Dave II has accomplished. My wife, Thelma, and I are extremely proud of the groundbreaking work he has done in the animation and entertainment industries,” David Steward said.
“We know there is a bright future ahead for our son and his company as he continues to follow the faithful call for his life. He is using his entrepreneurial spirit and highlighting the importance of diversity while touching many lives for the next generation and beyond.”
The Americanspoke to David Steward II about lessons he learned from his father, how he has grown a diverse portfolio of diverse entertainment companies, and why St. Louis is the place where he thinks his two young children can learn to follow the North Star.
The St. Louis American:Obviously, this honor is about you and your companies, but there are two major figures I need to get out of the way first, and one is your father. I asked him about your winning this award, and he talked about your being, like him, a faith-filled entrepreneur. How does faith guide what you do with your companies?
David Steward II:I’ve learned a lot of lessons from my father by watching him start his businesses, how he grew them, how he worked with others, how we treated people, how he conducted business. The guiding tenants of how we have always operated are all biblically based. Sometimes it’s simple things in terms of treating people well at various levels in your organization, whether it’s the person helping clean up the building or the executive vice president. Everyone in our organizations is treated with respect and in a way we would like to be treated as well, and these things have been instilled in me by my father. We have to run our business and make a profit, but we’re not going to cut corners or treat someone badly just to make a profit.
The American: I see comparisons and contrasts between your businesses and your dad’s main business. There’s a shared sense of ambition, scope, and scale. You acquire businesses, you add businesses, you grow, and that’s what he’s always done. As a contrast, he was always selling things that everybody knew the world needed – technology and supply chain solutions – but you’re selling people things with a lot less obvious market value. What pushback and feedback did you get when you said of all the things you might do, this is what you want to do?
Steward:I’ve always had a passion for visual arts. My dad told me early on, “If you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” He’s always instilled in us to follow our passions and our dreams. And what we’re doing, it’s a commodity product, and certainly there are other comic book and animation companies, but we are very different. There are no other companies focused on diverse content and working with diverse creators. We really blaze trails in working with diverse creators that have been very marginalized, Black artists and writers and other persons of color. With the types of stories that we’re putting together, coming from those diverse creatives’ point of view, we’re doing something that a lot of companies have really leaned on us for, whether it’s HBO or Nickelodeon. We’re helping them find those diverse creatives’ work and these stories.
The American: That brings us to the other major looming figure who is not you or your companies, and that’s the 2018 film Black Panther. I know that was a major studio production and not like what you do in that sense, but when that happened, I thought, “Dave Steward saw this potential before anybody else.” The way that Black Panther happened, did it open doors for you?
Steward:That was one of three things that happened all around the same time.Black Pantherwas important in that it showed executives in Hollywood that Black content from Black creators is important and it’s very lucrative, as well. Another thing, sadly, was George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Suddenly, you had all these companies focus on trying to clean up their act for years of marginalization of Black creators, executives, etc., and trying to diversify content. Then, for us, there was producing and being a part ofHair Loveand the success of that. So, you had this environmental shift, but also our own success trajectory that we created withHair Lovehelped to propel us into the spotlight.
The American: Looking at your track record, “diversity” for you is not a code word for “Black.” Your staff and content are genuinely diverse. What’s your diversity strategy?
Steward:It’s not one that’s exactly written on paper. Our strategy is our mission, which is diverse stories authentically told. To tell diverse stories is very important for us – and to include people who look like the people we’re portraying on screen. So, if I’m going to do a Native American story about a Native American group, then I’m going to have people representing that Native American group on that creative team in meaningful positions. Because of that mission, we naturally end up having a diverse staff. Our team is naturally grown as naturally diverse because of the types of things that we’re doing in the marketplace.
The American: Is there any way you monitor your content diversity?
Steward:It starts with looking at the marketplace in general. Over the last few years, if you look at kid’s content, there have been a number of green-lit and produced shows that have Black girls. But there’s not a lot of shows that have Black Boy leads. So, there needs to be shows featuring more Black boys. We need to find shows featuring Hispanic boy leads. We’re seeing holes, then we produce and look for content that can fill those holes. Content buyers tend to move like a herd, almost. Where they see one opportunity, they all tend to shift towards that particular direction, which leaves holes in other areas. So, we make sure that there’s representation across the board.
The American: You started Lion Forge in St. Louis. Now you must have your tentacles on both coasts. Are you still a St. Louis resident?
Steward:I’m here in St. Louis. I was born and raised here. I want my kids to grow up here, and they’re firmly involved in the school system here. I just take monthly trips to L.A. to do what I need to do.
The American: Why did you want to raise your family in St. Louis?
Steward:I think when we get to the big cities, especially like New York and L.A., I think they kind of take on a different value set than you have here in the Midwest. I think life is a little less complicated, let’s say, here in St. Louis. There’s still a kind of common agreement on right and wrong and that, I think, is harder to get in other places. I think it’s important my kids get engaged with the proper North Star so they can handle whatever else comes at them in the world.
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
Kimberli Gant, a curator of modern and contemporary art who helped organize the installment, told the New York Times that, “There is great brand recognition with the Deans, but they don’t know them as collectors.”
Swizz has been collecting artwork since the ’90s and most recently revealed to the Times that his collection has easily hit the thousands mark with various rare pieces, including a 2018 Derrick Adams painting titled “Floater 74,” which will be on view at the exhibition.
Most of the work in their collection is from African-American artists, which Swizz said wasn’t easy because there wasn’t a market for it. “The reason why we doubled down on African American art is because people weren’t collecting it. Things flow a little better now,” he said.
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
… /ing an effect on Black Americans today. — Kenny Akers (@KeneAkers) January … . As I’ve written in Racism, Revenge and Ruin: It’s … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
… influenced the world. Faith helped Black Americans overcome slavery and segregation when … major decisions, and view opposing racism as essential to their religious … Soul” Beyonce continues the longstanding Black American tradition of expressing hope and … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
… political voice to all. Women, black Americans, poor people denied access to … trials. They shrugged off his racism, his crimes, and his serial … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
A bill in the California Legislature would create a first-of-its-kind agency to administer economic reparations for slavery, if lawmakers were to approve reparations. State Sen. Steven Bradford introduced the bill to create the agency last summer, with a vote possible in the legislature this year. But reparations efforts have had a hard time winning approval in state and local governments.
Only a handful of local efforts have managed to become law. And only 3 in 10 adults say descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should get repaid one way or another, according to a 2021 Pew study. And so in addition to reparations proposals, there are other forms of redress gaining momentum.
While California lawmakers are gearing up to debate reparations following recommendations from a task force, author Richard Rothstein has been touring the country to promote a different solution. He’s co-authored a new book called “Just Action” with his daughter Leah Rothstein.
“We have an apartheid society today,” Richard Rothstein said. “The reforms to undo it are not only federal, but they’re also very heavily local, because local policies reinforce and sustain the segregation that the federal government created.”
Though Rothstein does not believe a reparations bill can pass, he agrees with task force recommendations such as down payment assistance on housing, health care and free tuition to state colleges.
“I agree with that completely. I agree with that completely. But that’s not reparations,” he said. “There are specific programs targeted at small areas, individual areas, where remedy is required. You know, reparations is a sum of money.”
Experts such as Rothstein and Carolina Reid, a University of California, Berkeley, professor who specializes in affordable housing and urban policy, have documented how institutional inequalities have continued to widen racial wealth disparities over time.
This includes housing discrimination under the GI Bill of Rights. Despite the law’s intent to provide low-cost mortgages and other benefits to World War II veterans, the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration excluded and discriminated against Black folks. This locked many of them into less-affluent and under-resourced neighborhoods, excluding them from rapidly developing suburbs that were predominantly white. The effects of this segregation are still evident today.
“For example, we know that Black households are still much more likely to be denied a mortgage today,” Reid said. “We know that even if they get a mortgage, Black households will pay more for that credit than non-Hispanic white households.”
Rothstein is calling for changes in the credit scoring system. Timely rent payments, for example, often are not considered by credit rating agencies. This disadvantages Black homebuyers in particular. And in 2021, Fannie Mae reported that about 17% of first-time homebuyers who didn’t qualify for mortgages because of limited credit histories would have qualified if rental payments were considered.
Rothstein also noted that many local governments in communities with higher numbers of Black people don’t perform annual property reassessments, sometimes waiting up to five years or more. Assessments are more frequent in neighborhoods where white residents are the majority, which raises those property values faster. This leads to Black people paying higher property taxes relative to the market value of their homes.
“This is a purely local issue, it needs to be addressed at the local level,” Rothstein said. “And the only way to do that is with what we call in the book [‘Just Action’] a ‘reinvigorated Civil Rights Movement’ that can demand remedies to this particular disparate impact on African Americans with the property tax assessment system.”
And this renewed movement, he believes, would be more realistic than any expectation of reparations.
“There are dozens of these specific policies, specific programs that can be addressed and remedied, and if they were, we would really make progress,” he said.
UC Berkeley professor Reid has researched the disproportionate impact of predatory lending on communities of color in California and their link to higher foreclosure rates. She said any progress would require a serious commitment from federal and state governments.
“A reparations agenda is having the federal government and state governments commit real resources to making those local ideas realities,” Reid said.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
New York City has seen the largest number of Black immigrants in the country since 2000.
Hundreds of African migrants have depleted their life savings to travel to America, only to experience homelessness in New York City after being turned away from shelters, Daily Mail reports.
Landry from Congo spent his life savings — $9,000 — traveling to the U.S. in 2023, leaving his wife and son behind. He had dreams of securing a job in construction but hasn’t had any luck. Instead, the armed services veteran has found himself sleeping in the below-zero streets of New York City as shelters quickly run out of space.
While he describes the conditions in Congo as “terrible,” Landry says it is no better in New York, claiming pets and animals on the streets are treated better. “It’s like prison here. It’s negligence,” he said. “We have no access to food, toilets, or anything. Animals live better here — pets in the street are treated better than us.”
Admitting that he was bussed from California, Landry says migrants like him are “sold a dream in Hollywood films and TV” but quickly learned NYC is no movie.
New York City has seen the country’s largest number of Black immigrants since 2000. Advocacy groups like the nonprofit African Communities Together have been connecting African migrants with legal services, job opportunities, and governmental services but have never seen a scale of this caliber. According to City and State NY, Sophie Kouyate, the group’s community coordinator, is concerned that non-Spanish speaking migrants are getting the short end of the stick.
She, along with other advocates, are worried about the social gaps and lack of basic resources for migrants from African countries like Senegal, Guinea, and Mauritania. They feel it’s time for city leaders to step up and put forth significant effort. “We must encourage and ensure language access to our city’s social and legal services, including Indigenous and African dialects relevant to the incoming groups,” Jumaane Williams, New York City Public Advocate, said during a hearing.
“Black immigrants tend to get left out – in particular places like Africa and Haiti.”
Abdoulaye, from Guinea, spent $10,000 traveling through Turkey, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, and Texas to pursue the American dream. His shelter stay only lasted a few weeks, and now he finds himself sleeping on the streets. “After one month, they can put you outside,” Abdoulaye said. “Sleeping outside in the cold is too much. The situation is no good right now.”
New York City has a “right to shelter” rule, requiring the city to provide housing to anyone who requests it. However, Mayor Eric Adams is fighting it, claiming the migrant surplus doesn’t apply. “These people are paroled into the country that has nothing to do with it,” Adams said. “While they’re here, we are obligated [to provide housing], and that’s why we’re in court saying that the right to shelter should not have an impact on this migrant crisis.”
… was forced out due to racism. West claimed that Gay’s … of any, quote, identity group, African-Americans, people in the LGBTQ+ plus … sink to this low claiming racism?” West denied that he “sank … Downfall) “You said it was racism that resulted in her being … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
