Carlos Partee and Javvon Jones are the co-founders of the Nashville Black Market. The organization is dedicated to Black-owned businesses in Nashville, Tennessee. They have created a space that celebrates on every first Friday night at Nashville Farmers Market. It is a free event that showcases over 60 local Black vendors that sell beauty products, apparel, and artisanal goods and services.
NBM has grown from its first installment in 2018 and now has thousands of attendees — and it’s still growing.
How did the Nashville Black Market begin?
Carlos Partee: We came up with a vision to empower Black-owned businesses and give them the chance to translate their products and services to the masses. In 2018, we both had this vision of trying to figure out where we were going as far as our businesses because we were both entrepreneurs. Rent was high … as it still is today, and we were trying to figure out how to get a brick-and-mortar location or pop-up shop place for us to sell our products and to mingle with customers. Javvon had this brilliant idea of doing a pop-up shop, and I was like “OK, let’s see where it goes.” But he was like let’s do it for Black-owned businesses because if we’re having the same problem that they have, we all got the same problem, so let’s figure out how to minimize this problem.
Javvon Jones: It’s great to have the opportunity. We’ve been through uncharted waters and all different types of obstacles to get to this process. When COVID hit, it kind of pushed us back but then we came back even harder and it gave us motivation. People were like, “When are you going to start another event? When are we going to be able to have another opportunity to be able to showcase our products.”
So in 2021, we put $200,000 back into the community. Then when 2022 came, we gave $500,000 back to the community. It was so much opportunity and word of mouth because [so many] people come to these events, and it may be a Friday night event at the farmers market before hours, and they’re able to make [more money than] their brick-and-mortar [store] in four hours if not before then. Word of mouth goes a long way, and these vendors and entrepreneurs give us motivation and inspiration. They’re our fuel when we get low, so it’s like what can we do more of? What more great things can we do to figure out how to get more exposure? We’re both entrepreneurs, so we’re constantly thinking about how we can grow as business owners, so we can help them grow, and it’s a win-win situation.
