BLK MKT Vintage has seen more of my paychecks than the other three BLACK BAGS shops combined.

Theirs is also the only one I’ve never actually set foot into, and just one reason I try to avoid the phrase “next time.”

I mean… I WAS IN BROOKLYN AND EVERYTHINGGGG!

And then NY street photographer Louis Mendez said he wanted to get a picture of me with Spike Lee. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I regret (almost) nothing.

It even felt like fate that when I went looking for Brooklyn’s Black history, it found me instead.

(TSA and my bank account were also fully on board with fate, tbh.)

Until… BLK MKT Vintage closed their gorgeous brick-and-mortar, home to “collectibles, cast-offs and curiosities, which represent the richness of Black history.”

My inner antiquer will NEVER recover.

Sure, there’s no shortage of antique piles to comb for treasures.

Those treasures, though, so rarely reflect ME.

Discarded drawers overflow with beautifully illustrated Victorian postcards, maybe five of which feature a dignified representation of Blackness.

Gibson Girls, Norman Rockwell families, and feathered blonde hair grin from vintage ads, as if Coca-Cola and Budweiser bottles were labeled “Whites Only” too.

But BLK MKT Vintage curates ephemera that specifically bears witness to the Black lived experience.

In my case, that’s an original Angela Davis FBI wanted poster and a 1930’s Slick Black hair product ad, two of my most prized BLK MKT Vintage finds.

But they also sell books, photographs, movie memorabilia, home decor and other meaningful cultural objects.

BLK MKT Vintage is the repository where there’s more to Black Americana than Bojangles, pickaninnies, and Aunt Jemima.

It’s a library of the Black diaspora from afros and Maya Angelou to Zambian art and Ziggy Marley.

Scattered throughout, general antiques like Kodak cameras, mid-century tins, even tourism bumper stickers, give BLK MKT Vintage’s inventory added depth that mirrors the Black American experience in itself — we stand at the intersection of American culture. So do they.

And nothing would please me more than helping discover something that fits you at blkmktvintage.com 🖤

---