for-profit Archives | South Seattle Emerald

by Ashley Archibald

(This article was originally published by Real Change and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

The line to enter the Columbia City Farmers Market stretched down 35th Avenue South, curving down South Ferdinand Street, shoppers standing the designated six feet apart in the shade of the trees of the shuttered Interagency Academy. Vendors stacked fresh vegetables and prepared food on tables that lined each side of South Edmunds Street, tokens of normalcy in abnormal times.

A customer goes shopping at QueenCare on a sunny Wednesday afternoon amid Seattle’s Columbia City Farmers Market. The shop’s owner is promoting self-care, especially for Black people, in a difficult time. (Photo: Susan Fried)

Just a block away, Monika Mathews had a small table of her own set up in front of QueenCare, the natural skincare company that she launched in December 2018. Colorful face masks and dangling earrings next to Black Lives Matter shirts and a handful of her handmade products lay out to tempt customers, as a person filled bottles with handmade products inside the small storefront.

There’s a lot of work to keep up with.

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Amplifying the Authentic Narratives of South Seattle