Nashville, TENN – The founders of Shop Black City Tour 2022 are excited to announce their Shop Black Nashville festival is coming to East Park on May 21st. The 2022 tour spans over twenty cities across the US, providing a chance to support over 1500 local Black-owned businesses in a COVID-safe vendor market space.
After seeing huge enthusiasm and success for vendors on their six-city tour in 2021, Shop Black City Tour expanded its reach to 18 cities in order to help more small businesses generate revenue. Shop Black hosts a festival experience featuring local Black-owned businesses, food trucks, and musical performances, plus education and networking forums for Black entrepreneurs.
Greg and Tee Westbrook founded Shop Black City Tour in 2019 as a Nashville vendor market before shifting in 2020 to virtual events in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their work became even more important – Black-owned small businesses were impacted disproportionately by the pandemic, with the House Small Business Committee reporting a 41% drop in Black business ownership between February and April 2021. In 2021, Shop Black City Tour came back strong, hosting in-person marketplace events for over 650 Black-owned businesses in Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago. This year, with the expansion of the tour, the Westbrooks hope to help business owners across the country rebound from these losses.
“During the pandemic, we helped hundreds of Black-owned small businesses generate over $300K in revenue in just one year, and we’re especially proud of that,” said Greg Westbrook.
Their goal in 2022 is to build on that momentum, hoping to generate $1 million in revenue for vendors. “If we can help 1,500 BIPOC-owned businesses generate at least $600 of revenue [each], we’ve made a huge step forward,” said Tee Westbrook.
Shop Black Nashville is May 21st at East Park, located at 700 Woodland St, Nashville, TN 37206. Visit www.shopblackcitytour.com, our Facebook page, Shop Black City Tour, or our Twitter, @SBCT2022 to stay up to date.
