They met in 2012 working at Rutgers University’s cultural centers, where they championed marginalized students on campus-a prelude to their business now. Handy and Stewart’s vintage shop was born from their need to see themselves reflected in the spaces they loved. “We’re striving to be the Blackest antique store while paying homage to our grandparents’ attics.” ![]() ![]() “We’re thinking of what’s filling the walls, who is behind the counter, and what the community looks like,” Stewart said. The success of their “collection of curiosities” centered on Black cultural ephemera is rooted in their lived experience, and BLK MKT’s existence confronts the overwhelmingly white curatorial spaces that shape how Black history is told. With more than 140,000 followers on Instagram and a handful of features-including one in Vogue-it would be hard to dispute the appetite and market for what Handy, 33, and Stewart, 30, are selling. But with their online store up and running, the couple is still committed to closing the gap between ancestry and ownership. ![]() ![]() Reporting this piece meant spending a few hours getting lost in their space, but that became impossible when COVID-19 shut down every nonessential business, including Handy and Stewart’s vintage shop. Or at least, that’s what I can piece together from footage of BLK MKT (pronounced Black Market) Vintage’s grand opening last November.
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