Melanin Market celebrates Black entrepreneurs at Humber

Humber’s Black Student Support and Engagement (BSSE) organized the “Melanin Market” on March 18, showcasing small Black-owned business vendors in the Lakeshore campus L commons building, main floor study area. Some of this year’s vendors featured include Bold Lemonaide, Afrocrush, Lite It Up, VM Cosmetics, Shop Jewmei, Royal Roots Beauty, Klean Dew, and  Diva Creations. There was a variety of products from fresh lemonade, jewelry, books,  skin, and hair care products. 

“It’s good because black people don’t really get a lot of support so if we come together to support one another. There’s a lot of black business out there you have no idea about so it’s a chance to get some awareness and recognition,” says Steven Edogun. He is a third-year Humber student in the bachelor of public relations program. 

Joel Clark is also a third-year student in the bachelor of public relations. He is a frequent visitor of the Lakeshore BSSE space located at Building A room 411 and just happened to see the market passing by. “Honestly, I had no intention of coming out to the market, I just saw the market here and I recognized BSSE. it’s something I feel like I should support so I thought I’d check it out,” says Clark.

Among the vendors at the Lakeshore market, there was one student entrepreneur named Asia-Marie De Freitas, a third-year bachelor of film and media production student. Her business unrelated to her studies is called Isle and Soul, which is a personal creative endeavor, launched in May 2024. De Freitas sells handmade, boho chic jewelry. Boho refers to bohemian natural influence like gemstones that are mixed with traditional good quality chain and fine metal jewelry.

“It all started because I always grew up enjoying using my hands and making all these crafts and things like that. When I started making jewelry for the first time, I realized that I wanted to take it more seriously. Everything comes from my heart, it’s all made with a lot of love and intention and care,” says De Frietas.

She describes her products as a mild eccentric style, for people who enjoy freedom with regards to fashion and want to feel comfortable and elegant. All of her pieces are inspired by the natural settings of Trinidad and Tobago to showcase nature’s beauty.

De Freitas envisions her pieces through a theme she uses for each collection. Once she has her theme, she will hand or digitally draw her ideas. Her first collection was called “Sightsee” inspired by beautiful settings in Trinidad.

“That’s why I did pieces named the Pitch Lake, Gaspari Caves and Bamboo Cathedral,” says De Freitas. The type of pieces she creates include necklaces and chokers, waist chains, anklets and is currently  working on coming up with a set line of waist chains.

De Feritas also made some connections with other vendors like Diva Creations, Lite Me Up and took a picture with the vendors of Bold Lemonade. Overall, she says she enjoyed her time being one of the vendors and making sales and meeting new people.

“I was grateful that people wanted to support me and that people were interested in my style of jewelry. Even those who did not purchase anything, they mentioned to me that it’s really unique and they would love to buy it at some point in time and followed my Instagram” says De Frietas.