How to Support BIPOC in the Hudson Valley
Stand and support Hudson Valley’s BIPOC communities and aid in the fight for real change here at home and in communities across the nation. We have aggregated a list of Black and minority-owned businesses to support, organizations to donate to or volunteer with, resources to hire people of color, and locally-focused books, videos, and scholarly works on the Black experience in the Hudson Valley and beyond. Don’t see your business, organization, resource, or book below? Reach out to us at [email protected] and we will add it!
Support
The links below provide information on local Black and minority-owned businesses in the Hudson Valley. Also consider checking out Support Black Owned, EatOkra, We Buy Black, Official Black Wall Street, and following #blackownedbusiness or #pocowned on Instagram.
“Black-owned businesses in Dutchess County, with links to each”
The Poughkeepsie Journal
“Where to Support Black-Owned Businesses in the Hudson Valley”
Hudson Valley Magazine
The Division of Minority & Women Owned Businesses
Empire State Development
Black Owned Businesses in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, and Dutchess
Compiled by @amyeeeeats, @eat.ryeportchester, @c.christiem, @sophiafarias, @hudsonvalleymag, and @justin.time.to.dine
Black Owned Businesses in the 845
Compiled by @c.christiem, @n.ehemie, @maiiaaaa, @papitoazul, @amyeeeeats and @iamchristinediaz
Black Owned Businesses in Westchester
Compiled by @fullbellyblog
Black Owned Farms and Organizations Supporting Black Farmers
Compiled by Long Table Harvest | @longtableharvest
Black Owned Businesses in the Hudson Valley
Compiled by Gaskins | @gaskinsny
“26 Westchester, Rockland Black-owned restaurants to support right now”
lohud
Hudson Valley Black Owned Businesses
Compiled by @janet_oar and @itheabstract
Fifth Fifths: Black Business Lists, News & Interviews
Hire
The following are resources for hiring BIPOC professionals in a variety of industries.
Writers of Color
Equity at the Table | @equityatthetable
Blacks Who Design
Black Artists & Designer Guild | @badguild
Black Culinarian Society at the The Culinary Institute of America
@cia_bcs | @theculinaryinstituteofamerica
Hudson Valley Women in Business | @hvwib
Donate & Get Involved
Each of the following organizations are on a mission in their individual Hudson Valley communities, and at large, to better the lives of BIPOC people.
Long Table Harvest | @longtableharvest
Cultivating social and economic equality in the local food system through dynamic, inclusive, and creative collaborations across the Hudson Valley’s diverse rural community.
Perfect Ten | @perfecttenhudson
An independent non-profit organization committed to individual and organizational efforts towards building respect, dignity, fairness, caring, equality, and self-esteem with respect to the diverse life challenges of each girl.
Kite’s Nest | @kitesnest
A center for liberatory education, creating safe and supportive learning environments that nurture the confidence, skills, joy, and collective leadership of young people while building justice and equity in Hudson Valley communities.
Greater Hudson Promise | @greaterhudsonpromise
Creates a chain of support for children and families in the community from cradle to college to career.
Rise Up Kingston | @riseupkingston
A grassroots organization dedicated to dismantling the structures of racism and oppression.
Citizen Action of New York | @citizenactionny
A grassroots membership organization taking on issues that are at the center of transforming society by ensuring children have quality public education regardless of zip code, ending the current system of mass incarceration and establishing a new system of justice, ensuring quality affordable housing for all, fighting for guaranteed quality and affordable health care, taking big money out of politics by creating a fair elections system, dismantling the historic racist system by promoting racial justice, and striving for a more progressive tax system to end the runaway inequality in New York State.
Center 4 Creative Education | @cce4me_kingston
Enriching the social and cultural awareness of our youth and community through arts, wellness and education and providing innovative, high-quality programs with a special emphasis on serving low income, minority, and at-risk children and youth.
Greenhaven Prison Program at Vassar College | @vassarcollege
A program that facilitates educational experiences for both students and inmates, confronting issues such as race, class, stereotypes, and economic opportunity.
Harambee Coalition
A Mid-Hudson Valley coalition that supports and promotes the strength of the community through cultural and educational events to enrich the lives of youth and adults.
Kingston Land Trust and the Pine Street African Burial Ground | @kingstonlandtrust
A nonprofit organization that protects environmentally and socially significant land for the common good. In addition to traditional land conservation, they make urban land available for uses that have a public or ecological benefit, and encourage participation and stewardship through innovative community engagement.
The Library at the A.J. Williams-Myers African Roots Center
Promoting literacy through teaching and learning about the African roots experience, including history and culture, through a dynamic exchange of information, ideas, and creativity.
The Conference on Black History in the Hudson Valley
The focus of this conference is the history of Black and African-American residents in the Hudson Valley, including communities and work along the canals and tributaries of the Hudson River. The Conference on Black History in the Hudson Valley is open researchers of all levels, with special sessions for short presentations of research-in-progress for students and historians alike.
For the Many | @forthemany
The political elite waste our lives and money on a broken criminal justice system at home and wars abroad. Then they try to blame hard times on Black and Brown people, because they’re afraid we all might unite to put the power back in our hands. But we are coming together across race to make America live up to its promise of freedom and justice for all.
“10 Westchester Nonprofits to Support the Black Community Right Now”
Westchester Magazine
“Resources for Racial Justice in the Hudson Valley”
Chronogram
Bard Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College | @bardcce | @bardcollege
Black Student Organizations at SUNY New Paltz | @sunynewpaltz
Read & Watch
Find below a handful of books, articles, videos, and scholarly work produced by Hudson Valley writers, activists and scholars. Looking for more reading recommendations about BIPOC experiences, systemic racism, or other related topics? Inquire with a local book store.
Rough Draft Bar & Books | @roughdraftny
Oblong Books & Music | @oblongbooks
Inquiring Minds Bookstore & Coffee House | @inquiringmindbookstore | @inquiringmindsnewpaltz
TMI Project’s Black Stories Matter | @tmiproject
In alignment with TMI Project’s mission to empower people and bring about change through true storytelling, Black Stories Matter seeks to raise awareness around issues of inequality and injustice through true storytelling. The goal– to inspire action while exposing inequality and injustice and amplifying the voices of those who have inspiring stories to share, about black people surviving–and thriving–in the Hudson Valley and throughout the United States.
Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original
Edited by Sara B. Franklin, The University of North Carolina Press, 2018
In the first-ever critical appreciation of Lewis’s work, food-world stars gather to reveal their own encounters with Edna Lewis. Together they penetrate the mythology around Lewis and illuminate her legacy for a new generation. With an introduction and editing by Hudson Valley local, Sara B. Franklin, are essays by Annemarie Ahearn, Mashama Bailey, Scott Alves Barton, Patricia E. Clark, Nathalie Dupree, John T. Edge, Megan Elias, John T. Hill, Vivian Howard, Lily Kelting, Francis Lam, Jane Lear, Deborah Madison, Kim Severson, Ruth Lewis Smith, Toni Tipton-Martin, Michael W. Twitty, Alice Waters, Kevin West, Susan Rebecca White, Caroline Randall Williams, and Joe Yonan, including afterwords by Lewis’s sister, Ruth Lewis Smith, and niece, Nina Williams-Mbengue.
Toques in Black: A Celebration of Black Chefs
Published by The Chefs Connection, Photography by Alan Battman, 2017 @thechefsconnection | @essiesrestaurantpk
A cookbook that brings to light the undeniable contributions that black chefs have made to the food culture of this country. From chicken and waffles to foie gras brulee, 101 of America’s most talented black chefs share their personal experiences and recipes. Featuring Poughkeepsie’s Brandon Walker, of Essie’s Restaurant.
Feed the Resistance
By Julia Turshen, Chronicle Books, 2017 | @turshen
From cookbook author and Hudson Valley local, Julia Turshen, a book to provide sustenance for the mind and soul. Savor a dozen healthy and affordable recipes from Turshen and recipes from a diverse range of celebrated chefs, alongside extensive resources and essays from activists in the worlds of food, politics, and social causes.
Farming While Black
By Leah Penniman & Karen Washington, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2018 | @farmingwhileblack
Penniman offers the first comprehensive manual for African-heritage people ready to reclaim their rightful place of dignified agency in the food system, providing readers with a concise “how-to” for all aspects of small-scale farming.
Nubian Cafe
Featured on Radio Kingston on Thursdays from 1pm-3pm, founder and host, Shaniqua Bowden (SB), leads a discussion series which expresses the perspectives of women of color.
Mighty Change, Tall Within: Black Identity in the Hudson Valley
By Myra B. Young Armstead, SUNY Press, 2003
Slavery and Freedom in the Mid-Hudson Valley
By Michael E. Groth, SUNY Press, 2017
Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie
By Harvey K. Flad & Clyde C. Griffen, SUNY Press, 2009
The Missing Chapter: Untold Stories of the African American Presence in the Hudson Valley
An informational website funded by the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council
This list was originally published in June of 2020.
LAST UPDATED: 7/19/22
