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Kiyanna Stewart and Jannah Handy, co-founders of BLK MKT Vintage. Photo credit: Nick Davis
In their debut book BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming objects and curiosities that tell black storiesco-authors Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart invite readers into a world where history, memory, and identity intersect through the power of material culture. Launching on October 15, this visually stunning work is more than a collection: it is a testament to the stories embedded in everyday objects that have long shaped Black experiences.
With more than 300 photos, the book evokes the intimacy of a scrapbook or family album. Readers will discover the nuanced stories hidden within objects like 1972 Shirley Chisholm campaign pins, HBCU yearbooks from the 1920s and hand-drawn maps of Africa from the 19th century. These items become vehicles for broader conversations about heritage and memory. The foreword Spike Lee powerfully underlines this idea by stating, “what you have is valuable,” and reminds readers that the remnants of the past hold the key to understanding the present and reimagining the future.
The two Brooklyn-based founders of BLK MKT Vintagebring a combined 20 years of expertise in collecting, sourcing and managing black ephemera. Their company started in 2014 with a mission to celebrate the stories inherent in Black cultural production. As Handy says, “We try to expose people to the power of history through non-traditional means and unconventional pedagogies.” This approach is woven throughout the book, with historical objects becoming conduits for storytelling and community connection.
The authors’ backgrounds—Handy in business and education, Stewart in journalism and Africana studies—shape their stories with academic rigor and personal insight. Stewart reflects: “I see our work designing and managing spaces for BLK MKT Vintage in a similar way: using objects to decorate a space to tell a bigger story about the person who lives there.” Their story interweaves personal anecdotes and scholarly perspectives, offering readers not only an archive, but a guide for exploring their own identities and appreciating their history.
In addition to showcasing rare items and interviews with other Black collectors and archivists, the book emphasizes the importance of preserving memory amid grief and loss. As readers turn the final page, they will find themselves urged to reclaim, preserve, and celebrate their own stories.
ESSENCE: Jannah, your background in business and education has shaped how you approach vintage curation. How has this expertise influenced the way you build and maintain the BLK MKT Vintage collection?
Jannah Handy: My personal and our collective foundation in education is the backbone of this company. We seek to expose people to the power of history through non-traditional means and unconventional pedagogy. Our curatorial practice is one that focuses on learning outcomes from primary historical sources. Even though we don’t have lesson plans for every item we sell – we could, believe me – learning is always at the heart of our work, we just try to make it more engaging and accessible. My business background has less impact on the BLK MKT Vintage collection and more on our marketing and physical location. While Econ 101 hasn’t completely covered the obstacles of entrepreneurship, the lessons on consumer habits and marketing best practices have been critical.
Kiyanna, your background in journalism and Africana studies clearly informs your storytelling approach. How did you weave your passion for these topics into the story of this book?
Kiyanna Stewart: I love this question and I was so grateful to have an academic and living basis for my storytelling approach throughout the book. I think I turned to Journalism/Media Studies, Africana, and Women’s Studies throughout my academic journey because I was searching not only for myself, but also for methods, tools, and language to articulate/model myself as a Black, Caribbean American, queer. creative person. These disciplines have taught me to question voice, who tells a story and about whom, who is in power and who is excluded/invisible – so I find that the above questions often underlie my curatorship for BLK MKT Vintage .
This book lays the foundation for our work, introducing readers to common/useful and shared vocabulary – while questioning that very vocabulary to see who/what is being made invisible. The book also intimately introduces readers to my wife and me, centering our personal stories as a means to support the broad meta-themes of the work. I also advocated that the work of various black intellectuals serve as a theoretical basis for the book – to bring us into conversation with existing works, to pay tribute to the intellectual/cultural work already done in the study of black and marginalized people and to continue the tradition of crediting and adding – riffing, remixing and interpolating Black intellectual thought in an accessible way. People like Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Arturo Schomburg, Stuart Hall, Marion Stokes, etc.
In what ways do you hope BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming objects and curiosities that tell black stories creates a deeper connection between readers and the black material culture you have curated?
JH: For us, the core of this work is a conversation about value and people’s values. We urge readers to reconsider the types of value we assign to things and go beyond monetary value. From the beginning of the book, Spike Lee perfectly demonstrates the power of material culture in one’s personal and creative development, declaring to the reader that “…what you have is valuable.” We hope that people who read this book will take a new understanding of valuing vintage items, history and value in the macro with them to other aspects of their lives. Through the work in this book, we encourage others to find value in their own and family stories.
With over 300 photos in the book, which piece or object from your collection stands out to you personally, and why?
JH: This is such a difficult question. Over the years we have interacted with thousands of pieces of black ephemera, and the pieces that never get old for me are the Jet Magazines. We carried Jet magazines from the first issue in the 1950s to the last issue in 2014. What I love about these pieces is the sheer amount of information and exciting gossip between the pages. From the historical to the salacious to the mundane, the reporting and stories on behalf of the Johnson Publishing company have served as priceless snapshots of Black life for decades. When our physical location was open, people would spend hours shouting out the stories they discovered. Imagine the timeline of your favorite social media app printed in black and white, in pocket size – that’s it Jet!
The book highlights black archivists and collectors. Can you share an experience from working with these individuals that left a lasting impact on you?
KS: There were So we shared many incredible moments with the collectors and archivists in this book, some of which were not published in the final version. Every conversation was special and went beyond the allotted time, but people were so generous with their time, expertise and story. What has stayed with me since these conversations is the way in which grief, loss and memory are connected to their work with archives, collecting and material culture. So many people shared stories, either about themselves or through finding objects that focused on grief, and it was really validating for both of us. While working on this book, I came to grips with my mother’s dementia diagnosis; After all, she is the reason I started doing this work as a young person, and while I am extremely grateful that she is still physically with us, I have grieved for her for a long time. Some of the people we spoke to were grieving personal losses in their immediate families and often there were personal belongings that contained memories and direct connections to those people. We felt deeply honored to be shared and trusted with their memories. Personally, I deal with the connection between this work and grief every day, so the confirmation of those interviews has left an indelible mark on me. I am a proud steward of stories beyond my own.
How does this book serve as a bridge between the past and the future for telling Black stories through objects?
JH: By intentionally documenting our contemporary story and our work throughout history, with this book we have preserved our story for generations to come. We hope to build bridges with everyone involved in our work; a bridge back to their personal origins, a bridge to an informed future and a bridge to the people around them. We created this book for the express purpose of being found in the future. We hope that this book fills the gaps that are always present in our history, the antiquities industry, and the recovery of the preservation of history.
What role do fashion and design play in the way you curate and present the vintage items in BLK MKT Vintage, both in your store and in the book?
KS: Fashion and design have been very useful tools in my curatorial process for BLK MKT Vintage, as they have given me access to a rich archive of inspiration that I can refer to and draw from. I used to work in the fashion closet for the fashion editors at Women’s Wear Daily and saw hundreds, if not thousands, of examples in my time there. I understood that their work is at the intersection of the materiality of clothing and the possibilities surrounding marketing/storytelling. They weren’t designing; they were sifting through garments to identify trends and find/create/tell stories – both written and visual – to help readers and customers imagine clothing/clothing possibilities. I see our work designing and managing spaces for BLK MKT Vintage in a similar way: using objects to decorate a space to tell a bigger story about the person who lives there. Fashion and design have both helped me hone my eye and my sartorial sensibilities – unapologetically defining who I am as a curator/collector, what aligns and how to best fulfill the project/task at hand.
How do you envision readers using BLK MKT Vintage as a tool to begin their own journey in collecting pieces that reflect their identity and heritage?
KS: This is actually the point of this work. We hope this book inspires people to see themselves as part of the ecosystem, the engine that drives Black people’s historical memory. We are all needed – at personal, family, community and institutional levels. I hope this book serves as evidence that collecting/selling/trading Black material ephemera is a viable, lucrative, and respected business/career path – and also that it expands people’s imaginations of what is possible when you include Black people and our cultural production. We also want people to start at home and purposefully create lives and spaces for themselves with sankofa in mind. “Go back and get it” – it’s okay. When you go back, we hope you think of BLK MKT Vintage.