Over a hundred community members gathered to celebrate the Madison Black Chamber of Commerce on May 22 as it unveiled its new office space at the Urban League of Greater Madison’s Black Business Hub, 2353 S. Park St., and highlighted its continued efforts to support BIPOC-owned businesses.
The new office, just a stone’s throw away from the MBCC’s old office at the Urban League, marks another addition to the Black Business Hub as it gets ready to officially open and local Black-owned Madison companies have been moving in.
“We are flanked by everyone that’s important to make this dream and mission possible.” said Camille Carter, CEO of the MBCC. “It is important to me and it is important to us and all of the individuals that represent and work in the space as employees and as board members that we remain focused on what is important: and that is the growth and development of Black-owned businesses here in south central Wisconsin.”
The new office is a welcomed increase from the MBCC’s previous set-ups. Carter recounted the journey with its first home on South Park Street sandwiched between Orient House and Ichiban Restaurant. The MBCC started with a digital inbox, then moved into a little mailbox cubie, before moving into its first space, and finished in a suite at the Urban League before entering the Black Business Hub.
The new space adds multiple workspaces, a lunch room/kitchenette area, shared offices for its team and a meeting room — an addition the MBCC showed a lot of excitement for. Two cubicles are available for the MBCC’s members with computers along with three work desks and three staff offices.
Paintings from two local artists sit on the walls with the intention of bringing in more. There’s a painting of Milele Chikasa Anana created by a local Madison artist only known as “The Artist.” Another painting by M & J Jamaican Kitchen’s owner Jean Joseph is named in his native French “Tout le monde met la main à la pâte.” The painting features an African community coming together with traditional garb.
The chamber also brought in a feng shui expert to help design the overall space. A bright blood orange is on most of the walls to help keep energy up. Carter’s office, in the far corner of the space, is a slightly greyed lavender color made to represent pride, power and calmness. A big “YES” is painted in the kitchenette meant to signify its commitment to helping the community.
“When you walk into our offices, you will see the word ‘YES’ in our office and that is being ingrained in everything that we do. It just means that whatever we are trying to do, we want to say ‘yes.’ We might not be able to say ‘yes’ now, we can say ‘yes’ later — let’s work on it,” Carter said.
The new office space is now officially open 24 hours every day.
