Business

The Black Expo: The Meeting of Houston’s Black Talent

HOUSTON FORWARD TIMES — The 16th annual Texas Black Expo was held from June 6th to the 9th, and as one would expect, it was absolutely filled to the brim with Black excellence with Black artists, entrepreneurs, writers and the like, everywhere you look. With dozens of booths all around, from afro-centric stores to health and beauty stations, there was truly something for everyone to enjoy while also making those ever important connections within your field of expertise. It featured its own events aside from housing various trades, such as the College Fair and Professional Networking Reception that served to benefit those both young and old to get their lives on track.

Published

7 years ago

June 23, 2019

Treyvon Waddy

By Treyvon Waddy

The 16th annual Texas Black Expo was held from June 6th to the 9th, and as one would expect, it was absolutely filled to the brim with Black excellence with Black artists, entrepreneurs, writers and the like, everywhere you look. With dozens of booths all around, from afro-centric stores to health and beauty stations, there was truly something for everyone to enjoy while also making those ever important connections within your field of expertise. It featured its own events aside from housing various trades, such as the College Fair and Professional Networking Reception that served to benefit those both young and old to get their lives on track.

The expo, as usual, was crowded with booths dedicated to well-known organizations around Houston such as the Ensemble Theater and Shape Community Center.

Shape Community Center, which is currently celebrating their 50th anniversary, was represented at their booth by a man named Marco, and according to him their goal was to raise awareness of the Shape Community Center and get the greater Houston area more involved in the services they provide. The Ensemble Theater on the other hand, teased their upcoming plays for the year. Starting with School Girls, an African rendition of Mean Girls set in Ghana showing September 19th to October 13th of this year, there will be five other plays to catch showings of from November of this year to late July of 2020.

General health is typically a topic of conversation at conventions such as these, with health professionals coming from all over to speak on its behalf, but it seems this year that what people were drawn to was sexual health, promoted by the Bee Busy Wellness Center, who had two booths, one dedicated to spreading awareness of HIVs and one dedicated to performing HIV testing right there at the expo.

We spoke to one member of the center, Michael Quinones, whom had this to say:

“Our goal is to test anybody who has not been tested for HIV depending on the types of things they’re doing and the types of relationships they’re having. We also provide free Syphilis testing right here at this one booth, because people should be getting tested for these things once or twice a year.”

For aspiring Black writers and authors, seven-time author and self-publishing coach Darren Palmer as well as author and article writer Joyce Johnson spoke to many young and talented writers about the steps necessary to not only publish a book, but how to generate revenue from it.

Johnson then went on to elaborate on their goal at the Texas Black Expo:

“Darren and I put together this author spotlight where we have our own stage in which we allow potential authors come and speak. We had author come in from all over the country and our goal is to just help them to expand their brand. Today we spoke on leveraging your book to a business, because every year in the U.S., six hundred thousand to a million books are published, 2.7 million are sold for a total of twenty-six billion dollars. So we just want to help authors get a piece of that pie.”

Both Johnson and Palmer also talked about their websites, iamjoycejohnson.com and selfpublishn30days.com, in which they offer advice to future publishers on both the monetary and organizational necessities of book writing.

Overall, the Texas Black Expo was a great time and an incredible opportunity for anyone, especially within the Black community to find people like them who share their passions and skills and to connect with such people in order to build oneself up to get to exactly where they need to be.

This article originally appeared in the Houston Forward Times.

Treyvon Waddy

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.