BLAC Fridays: Most Wonderful Time of Our Lives

We have officially started the?holiday season, Thanksgiving is behind us and?Christmas?is right around the corner. If you’re like we are, we’re rooting for everyone that’s Black.?Black businesses,?Black dollars, Black sales and?Black family gatherings?with great food and?great drinks.?

It really is the?most wonderful time of our lives?and we’re feeling good.

“… Birds flying high, you know how I feel

Sun in the sky, you know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel

… It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life for me, yeah

… It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life for me, ooh

And I'm feeling good”?

~ Nina Simone

We graciously kick off the season with a list of more than 50 Black-owned brands that are inside the?Eastern Markets Saturday and Sunday holiday shopping. Visit their stores and support them with your dollars.

This week, BLAC featured articles on three openings, a new acupuncturist on the Avenue of Fashion,?a new flagship clothing store, K. Walker Collective ?in Midtown Detroit, Inc. , and a new restaurant, Detroit Soul on Detroit’s east side,?sharing prime examples that Detroit business is booming and ready for you to experience.?

We want to shine a spotlight on the history that is being made with the elections of both?Judge Kyra Harris Bolden?and House Representative Hon. Hakeem Jeffries ?to positions that are first of their kind. Get out this weekend, appreciate the snowless streets, explore a new art exhibit, try a new hairstyle, travel the world and bring along your?BLAC Playlist?and favorite?BLAC Happy Hour?Classic recipes for company.

Until next week;?

We’re feeling real good right now;

Darralynn Hutson and Team BLAC Magazine

#TGIF VIBES

Click to listen?to this week's playlist

THE MOMENT

BLAC Holiday Gift Guide Presented by Eastern Market Partnership

It's holiday time in Detroit and with so many amazing local businesses we want to highlight a few for you to keep in mind this holiday season. This list is focused on Detroit proper and presented by the good people at Detroit's Eastern Market; whether you're looking for Christmas specific flavors, skin and beauty products or the latest Detroit apparel; we even have a nice list of vintage boutiques and make your own fragrance brands; BLAC's Holiday Gift Guide presented by Eastern Market has got you covered.?

CREATOR’S CORNER

Kenneth Walker Opens Flagship Store and BLAC Takes You Inside

Fashion designer, Kenneth Walker celebrated the opening of his flagship store, K. Walker Collective, on 4161 Cass Ave, in Midtown Detroit just blocks away from where he matriculated in Detroit School of the Arts, fueling his passion for apparel. While that area of the city is up and coming with many housing and commercials developments, this particular Midtown location holds sentimental reference to Walker being able to view his old high school from his flagship store's front window.?

BEST OF THE REST

History Was Made This Week when Hakeem Jeffries Replaces House Speaker Nancy Pelosi As Head Of House Democrats

Democrats?in the U.S. House of Representatives , one of the two branches of the?United States Congress, have selected New York’s?Hakeem Jeffries?to lead their caucus. His historic appointment, follows an unanimous vote on Wednesday. Never before has a?Black?man been named a party leader in the?US Congress.

Six Most Important Sex Trends To Experience Before The End Of 2022

Are you ready to take your sexual pleasures to higher heights? If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we must take our pleasures where we can find them. This is nowhere truer than with sex. In fact, sexual pleasure is now defined, straight up, as a basic human right. On September 11, 2021, the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) ratified a Declaration on Sexual Pleasure in its General Assembly.

Noel Night is Back Dec 3

The 48th Annual Noel Night including live music with national and local artists, special holiday performances, beautiful outdoor art installations, ice sculpting and Black Santa Claus sightings is back, this Saturday Dec 3, 2022.

?6 Natural Hair Trends for Black Children

One of the best ways of encouraging your child to love their natural hair is to experiment with new styles. From twists to braids, there are so many beautiful natural hairstyles to suit all hair types and once you’ve practiced them a few times, they won’t take long at all.

12 Black Nonprofit Organizations to Donate to This Holiday Season

Tis the season to be thankful! This holiday season families and friends come together to embrace each other over a home cooked or catered meal, catch up conversation and will give and receive gifts, as part of most holiday traditions. Explore 12 nonprofits in metro Detroit that could use an array of offerings this time of year (and beyond).

Coffee Break

Beethoven is?Hitting' Hard ??

While there are a number of versions of this, @vibin.wit.tay upped the game. Enjoy!

DISCOVER

???Visual Artist LaToya Ruby Frazier’s ‘Flint Is Family in Three Acts’ Exhibit Now Through Dec 30...The?Flint Is Family In Three Acts collection?records stories of surviving and thriving, especially within?Black neighborhoods in Flint, to ensure that they remained visible in national debates concerning environmental justice.

??My Transformative Trip to Paris Fashion Week with 30 Women of Color...I traveled to?Paris Fashion Week?this September with thirty amazing?women of color,?and it changed my life.?

???? Our BLAC Reporter went to 'Grain & Pestle' for an Acupuncturist Experience On The Ave of Fashion...Have you ever been curious about?acupuncture?or?Chinese medicine? There is a new?herbal apothecary?clinic that just opened up right in our backyard.

BLAC HAPPY HOUR

BLAC Happy Hour Classics: Gin and Juice Recipe

It doesn’t get much easier than the?Gin & Juice?in the canon of easy cocktails. This smooth-sipping, two-part drink is as easy to make as the name implies, but there’s a reason this classic cocktail has a?Snoop Dogg?song named after it. It’s fruity and refreshing, and the exact recipe is up to you. So you get to play?bartender?whenever you mix one up. Grab your?favorite fruit juice?and some Black-Owned?Indoggo gin, and you’re set.?