Aaron Oliver

Black History Month is always an excellent reason to celebrate and amplify Black-owned businesses. But our support shouldn't be limited solely to the month of February. That’s why we’re shining a light on these 24 Black-owned businesses that are shaping Chicago right now. This list features excellent local Black-owned eateries—some of which are among the best restaurants in Chicago—marketplaces, bookstores and platforms, as well as products, entrepreneurs and activists from a variety of sectors. And while they're a great starting point, we encourage you to get familiar with the Black-owned businesses in your own backyard and form relationships that make it easier to cultivate a shared community all year round. In the words of Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks: "We are each other’s harvest, we are each other’s business, we are each other’s magnitude and bond."

Over the past few weeks, we’ve witnessed a shift in the atmosphere, a reckoning if you will. The recent wave of protests against police brutality across the world makes it impossible to ignore the continued mistreatment that Black Americans face on a daily basis. We understand that things can’t return to the way they once were, and we shouldn’t want them to. These outcries have also exposed cracks embedded within many industries, most notably the hospitality scene, where discriminatory practices, deep-seated racism and a lack of inclusivity and diversity have always existed. I’ve seen these flaws for years—they’re part of the reason I founded Seasoned and Blessed, a food blog that chronicles the Black and Brown food experience in Chicago and beyond. While my journey in food writing has been rewarding, it has also been rife with exhaustion—from going to events where I was the only Black person in attendance to reading “best of” lists from publications that rarely included Black-owned restaurants to being reimbursed for my creative work with bottles of ketchup. It was this blatant lack of diversity that fueled Seasoned and Blessed for the past four years. For me, this is a passion project that ties together my love of food and my dedication to Black culture. Fast-forward to the beginning of June, in the midst of a global pandemic and worldwide protests: I suddenly found myself thrust into the spotlight, with a wave of new followers and support. My platform was finally being cel