April 15, 2025
The Mustard Seed Place is a web site of perception, inspiration and affect
Dr. Angela Reddix sowed a seed in downtown Portsmouth, Virginia. Now, only one yr later, Reddix and the neighborhood she serves is paying homage to its fruition and the imaginative and prescient that lies forward. The Mustard Seed Place, a 33,000 sq. foot constructing, situated at 340 Excessive Avenue, is a mixed-use house that was conceived by Dr. Reddix after closing on the property in simply two weeks with the help of 11 ladies traders.
On April 4-6, The Mustard Seed Place was a web site of perception, inspiration and affect, as Dr. Reddix’s Momentum 2025, obtained underway. The three-day occasion kicked off with excessive tea, adopted by a Friday night VIP reception and meet & greet with writer and social justice activist Tamika Mallory. On April 5, the convention ensued with a full report on the standing of The Mustard Seed Place and the re-announcement of Reddix’s groundbreaking mission: Museum of Black Ladies Innovators (MOWBI), anticipated to open by yr’s finish. The museum targets and goals, together with format plans have been shared with attendees.
“We wish to be sure that all really feel that that is an inviting setting and that they’ve function for coming to Portsmouth,” Reddix advised attendees earlier than sharing the museum’s mission assertion:
“The Mustard Seed Place Museum exists to encourage, empower, and educate our individuals by celebrating the groundbreaking achievements of the Black ladies innovators by means of immersive experiences and highly effective storytelling, we honor their legacies, foster understanding, and ignite the drive for future generations to interrupt limitations and lead with function.”
Dr. Reddix, the CEO and founding father of The Mustard Seed Place, is not any stranger to humble beginnings, neighborhood care or actualizing large concepts. The profitable entrepreneur was born to a teenage mother and raised by her grandmother, each of whom she credit for her voracious drive, ardour to serve, and talent to get issues achieved utilizing one’s personal sources, Reddix advised BLACK ENTERPRISE. It’s their sacrifices that formed her. The visionary shared the spark that led to The Mustard Seed Place.
Particular visitor Tamika Mallory, who sat for an intimate hearth chat with Stephanie Walters, affirmed the worth in Dr. Reddit’s imaginative and prescient with The Mustard Seed Place.
“Physician Reddix is doing one thing unimaginable,” Mallory advised BE.
“She is offering an area in an pressing time the place this nation is actually saying that we as ladies and we notably as black ladies are inconvenient.”
Mallory continued, “What she’s doing is cultivating an setting that permits for creativity, that permits for schooling and collaboration, which might be crucial piece of what’s being constructed right here.”
In a yr’s time, the a number of function house has turn out to be residence to ELG Candy Boutique, an ice cream store impressed by six younger ladies who participated within the Mustard Seed Place group Envision. Lead. Develop and co-owner Tonya Perkins.
As properly, the situation homes The Ladies of Mustard Seed, comprised of feminine entrepreneurs with companies starting from teaching providers with Patriot Ladies Teaching; to content material creation with Dream Pusher Co.; to the YWCA South Hampton Street; offering sources to survivors of sexual assault and home violence; Lotus Necessities Therapeutic massage and Wellness offering wellness providers; and several other others offering psychological well being care and staffing help.
“Momentum is right here as a result of we wish to be an illustration to each one of many potentialities,” Reddix stated. “You don’t need to have issues … historically you’re advised it’s important to have”
Whereas The Mustard Seed Place is a collective setting the place enterprise, business and imaginative and prescient intersect, Reddix’s overarching objective for the house is singular: “Our objective, we rework communities of poverty into communities of prosperity by means of the promise of women and girls.”
The Mustard Seed Place has exemplified the ancestors’ wildest goals. Reddix continues to be transformative in Black ladies and ladies lives and a drive to reckon with in Black communities.
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