Soul food, short lines: Black Entrepreneur State Fair kicks off on Minneapolis’ Cedar Avenue

Standing in the shade under his tent on Monday, Akeem Gbor, owner of East Coast Water Ice, couldn’t help but smile as he wiped sweat off his face.

He said for the past two days everybody at the Black Entrepreneur State Fair has been asking him the same question, “What are you selling?” The frozen treat is made of water. It’s sweet and fruit flavored, more grainy than a sorbet but not necessarily an Italian ice.

“People here have never seen anything like this before,” Gbor, who grew up in Philadelphia said of his frozen treats.

Fair President Keandrea Shelby wasn’t sure how to describe the treat, but she said it’s been popular with attendees.

“It’s good, I mean it tastes amazing, it looks like a snow cone,” she said.

Sisters Keandrea and Destinee Shelby launched the Black Entrepreneur State Fair five years ago to highlight small Black-owned businesses.

This year is the first fair at the Cabooze Plaza on Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis. It runs through Saturday, August 31 and features more than 50 businesses.

“It’s just very important to have a platform, because we [Black businesses] don’t have, like I said, many platforms for us to show up, for us and by us,” Keandrea Shelby said.

According to her, the Black Entrepreneur State Fair always aims to run during the last week of August and usually starts before the Minnesota State Fair, but this year because of dates the state fair started earlier.

Attendance for previous fairs has ranged from a few hundred to a couple thousand but this year organizers are expecting a slight decrease due to a change in location and heat advisories early in the week.

Organizers said the Black State Fair saw about 500 visitors during its opener on Sunday, an even lower figure than expected.

And even with the overlap with the Minnesota State Fair, the plan isn’t to compete but rather coexist and give small or newer Black-owned businesses a platform, according to Shelby.

“The biggest thing with the Minnesota State Fair is you have to have a lot of capital to get in there, and when these small Black businesses, or small businesses in general, we don’t have that type of access to capital, so we tried to create something on a smaller scale just for us,” she said.

Shelby said visitors looking for great food should look no further than the Black Entrepreneur State Fair because according to her, it rivals the best at the Minnesota State Fair.

“That’s the biggest thing I know we have. We got the best food, I’m going to stand on that,” she said.

Gbor’s business is one of the newer ones featured this year. He said he started the business about two months ago, but it’s quickly found a customer base.

“I’m just trying to get my feet wet in the business world, trying to change, just something new,” Gbor said.

Shelby said many vendors who participated in past fairs have grown thanks to the exposure and networking opportunities it provided.

One of the fair’s advocates — and successes — is Rhya Moore, owner of the House of Jerk food truck.

Moore participated in the Black Entrepreneur State Fair three years ago before she had a food truck.

Since then Moore said it’s the most important event of the year for her. This year her team closed the food truck two weeks in advance to prepare for their participation at the fair.

“I’ll be there every year that I can. And it’s helped me each year, it helped me elevate to the next level,” Moore said.

Other than food vendors, other Black-owned businesses at the fair include a bottled water company, clothing stores, hat designers, seasoning vendors and even a junk removal company.

D’Andre Knox, owner of Frankie’s Junk Removal, said he’s new to networking but wanted to meet other Black business owners and be able to “mingle” while having a presence at events.

He said being at the Black Entrepreneur State Fair for him was a must and he hoped the public would give him and others a chance by visiting.

“You got to network, you can’t sit at home and expect somebody else to. Like your business, you are going to do it yourself. You got to get out there and do the footwork, the door-to-door. You know? You got to put in that work. So this is the right way to do it,” Knox said.