#supportbrooklyn

A high-end cafe by day, and natural wine bar by night. Sweetbee is the latest buzz in the Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill neighborhoods.

We're happy to spotlight Sweetbee as part of our #SupportBrooklyn series.

It's easy to #SupportBrooklyn when the menu consists of @SGCookieCo's delicious cookies, snacks, and baked goods. 

“We guarantee to have a smile on your face after one bite.” -Shalonda Vazquez, Founder 

This week’s #SupportBrooklyn highlights Stars Café, a BIPOC owned, womyn-led cafe, bookstore, community, and event space in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Read more on the incredible work they do below! 

“We are Brooklyn natives who started this cafe to create an intergenerationally friendly space dedicated to literacy, creative arts, entrepreneurship, mental health, community, innovation, and impact. We wanted to create a space for us by us; a space where we dismantled limits of who could and could not cultivate spaces, where all, regardless of their myriad identities, could feel safe and welcome, protected and elevated, seen and empowered. 

The dream is to be able to cultivate a real community within the cafe—brimming with social and educational programming that addresses the needs of all community members seeking social services, companionship, connectedness, purpose, education, identity affirming talks, employment opportunities, entrepreneurial workshops, etc. We want to be able to hire people that are not traditionally seen as hireable or have more barriers to obtain employment: our elders, formerly incarcerated youth and adults, differently abled people, people on the spectrum, veterans, undocumented people, people experiencing homlessness, domestic violence survivors, refugees, etc. We want to give opportunities to those that are at risk of being left behind, so that they are hired first. We want people to truly experience love and collective action. The end goal is to be able to create a whole network of Stars Cafes, run by entrepreneurs aligned with similar values, eschewing profit for dynamic social change. ”

Starts Café

Website: linktr.ee/StarsCafe247

Facebook: @starscafe247w  

Instagram: @starscafe247w

This week’s #SupportBrooklyn highlights String Thing Studio, the only Black-owned yarn shop in NYC! Located in Park Slope, Strong Thing Studio is a yarn lover’s haven and a welcoming space for creatives of all types. Read more on them below! 

“Whether you knit, crochet, weave or macramé, you will experience creativity in every aspect at String Thing Studio. From the beautiful array of yarns for a wide range of tastes, to the classes and events offered to educate and inspire. I knew when I decided to open String Thing Studio it couldn't be anywhere else but Brooklyn. Park Slope is my home! Prospect Park is my backyard! We've made lifelong friends here. We have witnessed the renaissance that Brooklyn has gone through over the past 17 years and I still love it and find it hard to imagine living anywhere else. Everyone that comes into String Thing Studio brings such a warm energy and love spending time with each other. We have a cross section of people that consider String Thing Studio their home. When the pandemic hit, and we had to close, it was hard on us but even more so on our community. But, in classic String Thing Style, they rallied behind EVERYTHING that I did to stay afloat and get back open. I love how they love this shop and we love them right back.”

String Thing Studio

Website: stringthingstudio.com

Facebook: @StringThingStudio 

Instagram: @stringthingstudio

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’ve been dedicating our May #SupportBrooklyn posts to small businesses and organizations that work to support the AAPI community. @redcanarysong is a grassroots collective organizing with Asian and migrant sex and massage workers for labor rights and mutual aid. 

“Our ground work is centered on the Asian migrant massage and sex working community of Flushing Queens and we build coalitions transnationally with other grassroots orgs led by sex workers, AAPI, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Trans and nonbinary, and disabled peoples. We believe that full decriminalization of all sex work, massage work, and migrant labor is necessary for labor organizing and anti-trafficking. This past year, during our mutual aid work in Flushing, while I was meeting with a migrant worker, our eyes were full of tears of care for one another and we wanted to hug one another but couldn’t due to COVID-19 safety protocol. So the migrant workers bowed to me instead and I bowed back. Mutual aid is honoring one another with the simple gesture of humanity. At Red Canary Song, some of the goals and principles we are committed to include an end to police raids, surveillance and deportations, Labor rights in our workplaces, regardless of immigration status, and public education and political action to bring awareness to migrant workers’ rights in New York.” - Yin Q, Co-Director 

Red Canary Song 

Website: redcanarysong.net

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @redcanarysong

This week’s #SupportBrooklyn highlights Tiny’s Cantina, a restaurant that serves contemporary cuisine rooted in Mexican flavors and traditions while celebrating innovation, impeccable ingredients, and housemade tortillas. Read more on them below! 

“After owning Morgan's Brooklyn Barbecue for several years, we fell in love with the Brooklyn community and wanted to bring a new, authentic Mexican restaurant to the neighborhood—from Puebla to Prospect Heights! Developed by Mathew Glazier of GlazierWorks, Tiny’s Cantina represents a concerted effort to fill in the dearth of chef-driven Mexican street food and hand-crafted cocktails within the burgeoning Prospect Heights dining scene. Our intimate restaurant, which lives up to its name, strives to become the neighborhood’s everyday haunt. 

The dream is to be the ultimate go-to spot for both locals and visitors in the area. Tiny’s Cantina aims to be a space that people look forward to visiting to unwind, spend time with others, and experience new flavors and top-notch food and beverages.” 

Tiny’s Cantina 

Website: tinyscantina.com

Facebook: @tinyscantina

Instagram: @tinyscantina

This week’s #SupportBrooklyn highlights Urban Asanas, a beloved yoga studio and wellness center that offers the benefits of yoga, health, light, and spirituality while maintaining the strength and diversity of the people they serve. Learn more about them below! 

“Urban Asanas was created and has been maintained on the principle of wellness for all. We're continuing to raise the bar for health and wellness in the community. I started my business in Brooklyn because this is where my family is and I wanted my community to bloom. The first day I opened as a small black business, bringing health and wellness to my community, I was welcomed with open arms and hearts. That memory will forever stick with me. I'm just continuing to spread joy throughout this world, and letting it land where it lands. There is no end game, I'm already living the dream.” - Porcia Lewis, Head of the Wellness Center at Urban Asanas. 

Urban Asanas LLC.

Website: https://www.urbanasanas.com/

Social: @urbanasanas