Exit Interview: Vassie Sinopoulos, of Woven Treasures from Vermont, discusses using recycled materials in her art
By ISAAC LORTON Enterprise Correspondent What got you into weaving and using a loom? My husband’s family from Chicago, they had a couple that lived with them. They were Swedish and he was an architect and also a craftsperson — he worked with wood and metal — and his wife was a weaver and took care of the family. Her loom that her husband had built for her in the beginning of the 1900s, they wanted it to stay in the family but they...
Ways to act: Upper Valley business owners make lasting commitment to racial, social justice
Valley News Staff Writer After the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed in June by police in Minneapolis, Sarah Yetter and her co-owners of Abracadabra Coffee Co., wanted to find ways to promote racial justice. For a time, the company donated 15% of its online sales to nonprofits working for racial justice, but then a better and more durable avenue appeared in the form of a proposal by Jarvis Antonio Green, founder of JAG...
David and Nicola Yoon launch YA imprint for people of color
AP National Writer Best-selling authors David and Nicola Yoon are launching a Random House Children’s Books imprint for young adult romance novels by and about people of color. They are calling the imprint Joy Revolution and plan to release the first books in 2022.“I loved romantic comedies and romance novels when I was younger. Loved the meet-cutes, the breakups, the make-ups, and the final chase scene followed by the big speech...
At the Black New England Conference, honoring past trailblazers and calling for action
Granite State News Collaborative In 1964, former Vermont State Representative Kiah Morris’ grandfather was nearly beaten to death by Ku Klux Klan members who attacked the Mount Zion Methodist Church in Mississippi, where he then served as a deacon. It was shortly before the KKK burned the church to the ground. It was at a time when centers like the Mount Zion Methodist Church were becoming Freedom Schools, which would train a...
‘We need to do more’: Seven high-ranking Black women leave Wells Fargo
The Charlotte Observer At least seven Black female senior executives have left Wells Fargo in the past 12 months, depleting the pipeline of women executives of color to the bank’s most senior positions. Two went to work at Citigroup, which just announced the first female CEO of a major U.S. bank. One went to work at American Express, reporting to one of the most senior Black men in finance. Another left for Equifax. Two people with...
Exit Interview: David Phair, Owner and Manager of Hustle and Loyalty Records, centers local hip-hop in rural Vermont
When David Phair is not working at New England Precision, Inc. in Randolph, the Bethel entrepreneur has been establishing a quietly-thriving hip-hop scene in central Vermont with his company Hustle and Loyalty Records, which promotes hip-hop is peace — a means of expression and a tool for educating. After George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were killed by police officers, Hustle and Loyalty partnered with Babes Bar in Bethel to hold a...
Spreading their wings: Babes Bar owners take concept of centering marginalized people beyond their business walls
When Owen Daniel-McCarter and Jesse Plotsky, owners of Babes Bar, arrived to Bethel from Chicago in 2018 to open the only stand-alone bar in town, they were met with one question more than any other, “Why the hell did you move to Bethel?” Aside from being closer to family — Plotsky’s brother and sister-in-law live in Bethel — the couple sought a change of pace from the Windy City. Neither had owned or run a bar before, but the one...
Exit Interview: Susan Sorensen, owner of AboutFace, helps customers put best
Susan Sorensen has been helping clients in the Upper Valley put their best face forward since 2014, when she opened AboutFace Skin Therapy in Lebanon. Enterprise caught up with Sorensen, a licensed aesthetician, to discuss skin care as part of an overall health regimen, and the challenges of marketing skin care services in the era of multi-level marketing promising miracle cures. (Responses have been lightly edited for length and...
Made In The Upper Valley: Quechee’s F.H. Clothing pivots to mask making to keep some cash flow happening
More than 40 years ago, Joan Ecker started Fat Hat Clothing during a tough situation. She was a single mom, launching her business largely from the back of her Volvo and sewing hats beneath a tarp while her friend helped her build a home. Still, she pushed through. In the decades since, Fat Hat — now known as F.H. Clothing — grew into a big business, producing comfortable women’s clothing from its headquarters in Quechee. Yet, in 2020...
Business of Agriculture: Farm-to-table dining takes on new meaning amid pandemic
Eric Pray is used to shipping seafood all over the country. But since the coronavirus took hold, he has shifted his focus closer to home — selling lobsters from a homemade tank in his garage. Pray, of Portland, Maine, is one of hundreds of fishermen, farmers and food producers who have shifted to a direct-to-consumer model amid the virus outbreak. The pandemic has stressed and sometimes disrupted supply chains, shuttered restaurants...
