Business

Anika Hobbs, owner of Nubian Hueman and visionary behind the Black Love Experience

THE AFRO — Anika Hobbs is a busy woman. As owner of Nubian Hueman and the visionary behind the Black Love Experience, the Maryland based entrepreneur helped shape entrepreneurs in the District for years.

Published

5 years ago

March 15, 2019

Oakland Post

By Afro Staff

Anika Hobbs is a busy woman. As owner of Nubian Hueman and the visionary behind the Black Love Experience, the Maryland based entrepreneur helped shape entrepreneurs in the District for years.

Now as Black Love Experience celebrates its sixth year, the event is so big it is being moved. Formerly housed at the Anacostia Arts Center, this year the event will take place at 7 p.m. March 23rd at THEARC, 1901 Mississippi Ave SE, Washington, D.C. 20020.

The Black Love Experience, is an annual event geared towards celebrating music, business and Black culture. Last year more than 2000 people attended. This year’s theme is Organic Chemistry. It has a dual meaning, according to Hobbs.

“It’s about resilience in our DNA,” Hobbs said. “We wanted something that stood behind science. And the other part of it was it’s organic chemistry with all the people involved. It’s kind of like organic that we all come together to form a body.”

Hobbs has been creating organic chemistry and growing business for over a decade. She opened the Nubian Hueman store inside the Anacostia Art Center in 2013.

“We focus on people of color and so we have unique goods by artists, designers and creatives from all over the world,” Hobbs said, adding that the store has worked with about 400 artists and designers, spanning 25 countries and 6 continents.

Prior to that Hobbs, wanted to be an architect. (She admitted she still does). She studied Environmental Design at Syracuse. After graduation, with no prospects in her field, she took a job at H&M- which at the time had a tiny footprint in the U.S. Hobbs stayed with them for 11 years learning everything she could about business- rising to District manager before she ventured out on her own.

“I learned so much,” Hobbs said. “Anything I was interested in, I had access to.”

Now as an entrepreneur and business leader in D.C., Hobbs is enthused about the District as a home for women business owners and people of color.

“I have to say there has been a lot of support behind being Black, being a woman in D.C. There’s so much fire behind being an entrepreneur in D.C.”

For more information about the Black Love Experience event visit blackloveexperience.com.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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V.P. Kamala Harris: Americans With Criminal Records Will Soon Be Eligible for SBA Loans

Speaking in Las Vegas on Jan. 27, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a forthcoming federal rule that will extend access to Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to Americans who have been convicted of felonies but have served their time. Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Published

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April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

On her daylong trip, Harris was joined by Horford, SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman, Interim Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Eric Morrissette, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev).

By California Black Media

Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Harris thanked U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV-04), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, for the work he has done in Washington to support small businesses and to invest in people.

“He and I spent some time this afternoon with business leaders and small business leaders here in Nevada. The work you have been doing to invest in community and to invest in the ambition and natural capacity of communities has been exceptional,” Harris said, speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people at the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall in East Las Vegas.

“Formerly incarcerated individuals face significant barriers to economic opportunity once they leave prison and return to the community, with an unemployment rate among the population of more than 27%,” the White House press release continued. “Today’s announcement builds on the Vice President’s work to increase access to capital. Research finds that entrepreneurship can reduce recidivism for unemployed formerly incarcerated individuals by as much as 30%.”

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G.O.P. Lawmakers: Repeal AB 5 and Resist Nationalization of “Disastrous” Contractor Law

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

File Photo: Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City)

By California Black Media

Republican lawmakers gathered outside of the Employee Development Department in Sacramento on Jan. 23 to call for the repeal of AB5, the five-year old California law that reclassified gig workers and other independent contractors as W-2 employees under the state’s labor code.
Organizers said they also held the rally to push back against current efforts in Washington to pass a similar federal law.

“We are here to talk about this very important issue – a battle we have fought for many years – to stop this disastrous AB 5 policy,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City).
Now, that threat has gone national as we have seen this new rule being pushed out of the Biden administration,” Gallagher continued.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a new rule providing guidance on “on how to analyze who is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).”
“This final rule rescinds the Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act rule (2021 IC Rule), that was published on January 7, 2021, and replaces it with an analysis for determining employee or independent contractor status that is more consistent with the FLSA as interpreted by longstanding judicial precedent,” a Department of Labor statement reads.
U.S. Congressmember Kevin Kiley (R-CA-3), who is a former California Assemblymember, spoke at the rally.

“We are here today to warn against the nationalization of one of the worst laws that has ever been passed in California, which has devastated the livelihoods of folks in over 600 professions,” said Kiley, adding that the law has led to a 10.5% decline in self-employment in California.

Kiley blamed U.S Acting Secretary of Labor, July Su, who was the former secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, for leading the effort to redefine “contract workers” at the federal level.
Kiley said two separate lawsuits have been filed against Su’s Rule – its constitutionality and the way it was enacted, respectively. He said he is also working on legislation in Congress that puts restrictions on the creation and implementation of executive branch decisions like Su’s.
Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita) announced that she plans to introduce legislation to repeal AB 5 during the current legislative session.

“So many working moms like myself, who are also raising kids, managing households, were devastated by the effects of AB 5 because they lost access to hundreds of flexible professions,” Sanchez continued. “I’ve been told by many of these women that they have lost their livelihoods as bookkeepers, artists, family caregivers, designers, and hairstylists because of this destructive law.”