Black Owned Businesses in the Twin Cities

The infographic is an update Du Bois’s original “Negro Business Men in the U.S.” by way of an activist project in the Twin Cities. The MSP BIPOC Business Map is a website and open source map allowing users to find minority owned businesses in the Twin Cities created by Atharv Kulkarni in 2023. Users can add to the map and Kulkarni has paired this with social media presence on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. The highly successful approach creates a significant sample of BIPOC Businesses that is constantly being updated. Kulkarni started his project as a way to invigorate local BIPOC solidarity initiated by the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by the police in Minneapolis in 2020. The image expresses a flourishing of Black businesses in the Twin Cities as it heals from these still resonate events. Villalongo uses his iconic floral motifs to illuminate businesses against MSP geography. Where and what the businesses are reflect the needs and industriousness of its communities. Conversely, where Black owned businesses are not located exposes difficult truths between the hope of Black entrepreneurship and historically underserved Black communities.