As a now-millionaire who grew up on the poverty line, Bridgid Coulter Cheadle knows that money provides power. That's why she decided to create Blackbird House, a collective and physical space designed for women of color to connect and do business.
In this episode of "Our America: In The Black Conversations," Cheadle spoke with entrepreneur Arlan Hamilton about how she used her interior design experience to build Blackbird, which is a luxury office space located in a warehouse in Los Angeles. She created the space with the knowledge that Black women like herself, and other women of color, typically have less access to entrepreneurial opportunities.
"It is a space centered on women of color and open to allies, and a lot of times we're under-resourced and undervalued," Cheadle said. "I wanted to make sure you came in, and you knew no detail was left unthought of, no texture that I think is beautiful wasn't brought into the space, and that you belong and deserve this."
She sees Blackbird, which provides opportunities and equity to underprivileged women in their business ventures, as a space full of joy and possibility.
"We're all doing incredible work in our silos around the country and around the world, but when we come together, and you look across the room of us, it's a organism," she explained. "It's this living organism that we're all feeling. We are in this profound time. And because of the work that our predecessors did and our trailblazers and our icons in our parents, what they lay, we are the ones they were waiting for."
Watch episode 7 of "Our America: In the Black Conversations" with Arlan Hamilton and Bridgid Coulter Cheadle now in the video player above or wherever you stream this station on Roku, Apple TV, FireTV or Google TV.
Luke Richards and Alexis Johnson-Fowlkes contributed to this report.