Get to know Us
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We are working to remove the barriers that often keep Black women creatives in oppressive and toxic work environments and support our creative businesses to thrive! Established in 2021 for us and by us.
The National Black Women Creative Cooperative is born of an Unlock Creative LLC’s initiative, Creative Flowers, that focuses specifically on growing, nurturing and keeping Black women in leadership within the creative sector including the nonprofit arts and the commercial entertainment industry. We define the creative sector broadly as the arts, commercial film, music and live entertainment industry, and nonprofit sector and is inclusive but not limited to visual arts, theater, dance, film, music, and culture bearing. Creatives interested may define their artistry as graphic design, animation, music composition, production, songwriting, sound engineering, storytelling, museum management, costume design, lighting design, opera, fashion design, or technical direction.
A group of Black women dreamed that the cooperative would be an ecosystem, network, and marketplace where Black Women Creatives can grow, gain professional development and services like medical, vision, dental, long-term and short-term disability, payroll and staffing services all from Black-owned businesses.
Toward a goal of financial freedom, we have formed a cooperative enterprise, a business entity that is collectively owned by us and shares in the profits of the company. There are many other coalitions and organizations that support segments and issues of Black Women through programs and services. We seek to work in partnership with those organizations. And, we are explicitly pulling together a dynamic group of Black Women Creatives to take our collective skills, training, talents, equity, and justice-minded frameworks into these conversations to build OUR COOPERATIVE BUSINESS where Black Women’s lives are centered.
MORE ABOUT MEMBERSHIP
You will be a member-owner of the cooperative. We value equity and transparency. The benefit to the cooperative is that of mutual aid and each of us has something to offer for the greater good of the group. Individual members function in the ecosystem as well as employers and business owners. You will see that the benefits of the cooperative are the same across membership levels. We are offering varying access points to ensure that a range of Black Women Creatives are able to have ownership. Below you can learn a bit more about each membership level and the benefits that you gain when you become an owner-member. We encourage you to pay it forward as we are owners financing our collective wealth. Select a membership that feels right for your budget as well as the investment and impact you would like to have on Black Women’s lives.
LEARN MORE ABOUT COOPERATIVES
Video by Lydia Edwards, Cooperative Attorney of Jason Wiener PC. Lydia worked closely with us during 2020 and 2021 to draft our by-laws and membership agreements for the cooperative.
LEARN MORE NBWCC OWNER – MEMBERSHIP
Video by Lydia Edwards, Cooperative Attorney of Jason Wiener PC
Linked here is a folder with the by-laws and the detailed membership agreements that you can review before signing up to become an owner. Membership dues are suspended for your first 6 months during 2022 while we build our network. See a highlight of each ownership offering below.
Sapphire Membership
One Vote
Fee: $25 per month/$300 per year
Identifies as the following:
- Individual Black Women creator
Emerald Membership
One Vote
Fee: $50 per month / $600 per year
Identify with one or more of the following:
- Sole proprietorship
- One member LLC
- Up to $500,000 operating budget
- less than 10 years of operations
Ruby Membership
One Vote
Fee: $100 per month/ $1200 per year
Identify with one of the following:
- 10 plus years incorporation
- $500,000 – $1 million annual operating budget
- Does not fall into tiny business or individual membership classes
Onyx Membership
Fee: $10,000 +
One Vote
Identify with one of the following:
- Black Woman
- Invests $10,000 in donations and above in a calendar year
ACCESSING THE MEMBER DIRECTORY & COMMUNITY
We will send you your membership agreement to sign after you have registered at your chosen ownership level. And our online member directory is housed on Mighty Networks. Once you have registered, you can sign in here to join us in the community every time there after. We can’t wait to have you as part of the sisterhood.