Photo by Rozalia Singh
MLK Mural
MLK Mural
Since 2018, Bronzeville Collective MKE has showcased dozens of Black, Brown and queer-owned creative brands with its collaborative storefront in the heart of Historic Bronzeville. As Milwaukee’s first boutique to focus specifically on Black and Brown creatives, the store’s vast inventory encompasses clothing, jewelry, candles, self-care products, books, artwork and more. Co-founders Lilo Allen and Tiffany Miller recently moved Bronzeville Collective to 2236 Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Drive, just around the corner from its original location at the corner of North Ave. and Vel R. Phillips Ave.
Photo by Terrence Sims
Lilo Allen - Bronzeville Collective
Co-founder of Bronzeville Collective Lilo Allen
“A big part of it was sustainability, with rising rent costs of the building we were in,” Allen explains about the move. “We didn’t want to pass those rising costs down to the vendors, so it just didn’t make sense anymore.”
Upon signing the lease for the new space on MLK, Bronzeville Collective moved last July and officially re-opened in August. “I love that it’s uniquely ours,” Allen says about the new storefront. “I got to choose the floors, the paneling, the walls…we got to really make it home.”
Bronzeville Collective MKE is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. while closed on Sunday and Monday. Customers are free to park in the lot adjacent to the building that contains the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr mural.
The store has retained the majority of its vendors since opening. The artisanal soaps and body products of Indigo Thyme, assorted urban farm offerings of Alice’s Garden, vibrant and spiritual artwork and accessories of Xeroine Illustration, and empowering, edifying clothing of Byrdhouse all remain, in addition to many others. Allen sells culturally conscious crafts with her brand Papyrus & Charms while Miller specializes in bold, handcrafted adornments by way of FlyBlooms.
Among the latest brands to enter Bronzeville Collective are The Wellness Shop by Legacy, offering handmade, holistic self-care products, as well as Our Memories, apparel designed to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease.
“I do a quarterly open house, two weekends in a row, where creatives can come with a sample of their products and an elevator pitch to tell us what they’re all about,” Allen notes about the vendor process. “If they fit our ethos and the vibe that we’re going for, then they can choose to be part of the space in a sliding scale fashion.”
Bronzeville Collective MKE began out of Allen and Miller winning a small business pitch competition by RISE MKE, as well as completing a small business incubator program and partaking in PopUp MKE, where they teamed up with fellow creatives Jasmine Wyatt and Tomira White.
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“We engaged twenty other businesses in total over the course of sixty days,” Allen recalls about PopUp MKE. “In that time, we grossed 27 thousand dollars, which showed that the model works, and that allowed us to secure some permanency.”
The co-founders designed Bronzeville Collective by taking the fun of a Milwaukee summer marketplace and bringing it indoors. “For us, in this cold state, we really only get to financially and creatively flourish in the summertime,” Allen continues. “We wanted to bring all of that into one space, and also have that cultural and queer identity represented.”
While Miller remains a co-owner, she recently opened Fruition MKE, a cafe and coworking space located in the heart of Milwaukee’s Near West Side. White now also has her own bakery in Wauwatosa, Delicious Bites, while Wyatt has since relocated to Florida with her art practice. Allen continues to manage the day-to-day operations of Bronzeville Collective.
Reflecting on the biggest things she has learned over the seven years of Bronzeville Collective, Allen shares, “There’s always so much that you don’t know. The main thing for me is figuring out how to keep people excited about what it is that we do. In times like these, I feel art gets pushed to the back - and obviously, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - but we do need art and community, and I want people to love this space as much as I do.”
Later this week, Bronzeville Collective is participating in Gallery Night MKE on July 18 and 19, where exclusive looks at the store’s fine and visual art will take place. Then they are participating in the Bronzeville Art Walk, which takes place on August 9. Allen will be vending Papyrus & Charms at the Black Business Month marketplace at America’s Black Holocaust Museum during the final weekend of August.
