Interning For KwanzaaMe

Finding the internship was just as grueling as everyone says. Luckily, my first few weeks actually interning have been the opposite.

Although I've only been with KwanzaMe a short time, between meetings, everyday work, and community events, I've learned so much. Not just about KwanzaaMe itself, but about what it means to run a growing business.

You might be wondering: what exactly is KwanzaaMe? And what's it like being this close to a business growing this fast?

So what is KwanzaMe?

KwanzaMe is more than a lifestyle brand or a business that sells products. It's a Black-led business ecosystem dedicated to celebrating Black heritage year-round. Not just for a month, and not just once a year, but for the whole year. 

It's important to love being black and it's even better to celebrate it everyday. 

Running the business

On the surface, KwanzaaMe offers products like Kwanzaa kits, attire, and a variety of different workshops. Underneath all that, it's reclaiming cultural narrative through community-centered storytelling and preserving Black cultural legacy.

Running a business like this takes real knowledge and intention. Sharing Black history accurately is a start but communicating it in a way that's engaging and relatable is what actually lands. That takes time and effort, and those two words have stuck with me throughout this internship.

Time and Effort

Running any business is a lot of work. Running one that's educating the community, managing products, services, and juggling multiple business ventures at once is even more work. That's where I've seen time and effort really show up.  The hours spent pulling everything together, and the care taken to make it look effortless.

We want Black people to celebrate their heritage 100% of the time, so KwanzaMe matches that energy by putting everything we have into every initiative. That's what it takes to run a growing Black-owned business well.

Key takeaways

KwanzaMe isn't just a business, it's a cultural experience, built on both Black culture and the seven principles of Kwanzaa (a topic for another blog). What matters here is that those principles like self-determination, unity, and collective responsibility, to name a few, are values that can bring strength and growth to individuals, families, and communities. KwanzaaMe wants to help you build those values into your own life.

But that takes more than sharing principles on a page. It takes community outreach, events, and historical education. Black history is rich enough to both honor those who came before us and shape the generations still to come.

And all of that takes time and effort. I'm proud to say my first few weeks as a KwanzaMe intern have been eye-opening, and I can't wait to see what's next.

Think about what KwanzaMe can offer you and what you can offer you and your community. At the end of the day, KwanzaaMe is a business, but just as much, it's a community initiative built on connection

Jade Flores

Junior at Michigan State

Studying Communications