Artist William Estrada screen prints the NPHM logo on a tote bag during an Ehub art workshop for teens in December. Photo by Andrew Brandon.
The Corner Store Co-op, owned and operated by public housing residents, launched online (nphmcornerstorecoop.com). NPHM’s version of a museum shop is devoted to the mission of amplifying the entrepreneurial history of public housing and promoting economic equity. In December, the Museum’s Entrepreneurship Hub (EHub) hosted a printing workshop for Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) youth led by artist and educator William Estrada. William teaches accessible printing techniques that are used in the creation of graphic images within a social and political context.
NPHM partnered with teens from the Smart Museum and made several versions of tote bags with the NPHM logo and t-shirts with a waveform graphic.
The co-op is led by a working group of six dynamic, enterprising individuals. Among them is Takisha Smith, an accountant and creative writer living in Chicago.
“During the pandemic, I thought that I was going to be so prolific,” Takisha said. It’s a sentiment many of us understand. Her vision has always been to motivate people and she wanted to tackle some book projects. “But what I learned in 2020 was to mind my own business,” she said, and that truth also became an inspiration. Mind Your Own Business, is the title of the self-help book that Takisha is currently writing. “I went inward and I just started consuming information to help me in what I wanted to do and what I wanted to share. I thought it was going to be for a little while but I got lost,” she said, laughing. Falling down the rabbit research hole can be a rich and rewarding experience even if it turns into an unplanned detour. Like encountering the NPHM webinar on land trusts in the summer of 2020. By the end of that year, she joined the EHub working group.
“I learned that I was a solidarity economics person and I just hadn’t met my people,” said Takisha.
Takisha grew up on Chicago’s South Side. “I was born in Englewood and upgraded to the projects at 41st and Prairie, however, I never knew we were low-income. I never considered us poor. My mom went to work every day,” she said. Takisha lived in public housing from the fifth grade until she went to college at Jackson State University in Mississippi.
With the launch of the co-op’s online store, Takisha is excited to partner with other housing residents and highlight their products and services. “EHub will act as a catalyst for others.” Takisha said she wants to see the shop scale and help create jobs. “I am about bringing employment and opportunity to the community,” for Takisha, particularly as a single parent of four children, it’s important to have good jobs in the neighborhood and not have to commute downtown.
Another dynamic and talented member of the team is Nakia Sims who lives in Houston, Texas.
“I consider myself both an advocate and an agitator, and maybe a couple of different adjectives when it comes to my level of passion,” she said, adding that she stands on the shoulders of public housing activists like Bertha Gilkey (1949-2014). “If not for the advocacy, my children and I would have remained unhoused.”
Nakia has worked as a champion of affordable housing and as a trained lawyer with finely honed research skills, she has helped residents understand contracts and find needed resources.
In 2020, Nakia found her way to NPHM’s EHub program where she learned about the history of cooperatives and in 2020 joined the advisory group. As a lifelong learner, and a poet, with a great skill set, she wanted to help. “And I have a passion for the history of public housing.” Nakia has been researching the history of garlic as well as its health benefits, as one of the products that will be available in the co-op will be garlic that has been grown in community gardens.
“I have been able to grow my business and receive stipends and invest in my children so they are able to realize their dreams,” Nakia said. “I am that voice that says that even while you are living in public housing, you can take a little bit and invest in your children and your business.” For her daughter, this means violin lessons.
Inspired by the tiny home movement, Nakia bought a bus that she plans to transform into a home. Being self-sufficient doesn’t hurt. “I can change my own brakes on a car,” she said.
EDIT: Nakia Sims requested that we clarify that she is not currently practicing as a licensed attorney in any jurisdiction.