‘We can help each other grow’: Angel Grigorio opens a Black-owned and -run market in DC

Business impresario Angel Gregorio is transforming shipping containers into an incubator for Black entrepreneurs and farmers

When the Guardian first profiled Angel Gregorio, the 37-year-old was running her Washington DC gourmet seasonings business the Spice Suite while hosting pop-ups for other Black entrepreneurs inside her Takoma-area store. She saw herself as a community builder first, and an entrepreneur second. My business is about supporting Black businesses," she said of her shop, which sells spices sourced from around the world, along with a multitude of products made by local Black women.

A year later, her business has followed an upward trajectory, with fans ranging from Kelis to Stevie Wonder. Gregorio's business is growing in other ways too: in January, the Spice Suite will reinvent itself as part of a mini strip mall that Gregorio designed and is opening in the Langdon neighborhood of DC.