Juneteenth Kicks-Off Free Online Directory of All Things Black Detroit NoirDetroit.com is local initiative to support Black businesses, events & resources
DETROIT – NOIR Detroit is the innovative creation of three Black metro Detroiters who envisioned a single website that would be a one-stop shop. NOIRDetroit.com is a comprehensive directory of Black businesses, as well as community resources and events of interest to the Black community. NOIR Detroit is a unique user-driven community-building resource that allows users to post their businesses and attract customers who may not know where they are or what they offer, making it easier to patronize these small Black businesses.
Unlike other business directories, NOIR Detroit also benefits non-profits, allowing them to post their educational workshops, enriching activities, scholarships, mental health resources, COVID-19 resources and testing sites, and other information of interest to the Black community. Once the shut-down ends, the community will clamor for information on entertainment and activities, like ball-room dancing, tennis lessons, mom-to-mom sales and comedy nights – and users can post these on the site as well.
Another unique user-friendly feature is the technology that sends a text or email reminder once an event or resource is posted to NOIR Detroit’s calendar. Visitors can click to schedule reminders and quickly share it with friends. This feature, and the ability to revise a posting, is even more important in the quickly changing environment of COVID-19.
In 2019, the three creators saw that other cities had similar sites, but those were pay-to-post and didn’t offer the reminder feature. They decided metro Detroit deserved one with open posting that would also include resources and events. The conversation of the time was about supporting Black businesses, especially in what became known as the New Detroit, as well as in the Detroit neighborhoods, and outside the city in metro Detroit. COVID-19 stalled the website’s debut, until now. Juneteenth is the perfect time to kick-off this free online directory.
The organizer, Mardi Woods, who is a marketing and sales professional, engaged Debra Sanders, a retiree with strong community connections, and Alicia Nails, a content creator, to form the NOIR Detroit team. They pooled their resources and invested their monies to fund the start-up of this community connector. They chose noir, the French word for black, as a nod to the fact that Detroit is the French word for “strait.”
NOIR Detroit is expanding to form an advisory team, accept ads and sponsors, to support administrative and development costs, as well as the launching of a mass marketing initiative for audience-building and community awareness.
Media Contact:
Alicia Nails
313/613.8369
