Amsterdam

This is the spot for anyone who is serious about tea. The owner Amanda is a real authority in the tea world. She has been appointed by the Chinese government as the European ambassador of Pu-erh tea. Formocha also does traditional tea ceremony and the upstairs seating area is a real oasis within the Jordaan area. They specialise in tea from China, Taiwan and Japan.

Is a 'by reservation only', vegan ramen restaurant - don't be put off by the 100% plant based ramen. It is incredible.

The real ones in Amsterdam know this is THE late night dining spot. Tell me where else you'll be able to get a Hong Kong-style typhoon shelter fried lobster and some Tsingtaos in the AM's.

An amazing Korean florist, they also host workshops on floral arrangement techniques.

Hands down the best Chinese supermarket in Amsterdam.

Assort is a Japanese hair salon with locations all over the world. The staff are the best and are extremely creative.

Great Filipino bakery, their ube cake is banging!

A hidden gem, some of the best sushi in Amsterdam. They also make their own ice cream.

Honestly one of my favourite spots in Amsterdam, really tasty Malaysian food. Everything on the menu is great but their Sambal Lady Finger's (Okra), Laksa and Hainanese Chicken Rice are must haves.

Asian-Owned Businesses in Amsterdam

PRIM

London

Our personal favourite obviously, boasting work not just from your favourites but across art, sports and most importantly culture. In creating our pop-up libraries and this bookshop, it's a snapshot into what a permanent PRIM bookshop could look and feel like. We want it to be an immersive space, giving room for queer and Black artists to discover, explore and showcase whilst also fusing literature with cultural activities from across artistic disciplines and inviting everyone to explore and discover with us.

New Beacon is literally the beacon, one of the most renowned bookstores in London to really help us dig into fiction and non-fiction by Black authors. They are the blueprint for PRIM, and have been serving the community for decades.


We love Round Table Books because it provides the fun environment we all needed as children and young adults. A place where we can look around at all the books and see ourselves. A great place to take your young ones.


Healthy remedies in abundance, this is a special store. Pempasie provides us with natural products for hair and body, culture, remedies, African art and reading materials we'll need to begin or maintain a holistic lifestyle. This is a special store that I've personally felt really excited by.

Crowned Independent Bookshop of the Year 2021, this bookstore has been around since 1948. With regular book clubs, authors events and a dedicated children's shop, it's another one that has truly been serving the community for a very long time.

A space not just for books but for learning history in a variety of mediums. Black Cultural Archives is so important because it is one of few heritage sites we have in London and in the UK overall. A visit here will leave you with more than books to talk about.

A queer-Black-woman-owned project inspired by resistance, imagination and care. We've always loved and been inspired by this project. Whilst they do not have a physical shop, much like us, they are often taking up spaces, as they did recently with their EcoFeminist Summit.

Based in Oxfordshire, African Books Collective is an African-owned, worldwide marketing and distribution outlet for books from Africa – scholarly literature and children's books. Love the ethos here, which brings works we couldn't readily get here directly to us. An incredibly needed service.

8 Black-Owned Bookstores in London with PRIM

Sydney

BOCK:ARIE, is a unisex accessories and clothing brand founded in 2019 by designer Naomi Bockarie. Derived from the notion of bringing art into everyday life, the brands first collection features unique non-animal leather bags, that can be worn in numerous ways in the one design. The design philosophy is to allow the wearer to reinterpret the design into their own and to create their own personal look that is not entirely dictated by the designer and as a result BOCKARIE designs are intended to be ever evolving. Their next collection will feature clothing.

Being Mad About Curls, we specialize in all types of curls – Wavy, Curly and Afro. Based in Sydney Australia. With celebrity clients like Zadie Smith, FKA Twigs, Amanda’s Stenberg and Yemi Alade, we provide our curly haired beauties numerous and well-educated options for styling and wearing your unique look confidently.
Whether your curls are in their natural form, chemically treated or manipulated, we offer a judgement free zone so you can enjoy your hair’s versatility the way you like. 
Our role as a team is to simplify your curl journey, complimented by our Rumbie & Co curly hair products, our curly hair services and education. We also are creating a curl community that will empower and support you, leaving you time to embrace and love your curls.

Jarin Street began by recognising the misuse of Aboriginal art and the industry's failure to protect the artists and Aboriginal designs, as well as a failure to highlight the artists themselves.
We support up and coming Indigenous artists to get their designs out there and seen in day to day life.
We aim to provide ongoing ethical and sustainable support to the artists who contribute their work on our yoga mats and soon to come - active wear and fashion garments.

Sauti Systems is a multifaceted brand, focused on providing an atmospheric event of diverse and enjoyable musical content. We aim to bring positivity through all creative avenues, producing an all round inclusive experience.

A hip-hop dance experience designed to make you feel good about yourself. Usually held in a no mirrors, dim lights, judgement free space. Currently running livestream classes with dance courses also available so you can pause, rewind, and groove in your own time.

This homey Redfern cafe offers classic brunch food alongside pastries injected with Indigenous ingredients (lemon-myrtle cheesecake, hello!). Community groups can use the back room to hold meetings, and run pottery, poetry, and painting nights.

After spending its infancy as a pop-up, the popular Nigerian joint has recently found a permanent home in Newtown. It is the currently the only restaurant solely dedicated to Nigerian cuisine. All the usual suspects feature on the menu – jollof rice, puff puffs, fried plantains – with the most recent addition to the menu being suya (grilled spiced beef served with onions, tomatoes and capsicum).

Located in the heart of Sydney’s western suburbs, Gursha Ethiopian is a no-fuss, affordable and authentic Ethiopian food experience. There’s a large variety of vegan options alongside the more well-known Ethiopian dishes – doro wat and kitfo.

Bangarra is a critically acclaimed Indigenous performing arts company. Their dance technique incorporates 40,000 years of culture with contemporary movement, creating vibrant performances. While their scheduled tour is on hold due to current circumstances, they have made a number of performances available to stream for free online.

Eden Dessalegn provides traditional hair braiding with a modern twist. Self-taught, she started off charging $5 dollar a head in high school, graduated to market stalls, and now has her own studio based in south-west Sydney.

Tegan Murdock creates bespoke jewellery and keepsakes using a weaving technique taught to her by her mother. Customers can also learn to weave with her starter kits (which comes with videos and written instructions) or by attending one of her workshops. She is currently running these workshops online.

Black-Owned Businesses in Sydney

Surf Ghana

Accra

The kids go Trade Fair to learn skateboarding in a space that is secure and private but in the open street still. It is a fun and inclusive space and a coach is also available to give lessons and guides through the process of skateboarding for an easy ride.

National Theatre is a mix of both Trade Fair and Mile 7 and it has a larger space to contain the gender mix. This year, as the skateboarding scene grew larger the National Theatre was voted the best place to meet all the skateboarding crews without hassles. You will not see any female skateboarder at Mile 7 but you will see them at the National Theatre because of how comfortable the environment is.

Only skateboarders with the shit can skate at Mile 7. It is the ghetto, under an overhead bridge. How can you be a poser and go to Mile 7? That is impossible. There is no coach, only thrashers. It is no man’s land and to skate there you must earn the respect of the hobos who have turned the space to their abode. It is the definition of skate or Die: You either skate well or your board will skid to the main road and get crushed by an oncoming vehicle. That is the end.

Palm Moments is the spanking new alternative restaurant that is on the lips of everyone in the creative community. A slight bamboo and plywood structure built at the pocket of 3rd Otswe Street, Ako Adjei. It is scarcely furnished with a sofa and some chairs barricaded by large outdoor plants. The space is minimal, intimate and can only sit a few group of friends, but the good energy and camaraderie are what makes all and sundry decide it is the best place, fluid to their creative taste, to powwow and get refreshed while at it. This year all roads led to Palm Moments.

As the sun goes over the horizon you see the crews trickling in, reacquainting, eating, drinking and sometimes dancing. It is also the best place to have a block party because out there the ever-growing crowd literally takes over the street.

Alley Bars signature is their well-cooked and timely served meals! It is really a good bistro to eat at. A bonus, it is the place to be every Sunday for the best Afro-house party in Accra. It was created in a Cul-de-sac which means the roof goes on fire when the vibe is right and people start to dance, the vibrancy of the environment sustains the culture of Afro-house music in Accra pretty well.

Purple Pub takes our number one vote of "The Peoples Bar". There is no rule to being at Purple Pub just like skateboarding culture, it is a public place. You make your own table, set your chairs and sit. If you cannot find any because the zone is packed, then you can stand or freestyle if that is what you feel like doing. It is the street literally so, anything goes. The main entertainment is the pool tables, the cold drinks and the Dj. The unique thing is that they have a kitchen open all night long with fried Chicken, rice and yam chips on the menu, which is always a tasty treat.

Kozo is the hype for the best entrepreneurial minds in Accra. It is a well-lit outdoor and indoor premium restaurant and cocktail bar with a nice ambience. The staff are welcoming and available when you need anything and sometimes, at certain places in Accra, that can be too much to ask for. They are famous for their Asian-fusion meals and cabaret on Friday evenings.

Front/Back is top-shelf service, we love to see it. To cut to the chase Front/Back serves the best cocktail and everyone should, while in Accra, go there and try it. Most trippers don't know this secret because they can't even get in; it is a membership-only lay-lowcation. For Front/Back, a guy who knows a guy will come in handy; they already know they have the best drinks in the house so bouncers are there to stop you from going in free to enjoy your life. The music is great, the ambience is a mix of serenity, disco frenzy and the beautiful, stylish and artistic personalities you meet in there will kick your tongue out.

Right beside the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum is the famous Accra culture art centre. We love this place and visit it often because it is a vortex of artisans ranging from gold and silversmiths drum makers, woodcarvers, tailors, painters, bag makers and dealers of all sorts of African sculptures and textiles. To fulfil our appetite for customization and interior decoration we go to the culture centre. At a lonely corner is a vinyl collector with an amazing catalogue. On Major Laizer’s last trip to Accra he went there and could not believe his eyes, he went away with blessings.

Most top cat chat happens at Nate Barbers Place and they are not called the Hairmasters for anything, they do what they have to do to get your hair styled as you want it done. Don't want to take it from us because we are just random skateboarders? Then ask Wizkid or R2bees and other known personalities that prefer Nate for hair grooming whenever they’re in Accra. The place is basically a celebrity barbershop with services that also caters to the young and stylish who wish to rock the best hairstyles, one thing though; it is strictly by appointment.

Blessed Beauty Salon is the favourite salon of bloggers and influencers in Accra. You can never catch us slipping with a weird hairdo, everything from dreadlocks, braids, high cornrows and ponytails we get it done at Blessed Beauty.

When the Video of Naomi Campbell going into Lokko House surfaced on Instagram everyone was like why Lokko House out of the entire trendy concept stores in Accra? Because Lokko House has been the backbone of alternative street art culture for a good number of years, giving the Accra creative scene a platform and space to showcase highbrow fashion and streetwear gears either through the Lokko House Concept store or through the warehouse where most photo and art exhibitions take place.

The sunset show was a musical concert performed by Moses Sumney during the special viewing of James Barnor Retrospective exhibition at the brand new Nubuke Foundation art gallery, and that cemented Nubuke's idea to create an environment that supports youth inclusivity in the culture and arts sector. Literally, everyone in the creative industry was there to see the exhibition and start a dialogue about the direction Accra art industry is heading to. Nubuke Foundation is an artist’s art gallery because it leads the conversation of decolonisation, powered by a team of seasoned curators with a vibrant youthful support system. That is why we love it, we feel part of it.

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