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Together, We’re Redefining Black wealth

Fred

Through programs like our North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship and the Open Road Fund, Nexus Community Partners is reimagining Black wealth.

Building Black wealth means healing from over five centuries of labor and livelihood stolen from us on this stolen land. It’s owning what we produce and building and inventing for our families and community. It is a creative and sovereign practice of restoration that reaffirms the excellence that has always been in us.

Meet Amoké Kubat

Artist, writer, and Yoruba Priestess Amoké Awele Kubat is a Minneapolis “Northsider for life” who has been empowering mothers and families since 1987.

Amoké first heard about Nexus in 2011 through a friend who was being mentored by Nexus CEO Repa Mekha. Through her friend, she learned about Nexus values, strategies, and vision—all rooted in community. Seven years later, Amoké took a deep dive with us, joining our second North Star cohort.

“I was thrilled to be in the company of people who looked like me, who shared the diversity of the Black Experience as descendants of Africans. We were more than survivors. We held the roots and seeds of our Ancestors’ dreams and hopes. We were visionaries, warriors, educators, artists and more, who aspired to own businesses and cooperatives.”

Amoké’s co-op, YO MAMA’S HOUSE, INC., is an art and healing space for mothers of all ages. They empower mothers by disrupting the devaluation of women’s invisible labor and increasing recognition of the ART of Mothering. North Star helped Amoké build community with other Black cooperators while also accessing the technical assistance and funding opportunities she needed to further grow YO MAMA’S HOUSE.

In 2023, Amoké joined our Black Community Trust Fund advisory committee. As a respected Elder, she shared her wisdom in renaming the trust fund as the Open Road Fund—which comes from the English translation of Ejio Ogbe, meaning, “an open road leads to the fulfillment of destiny.”

“I firmly believe that people of African descent are NOT destined to fail. It is one’s birthright to live a long life, in good health, and live abundantly.”

Amoké’s greatest takeaway from her work with Nexus is that communities matter. “The workload is not heavy when we stand with likeminded people,” she says. “People have more power than they think they do—especially in solidarity.”

Will You Join Us?

In a time of ongoing and relentless attacks on Black life and well-being, initiatives run by and for Black folks to achieve Black liberation are essential.

Any gift you make between now and the end of the year will be doubled thanks to our friends at Voqal Partners.

  • Monthly gifts of $20 are a way to honor our 20th anniversary throughout the year.
  • $100 helps support costs for expanding our online work in Greater Minnesota.
  • $500 covers a stipend that keeps our fellowships accessible to all.

Make a donation or share your Nexus story

Together, we are building Community Wealth for a just and liberated future.

Over the last 20 years, Nexus has worked to usher out the rigged rules, attitudes, and practices that concentrate wealth and power in fewer and whiter hands. For folks who have been intentionally shut out of mainstream economies, cooperatives present a tried-and-true alternative.

Cooperatives embody the idea that wealth is more than the success of any one individual—that wealth is owning what we produce. To us, wealth is building and inventing for our families and community, not only in crisis, but also in the pursuit of our dreams.

Meet Denise Butler

For more than a decade, Nexus Community Partners and African Career, Education, & Resource Inc. (ACER) have been partners in organizing, funding, and community wealth building. When Denise Butler, Associate Director at ACER, approached Nexus to work with an emerging collective of 24 Black immigrant women and business owners, we jumped at the opportunity.

With the help of Nexus and ACER, these women formed a cooperative: The Ignite Business Women’s Investment Group. Last year, Ignite purchased their first property: Shingle Creek Center in Brooklyn Center.

At the beginning, the Shared Ownership Center at Nexus (SOC@N) helped Ignite determine their cooperative structure, articles of incorporation, and bylaws. As the project developed, SOC@N worked closely with ACER, Ignite, their legal team, and project manager to provide flexible support wherever necessary, from weaving together knowledge, resources, and connections to successfully acquiring the 18-unit shopping center.

“Nexus was instrumental in supporting ACER’s work in building the first Black women’s cooperative in Minnesota. The infrastructural support provided by Nexus speaks to their expertise in the cooperative development landscape.” – Denise Butler, ACER

This milestone was years in the making. It has been an honor to walk alongside Ignite and ACER as they expand their work to meet the needs of their community. Join us in scaling up BIPOC-led cooperative development!

Make a donation

Whether you can contribute $20 or a story about what Nexus means to you, you will continue to make our work possible!

Share your story

Have you participated in one of our fellowships? Been a longtime partner? However you’ve crossed paths with Nexus, we want to hear from you!

When we founded Nexus Community Partners 20 years ago, we did something simple yet powerful—we turned to community to reclaim our strength and to reimagine what power looks like when it is rooted in truth and relationships. We are unique because of how we’re positioned and how we work: We take the long view, and everything we do is focused on creating lasting impacts.

At Nexus, we are igniting BIPOC leadership for transformational change.

When we established the Boards & Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI) 10 years ago, there was nothing like it in our region. But we believe that when we make decisions that affect all of our lives—across race, place, gender, and more—we must share the power in making those decisions. BCLI helps Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) and other historically oppressed people get seats at the table and serve at all levels of government.

Today, of our 157 diverse alumni, many have gone on to high-profile roles including U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Voice Executive Director HwaJeong Kim, and MN First District Judge Luis Rangel Morales.

Meet HwaJeong

Eight years ago, HwaJeong Kim was volunteering at her local library and serving on her neighborhood district council. She loved her community, and she was motivated to do more to give back. That’s when she found BCLI.

“I tell everyone the BCLI changed my life. It was a turning-point training that helped me understand how to navigate power and place with people. This completely catalyzed my professional and personal trajectory.”

The leadership skills and professional connections with like-minded people helped HwaJeong build confidence and take her next steps. She went on to serve on The Saint Paul Planning Commission and work as the Legislative Aide for Saint Paul’s Ward 5 City Councilmember before being elected to the role herself in 2024.

“My greatest takeaway [from BCLI] continues to be how to actualize values in our work and deliver community-driven solutions. Since graduating, I have nominated one person per cohort and will continue to do so—the BCLI produces highly skilled, connected, and values-driving community changemakers. Now more than ever, we need more of us in this fight!“

Make a donation

Join us in helping historically marginalized and oppressed people have a seat at the table. Whether you can contribute $20 or a story about what Nexus means to you, you will continue to make our work possible!

Share your story

As we reflect on the last two decades and look toward the years to come, we want to know: What does Nexus mean to you? Whether you were part of Payne-Lake Community Partners at the beginning or discovered Nexus this year, we want to hear from you!