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New Community-Owned Co-op Paves a Fresh Path for Payne Avenue

Fred

Sept. 9, 2026

Today, the Shared Ownership Center at Nexus announces its third LOCAL Fund: Community Ownership grantee. East Side Community Investment Cooperative (ESCIC) was awarded more than $300,000 for the predevelopment, acquisition and rehabilitation costs of their first property at 960 Payne Avenue. The LOCAL Fund: Community Ownership is a grant program in partnership with the City of Saint Paul’s Office of Financial Empowerment.

Members of ESCIC shared that, “After five years of hard work, [we’re] excited to be purchasing our first property. Many properties on the East Side have long created wealth for individuals who don’t live in our community, and who don’t maintain the properties they own. This purchase is a major step in reversing the harmful pattern of extractive real estate investment on the East Side. We are thrilled to be able to put a valuable asset into the hands of our community.”

960 Payne Avenue is a prominent mixed-use building next to Brunson’s Pub. For over 40 years, the building was home to Saint Paul Floral. The commercial space is currently vacant while the upstairs residential unit will remain a home for long-term tenants. The award represents the deep investment the City of Saint Paul is making in community-owned real estate, affordable housing, local businesses and jobs.

After Saint Paul Floral closed up shop, Land Bank Twin Cities acquired the building before financing and selling to ESCIC. “Strong neighborhoods are built on local ownership, but getting there often requires creative solutions,” said Garrett Peterson, Land Bank Twin Cities Program Manager of Strategic Aquisition. “We’re proud to support an innovative cooperative model at 960 Payne that keeps this historic property locally owned and creates a new path for community-centered investment along Payne Avenue.”

ESCIC is the third real estate co-op in Saint Paul to acquire property, continuing to place the Twin Cities as a leader in the community-ownership movement, with the most operational real estate co-ops in the nation.

Across the country, there is mounting resistance to the extractive nature of real estate speculation, where rents and resale profits are sent to distant corporations that have no consideration for local needs nor connection to the local community. People see community ownership as a countermeasure, allowing neighbors to collectively prioritize local businesses and interests, and to keep the economic benefits of real estate circulating locally.

The LOCAL Fund leverages $2.5 million to support worker-owned cooperatives and community-ownership entities in Saint Paul. The LOCAL Fund: Community Ownership awarded $275,000 to South Como Community Investment Cooperative and Rondo Community Land Trust. The LOCAL Fund: Worker Ownership awarded $600,000 to six Saint Paul worker-owned cooperatives.

Exterior of 960 Payne Ave. Photo by Josh Nguyen.
ESCIC board of directors with Mayor Kaohly Her and staff from Nexus Community Partners, Land Bank Twin Cities, and Platform Commercial Real Estate.
ESCIC board of directors closing with staff from Nexus, Land Bank Twin Cities, Platform Commercial Real Estate, and Councilmember Cheniqua Johnson. Photo by Josh Nguyen.
About Nexus Community Partners (Nexus)

Nexus is a Twin Cities nonprofit with a 22-year history of co-creating more liberated communities by strengthening leaders, cultivating community wealth, and stewarding the just distribution of resources.

Since 2019, the Shared Ownership Center at Nexus has worked with over 50 companies to explore models of shared ownership and helped develop eight cooperatives across the Twin Cities. From assessing fit and feasibility to becoming cooperatively owned and operated, the Shared Ownership Center brings expertise with an equity lens in all steps of cooperative development.

About the City of Saint Paul – Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE)

The City of Saint Paul established OFE in 2019 because economic inequality is a whole-city crisis that demands a whole-city response. OFE coordinates that response in partnership with community leaders, businesses and nonprofits, and low-income Saint Paul residents.

About East Side Community Investment Cooperative (ESCIC)

ESCIC is a grassroots coalition of neighbors and organizers working to preserve and shape the future of their community through collective ownership, democratic decision-making, and local investment. In a time when outside developers often dictate the fate of neighborhoods, ESCIC empowers East Siders to take the lead—securing sites for housing, businesses, and cultural spaces that reflect their values and meet their needs.

About Land Bank Twin Cities (LBTC)

LBTC is a social impact real estate and finance intermediary that aligns land, capital, and community priorities to prevent displacement, expand equitable ownership, and accelerate wealth building across the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan region. Land Bank strengthens projects and communities where timing, risk or financing gaps stand in the way of equitable development.

Press Kit

This project is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP1612 awarded to Nexus Community Partners, through the City of Saint Paul, by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

By Nonkululeko Tabata, Director of Community Wealth Building

At the end of July, the Association of Cooperative Educators Institute brought together cooperative practitioners, organizers, researchers, and people who are building co-ops in their own communities. It was a space to share ideas, learn from one another, and strengthen relationships across the cooperative movement. One of my favorite things about these conferences is being around people who genuinely believe another economy is possible.

I served as a keynote panelist for Celebrating 75 Years: Shaping the Future of Co-operative Education alongside Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard (John Jay College) and Electra Skrzydlewski (Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers). We reflected on how cooperative education has evolved over the years, what we can learn from the movement’s history, and what the next generation of cooperative leaders will need.

I shared how Nexus’ North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship uses storytelling, political education, and relationship building to help communities reclaim cooperative traditions and build community wealth. It was a thoughtful conversation about how education can move beyond teaching business models to building leadership and movements.

I also co-facilitated with Nexus’ Cooperative Developer, Christina Nicholson, about how we approach cooperative development and humanize the experience as an accessible approach to building the cooperative ecosystem.

Why Co-op Education Matters

Education is one of the most important investments we can make in the cooperative movement. Strong cooperatives don’t just happen because people have a good business idea. They grow because people build trust, learn together, and develop the skills to lead collectively. I left thinking about the importance of preserving the history of cooperative movements while making sure we’re creating space for new voices, especially young people and communities that have always practiced cooperation—even if it wasn’t always recognized by that name.

Co-op education is not simply about teaching people how to run cooperatives. It’s about helping people imagine different possibilities for their communities and giving them the tools to make those possibilities real.

Our movements become stronger when we learn across generations. The conference celebrated decades of experience while also making space for emerging leaders to shape what comes next.

By Nonkululeko Tabata, Director of Community Wealth Building

The second annual Minnesota Cooperative Summit brought together people from across Minnesota’s cooperative ecosystem, including cooperative businesses, community organizations, funders, educators, technical assistance providers, and advocates. It was a space to learn from one another, share what’s working, build relationships, and think about how cooperatives can create more economic opportunity and community wealth.

I co-presented Cooperatives as a Path to Economic Opportunity with Denise Butler from African Career Education & Resources (ACER) and Victoria McWane-Creek from Onyx Collective. We talked about how cooperatives create real opportunities for communities to build wealth through ownership rather than simply access. I shared the work Nexus is doing through the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship and how investing in leadership, relationships, and community is just as important as supporting businesses. There is a lot to be said by having three Black women leading Black cooperatives in the Metro, surburbs, and rural Minnesota. It was a powerful moment.

Left to right: Nexus’ Nkuli Tabata, ACER’s Denise Butler, and Onyx Collective’s Victoria McWane-Creek present stories about Black cooperative development.
A mini North Star reunion! Community Wealth Building Director Nkuli (right), reunites with program alumni Shétu Rose, Alicia Rufus, and Victoria McWane-Creek.

I also attended the Indigenous Cooperative Perspectives session, which provided a powerful reminder that cooperative ways of living and working have existed long before many of our modern systems. It was a meaningful opportunity to learn from Indigenous leaders and reflect on the different ways communities practice collective ownership and stewardship.

Key Takeaways

  • Cooperative development is really about people. We spend a lot of time talking about financing, legal structures, and business planning, but relationships, trust, and community are what make cooperatives sustainable.
  • I was in awe of how much cooperative work continues to grow in Minnesota. We had incredible representation from people who play different roles in the ecosystem.
  • The conversations about ownership really stayed with me. We often focus on helping people access opportunities, but ownership changes what’s possible. When people own businesses, land, housing, or other assets together, they build long-term wealth and have more power to shape their own futures.
  • Building an ecosystem requires all of us. No single organization can do this work alone. We need collaboration, trust, and a willingness to invest in one another over the long term.

Conferences like this are a great starting point, but the real work happens afterward through collaboration, sharing resources, and continuing to support cooperative leaders as they build in their own communities. I hope people left feeling inspired to take action. Whether that’s supporting an existing co-op, exploring a cooperative model for their own work, or investing in community ownership, I hope this encourages people to reach across sectors to build a stronger and more connected cooperative movement.

Photos by Heather Elaine Fotography.

In 2021, the Bush Foundation committed $100 million to seed two community trust funds—one Black-led and one Indigenous-led—to address racialized wealth disparities. This became Nexus Community Partners’ Open Road Fund and NDN Collective‘s Collective Abundance Fund.

Historically, Black and Indigenous people have been pitted against each other by colonizers and oppressors. But we know Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation are tied to one another. While our people have unique histories and current needs, we are subjected to similar discrimination and violence—and neither of us will be free without the other.

At this summer’s Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) Conference, our three organizations co-facilitated the session Redefining Wealth and Promoting Co-Liberation for Black and Indigenous Communities, highlighting how our shared values strengthen our partnership and deepen our collective impact in the communities we serve.

What We Believe: Lessons & Commitments from the Community Trust Fund Initiative

Click to read our shared belief statements.

Staff from NDN Collective, Bush Foundation, and Nexus Community Partners present at the 2026 GEO National Conference.

The 2026 GEO National Conference gathered more than 1,000 grantmakers in Boston to explore what it means to transform philanthropic culture and practice. Participants learned how philanthropy can strengthen trust, build deeper relationships, move resources more effectively, and show up in service of thriving nonprofits and communities. We were honored to attend and share our work!

For the past five years, the Bush Foundation, NDN Collective, and Nexus Community Partners have been working together to address racial wealth disparities for Black and Native American communities in our region. Together, we have been learning a lot about what is needed to do shared decision making—and to share power—well.

Where We’ve Been

In March 2021, the Bush Foundation committed $100 million to seed two community trust funds to address wealth disparities rooted in the lasting impacts of historical race-based U.S. policy. These funds invest directly in Black and Native American communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota through grants to individuals to support building generational wealth.

Through an open selection process, the Bush Foundation chose Nexus and NDN Collective to design and manage the trust funds on behalf of their communities:

  • NDN Collective stewards the $50 million Collective Abundance Fund, providing awards of $25,000 and $50,000 to Native American individuals to support generational wealth-building, including cultural practices, ceremony, language, land and community.
  • Nexus Community Partners stewards the $50 million Open Road Fund, providing $50,000 gifts to 100 Black individuals each year through a random selection process, affirming that all people are worthy without requiring proof of need, merit, or hardship.

Where We Are Now

Staff from NDN Collective, Bush Foundation, and Nexus Community Partners connect on a walk through sacred Lakota land.

In April 2025, representatives from all three organizations gathered for a two-day retreat. After four years of working together, we were curious about what made this collaboration tick, and what might be helpful to others who want to try it. We asked ourselves: What do we know to be true? What has served and steadied us as we’ve undertaken this work?

What emerged was the following set of shared beliefs that has guided us in our work together:

1) Trust is at the root of the work.

The relationship between our three organizations required understanding of the different forms of power at the table and a high degree of trust. That trust took time and steady intention to build. It did not happen just because we wanted to do this work together.

For Bush, it meant trusting in NDN and Nexus to design grant programs that they knew would best serve their communities. For NDN and Nexus, it meant trusting in community members to know what would most help their families build wealth and to use the resources they received accordingly.

Our approach to evaluation also reflects trust. We are accountable to the communities we serve, rather than conventional metrics. We center learning and trust the stewards to design evaluation plans that will be most informative and beneficial for their work.

2) There’s strength in solidarity.

When Bush selected NDN and Nexus as the steward organizations of this work, there was no requirement or even expectation that the two organizations work together. But from the very first meeting, the chemistry and solidarity between them—plus the Black woman and Native woman representing Bush—was unmistakable.

What has emerged from five years of this partnership has become what the leaders of this work call a practice of co-liberation: a belief that Black and Native histories and futures are tied to one another. And through this partnership, a shared recognition that our communities are brilliant, resilient and capable—and are more powerful together than apart.

3) Building individual wealth can ripple through the community.

Our work together is continually showing us how wealth can be relational and serve a community. It doesn’t have to be about hyper-individualism. What one person builds can serve their family, their neighbors, and the next generation. There can be a ripple effect when we invest in individuals. We have seen awardees start businesses that employ others, as well as examples of awardees hosting community events that feed hundreds of people experiencing homelessness. This is how wealth, even when it’s directed toward individuals, nurtures entire communities.

We also know that wealth is generational, and that today’s wealth gaps reflect past injustices. To address this, we believe that rematriation—a process of reclaiming and restoring something to its rightful place—goes a long way toward closing these gaps and repairing our communities.

4) Our communities define what wealth means.

We believe that communities should define what wealth means for themselves. NDN Collective and Nexus Community Partners did exactly that, and the Bush Foundation trusted those definitions to guide how funds are used.

  • Nexus defined Black Wealth as “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.”
  • NDN defined Indigenous Wealth as “encompassing family and community well-being and the care of relationships—self, family, extended family, community, land and environment. It’s a life abundant in social and cultural sharing.”

Along with trust in communities to define wealth for themselves, the eligible uses of the community trust funds are able to go far beyond what conventional philanthropy allows. The money can support a pilgrimage to Africa. It can support ceremony, language learning, or cultural practice. It can fund a food truck that feeds hundreds, or a home that becomes the foundation of a family’s generational security. If wealth is clean water, good relationships, and the ability to give things away, money is just the tool to get there.

5) This work demands resilience and determination.

Our ancestors survived enslavement, forced relocation, and attempts at outright annihilation. We are here because they did not go quietly. We draw strength from that. We are not afraid to speak clearly about why this work exists and why it matters.

Our communities and this work face threats, fear, and pressure to retreat. We are not stopping, even as the work gets harder to do and more uneven. Continuing the work together, continuing to learn together, and seeing what is possible for our shared futures is what fuels us.

Closing the racial wealth gap is a moral imperative that stabilizes communities and builds a more just and resilient society for everyone. We will continue doing equity-centered, reparative work that addresses the lasting harms of historical injustice. We will protect the people we serve. We will keep telling the truth. We will stand together for the long arc of this work and for the next generation of leaders who will carry it forward.

These belief statements grew organically from five years of relationship, from listening to awardees, from hard conversations, and from the deep wisdom our communities carry. We offer them not as a prescription or blueprint, but as inspiration and an invitation. If you are doing this kind of work—or considering it—ask yourself: What do you believe? What have you learned? What do you refuse to give up? The most powerful beliefs are the ones that grow from the work itself, that are developed and acknowledged together and held with accountability.

That’s a wrap, y’all! Our 2026 application period is now closed. Thank you to everyone who applied for the Open Road Fund this year! If you’d like a copy of your application, or if you have not received a confirmation of your application, please email us at ORFSupport@nexuscp.org.

If you are selected to receive a gift from the Open Road Fund, you’ll receive an email and phone call from our team at the end of August. If your application is not selected this year, you’ll be notified via email at the beginning of September.

Please note that if you are selected, we will not share your information as a potential gift recipient. We respect your privacy and understand that it is your choice to share this information. We will announce on our social media and website that the finalists for 2026 have been selected, but we will not disclose their names or identifying information.

If you are not selected for this round of gift-giving, don’t worry! There are four more rounds of the Open Road Fund, and we encourage you to apply each year you are not chosen. Applications will relaunch Juneteenth 2027!

To stay up to date on Open Road Fund and Nexus Community Partners news and opportunities, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn!

 

The Open Road Fund is our collective opportunity to build Black wealth within our communities and honor our ancestors. Many thanks to the community organizations below for offering free technical assistance on this year’s application!

If you need Wi-Fi, an accessible space to fill out your application, or someone to help walk you through the form, stop by a site near you during the hours listed below.

And don’t forget to submit your application by July 19, 11:59 pm CT!

Heal Minneapolis

  • 4171 Lyndale Avenue N, Minneapolis, MN 55412
  • Monday through Friday, 12-6 pm

Tears of Hope

  • Hiawatha Collegiate High School, 3500 E 28th St, Minneapolis, MN 55406
  • Wednesdays & Thursdays, 9 am – 3 pm

T.O.U.C.H Outreach

  • 2222 E Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55407
  • Tuesdays & Thursdays, 12-4 pm

Diversity Council

  • 600 South 5th Street, St. Peter, MN 56082
  • Tuesdays & Saturdays, 11 am – 4 pm and Fridays, 4:30-6 pm

Immigrant Development Center

  • 725 Center Ave, Ste 1, Moorhead, MN 56560
  • Monday through Friday, 10 am – 6 pm

We Shall Overcome Outreach

  • 3700 East 3rd St, Sioux Falls, SD 57103
  • Saturdays, 3:30-4:30 pm

April 14, 2026, was Co-op Day at the Capitol! Nexus joined the Cooperative Network to show lawmakers the power of the cooperative model to address community challenges, showcase worker-owned cooperatives as a solution to the business succession crisis, and demonstrate the benefits of worker co-ops in St. Paul and beyond.

Director of Community Wealth Building Nonkululeko (Nkuli) Tabata, Cooperative Developer Christina Nicholson, and Shared Ownership Center client Dave Abbott, Lead Carpenter and VP at Terra Firma Building & Remodeling Co-op, testified alongside other local cooperative leaders and worker-owners at an informational hearing with the Minnesota Senate Labor Committee.

Nkuli reflects, “Capitol Co-op Day felt like a powerful moment to share the work many of us have been building for years and bring it into greater visibility. Being able to speak directly to the impact and potential of worker co-ops felt both grounding and energizing. The hearing created space to connect our work to real solutions, especially around building community wealth, expanding ownership, and strengthening local economies. It also reinforced how important it is to continue lifting up the stories, experiences, and leadership within our communities. This work does not happen overnight, and moments like this help build momentum and deepen understanding of what a cooperative future can look like.”

Christina says, “Spending time with senators and representatives at the capitol signaled to me a significant increase in interest of the role that worker-owner cooperatives do and can play in retaining jobs and businesses in Minnesota. The connection between national trends in job satisfaction, retention, and equity of roles and stability of income for worker-cooperatives has broken through to the elected stewards of Minnesota. We are hearing more requests for ways to support our work through direct funding of technical assistance, zero-interest and forgivable loans for equity shares, and a general promotion through DEED to current business owners and their teams of how to retain jobs across the state through worker-owned conversions.”

Watch the hearing here!

Nkuli Tabata, Nexus Director of Community Wealth Building (right), speaks to the Minnesota Senate Labor Committee (left) about the power of cooperatives and Nexus’ North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship program.

Want to build Black community wealth with us? Become an Open Road Fund Community Access Site!

We’re looking for community organizations and technical assistance providers who can support Open Road Fund applicants this year. Your organization could offer vital resources like physical space, computers/tablets, internet access, language support, or something else!

Let’s work together to create motivating, encouraging, and community-building spaces for Open Road Fund applicants.

Fill out the inquiry form here!

On March 24, our Founder & CEO Repa Mekha made an appearance on MPR News with Angela Davis. Their conversation was imbued with warmth, sincerity, hope, and connection, featuring stories and questions from community members who called in.

Over the hour, Angela and Repa talked about his vision for building wealth and well-being for Black Minnesotans, particularly through cooperative ownership. He also shared about his life and the journey he took to get here:

“Repa saw slim opportunities for himself and his peers growing up as a young Black man in Milwaukee. He ended up in prison, where he started college and embarked on his life’s work of figuring out what it takes to create more paths forward for Black Americans and other groups left out of mainstream economies.

He worked with homeless teens in the Twin Cities and got a master’s degree from Harvard University. He also founded Nexus Community Partners, a nonprofit that promotes cooperatively owned businesses and distributes wealth-building grants to people who are descendants of the transatlantic slave trade.”

Listen here

Repa Mekha (left) and Angela Davis (right) in the Minnesota Public Radio studio.

As part of the 2025 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Building Solidarity, Rooted in Justice, Nexus Community Partners and AmbitioUS* co-hosted ReIMAGINE Scale: Self-Determined Power & Community Power in the U.S. The session began with an inspiring fireside chat at Penumbra Theatre between Anasa Troutman, Founder and CEO of The BIG We in Memphis, Tennessee, and Nonkululeko (Nkuli) Tabata, Director of Community Wealth Building at Nexus.

Nexus Community Wealth Building & North Star Director Nkuli Tabata (left) speaks with The BIG We Founder & CEO Anasa Troutman (right).

“We wanted to give people a real picture of what community ownership and cooperative work look like when led by Black communities and cultural workers rooted in the day-to-day reality of building something different,” Nkuli says.

Anasa added her perspective through cultural organizing and community building in the South. Together, they helped the room understand that the work happening now is part of a much longer story.

Top Takeaways

  • Power is not an abstract concept. It shows up in who owns land, who controls money, who makes decisions, and who gets to shape the future.
  • Community ownership is not new for Black communities. We have always built systems of support through mutual aid, faith communities, informal networks, and collective economic practices.
  • Scale doesn’t simply mean “bigger.” It often looks like deeper relationships, stronger alignment, and healthier ecosystems. It looks like more distributed leadership and more people practicing power together.
  • We need capital that trusts communities and follows their lead, instead of shaping or limiting their vision.
  • Cooperative development is cultural work as much as it is technical work. It takes time, alignment, conflict skills, and shared purpose.

Before the fireside chat, Nexus’ North Star Program Manager, Leanna Browne, grounded attendees with a reflection question from Harvest of Survival: An Affirmation Deck Inspired by Octavia Butler: “How are you home building, world building, and universe building?”

Then, Leanna invited attendees to move through hands-on activities by three North Star alumni collectives: Branch Out and Bloom, Mutha Art’preneur Collective, and Voice of Culture. This part of the session helped people experience how:

  • Branch Out and Bloom is building worlds that are providing life skills and creative arts education for Black children and young adults in Minnesota.
  • Mutha Art’preneur Collective is creating intersecting practices of dreaming, actualizing, and intergenerational healing where Black women can show up and be supported as their full selves.
  • Voice of Culture is creating and maintaining Black space for Black people to engage in the study and practice of cultural arts for mental health and physical well-being.

Branch Out and Bloom guided people through reflecting on where they first learned basic life skills. Many realized that the people who taught them the most were family members, neighborhood elders, and culture keepers. It showed how much learning happens within the community, not just within formal systems.

Mutha Art’preneur Collective held a creative and grounding space where participants mapped their dreams and connected imagination to leadership. Their station reminded people that visioning and healing are part of building cooperative models that last.

Voice of Culture brought movement, rhythm, and collective energy into the room. Participants experienced how cultural practice supports wellness, belonging, and shared responsibility. It made it clear that culture is not separate from cooperative or economic work; it is part of the foundation that helps these models grow.

“These activities created space for attendees to engage with their bodies, minds, and spirits,” Leanna recalls. “It reminded us of the power of practicing Black cooperative economics, connecting to our hearts, and moving with our hands and feet collectively for liberation.”

Throughout the afternoon, people saw that cooperatives are not just legal structures or business plans. They are ways of working that rely on culture, trust, and shared decision-making. Many participants left with a deeper understanding of the real conditions communities need to build sustainable ownership models.

This all came at a key time. With shrinking public funding and growing challenges for the social sector, community-owned and culturally grounded models are not just interesting ideas. They are essential. North Star alumni in Minnesota, The Big We in Memphis, and many others across the country are building these systems right now.

Reflecting on the conference, Leanna shares, “I think about call and response, a practice in Black culture rooted in African traditions, which is significant in many ways: inviting collective participation, co-creating a shared experience, and utilizing storytelling to share our stories and pass down knowledge. An example is ‘Ago,’ which means, ‘Are you listening?’ or ‘Attention, please,’ and ‘Ame,’ a response from the group, which means, ‘I am listening’ or ‘You have my attention’ from the Twi language of the Akan people in Ghana.”

What is your response to the call of building solidarity, rooted in justice through Black cooperative economics?

Ago!
Ame!

*Many thanks to AmbitioUS Program Officer Leeann Wallett for helping shape the vision and logistics of this session. Her care helped us bring the spirit of the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship into a national space in a way that felt true to the people doing this work!

This fall, our North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship team jetted to Oakland, CA, for the Repaired Nations 7th Annual Black Solidarity Cooperative Conference, running Oct. 10-11, 2025. Over the long weekend, Program Director Nkuli Tabata and Program Manager Leanna Browne built new relationships, learned about exciting cooperative work happening throughout the country, and reconnected with folks from the 2023 conference in Ghana.

This year’s theme, Leaving a Legacy: Land, Wellness, Cooperative Futures, came to life in every moment, from the opening drumming and libations to the closing reflections that reminded us our work is both historical and visionary. Being surrounded by so many Black cooperative leaders, organizers, and culture bearers reminded us that this movement is rooted in generations of collective care, resource sharing, and imagination.

A couple standouts from the many amazing groups in attendance:

  • Aleta Toure with Parable of the Sower Co-op, a Black women-led, worker-owned, intentional community cooperative for Black women and their families. Their mission is to develop a Black land housing model for Black women organizers and worker-owned intentional communities.
  • The REAL People’s Fund, a $10 million community-powered fund and entrepreneurship program that includes non-extractive capital, holistic business support, and opportunities to build political power for BIPOC East Bay communities (Black, Indigenous, Spanish-speaking/Latine, Asian/AAPI, low income, immigrant, undocumented, formerly incarcerated and working-class communities of color)

Each session wove together practical learning with cultural and spiritual grounding. Conversations about ownership, land stewardship, and building community-based institutions were layered with song, poetry, and ancestral honoring.

“It reminded me that cooperation is not just an economic model; it is a cultural practice and a way of being that has sustained our people for generations.”

— Nkuli Tabata, Director of Community Wealth Building

Cultivating Our Cooperative Roots: A Gallery Walk of Black Cooperative Journeys

Nkuli and Leanna closed the first day with their session, Our Cooperative Roots: A Gallery Walk of Black Cooperative Journeys, highlighting people, moments, and groups in Black cooperative economics past and present.

The activity invited people to reflect on what cooperation looks like in practice, what sustains it, and what makes it hard. It moved us to see people recognize themselves in one another’s stories, the shared challenges, the moments of growth, and the deep commitment it takes to build something together. The gallery became a space of storytelling and connection, showing how our experiences are part of a larger story of Black cooperative work and collective possibility.

“It was powerful to share the story of the Black Panther Party’s Survival Programs while in Oakland, where the Black Panther Party was founded. It was also inspiring to hear and learn from Charlotte O’Neal, also known as Mama C, who shared about leading with love. Mama C and her husband, Pete O’Neal, were Black Panthers and live in Tanzania, where they co-founded the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC), an NGO based in Arusha, Tanzania, providing programs and projects for both rural and urban communities and connecting communities in America to the world.”

— Leanna Browne, North Star Program Manager

On Sunday, Leanna joined a day trip to Oaxxanda, a sanctuary of holistic healing and restoration in Berry Creek, CA. This Black-led land co-op is an exciting site of possibilities for Black people to center land stewardship, self-determination, and healing.

It was much needed to experience Black people gathering in nature to rest, be in community, and just be. We enjoyed a nourishing meal prepared by some of the organizers and connected with each other through fellowship. Some people took naps and played in the creek. Some folks went on a tour of the land to experience its fullness and see the progress of the land project. The children played, running around with laughter and joy. The fresh mountain air, quiet, and stillness were healing.

“I’m grateful I had this time and space to experience the land in community with other Black people. Much gratitude to Mia Jackson, Shayara Etter, Gregory Jackson Jr., Mikhael Ali, and the rest of the Repaired Nations team for the opportunity to share and continue building the Black cooperative ecosystem together.”

— Leanna

Listening to organizers from Oakland, Richmond, and beyond reminded us how much possibility lives within this movement. People are reclaiming land, developing cooperative businesses, and creating new models for shared wealth and belonging. These stories affirmed that our work is not only about ownership, but about building community and ensuring that our people have the power to shape their own futures.

“Leaving the conference, I felt renewed and grateful to be part of this broader journey. The experience affirmed that the work we are doing at North Star and Nexus is connected to something much bigger than ourselves. Land and legacy are not abstract ideas; they are living commitments that require care, trust, and continued practice. This gathering reminded me that the future we dream about is already unfolding in the ways we collaborate, care for one another, and choose to keep building together.”

— Nkuli

Repaired Nations has built something powerful and lasting, a living example of what it means to invest in cooperative ecosystems that center Black voices and creativity. We give our deep gratitude for hosting and curating this beautiful gathering with so much intention and care!