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6 Inventive Products from Maine’s Black Community

Some of the most beautiful home products you’ll find are being designed, and curated, in Maine’s Black community. Check out a few of our favorites, here, and discover more offerings online — because now’s the time to put your money where your heart is.

TEXT BY SARAH STEBBINS
Photographed by Mark Fleming

Kazeem Lawal assembles artful vintage, global, and local finds, like this luminous Buckland Ceramics vase, at his popular Portland clothing- and-home-goods shop. $120. portlandtradingco.com

Swap chemical-laden dryer sheets for natural, fabric- softening, LooHoo wool dryer balls, created by Camden’s Cyndi Prince (a.k.a. “Cyndi LooHoo”) after the birth of her son. From $29 for 3. loo-hoo.com

Find your paper mate among Portland artist Rachel Gloria Adams’s whimsical wallpaper designs, such as Hazelrock, which evokes the plumes on heritage- breed chickens at a Woolwich farm. From $18/ roll. shoptachee.com

Westbrook designer Ebenezer Akakpo’s glassware emblazoned with Ghanaian symbols for bravery, greatness, hope, and more, helps nourish your body and soul. $15 each. darbyjones.shop.com

Wake up a wall with Portland muralist (and co- creator of the city’s George Floyd memorial) Ryan Adams’s kaleidoscopic Fall In Love print, inspired by his daughters and a favorite J Dilla song. 12″x 16″, $65. ryanwritesonthings.com

Photographed by Mark Fleming

Marcia MacDonald and her family turn wool from the alpacas and Rambouillet sheep on their Buxton farm into silky-soft yarn she colors with vibrant natural dyes. $24–$30. etsy.com/shop/LanaPlantae

Find more than 200 additional local businesses to support at blackownedmaine.com.

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Maine Homes by Down East magazine, Fall 2020