Communal hub with café, museum, event space aimed to uplift Asheville's Black community
ASHEVILLE - A collective of visionaries are taking a leap of faith in the hopes of uniting the Asheville community under one roof and banner: The People’s Place.
alexandria monque ravenel and david greenson, who intentionally spell their names lowercased, are part of the committee leading the charge to open and operate the communal facility designed to strengthen and unite the Black community and Asheville.
Community advocates, Drisana McDaniel and Rob Thomas, joined the charge as members of The People’s Place committee.
The People’s Place, a nonprofit in its early conceptual stage, plans to have an art gallery, café, gift shop, museum, rooftop garden, and an event space for “cutting-edge performances,” monque ravenel said.
The People’s Place would act as an incubator with a cyclical and cooperative model, she added. Individuals may obtain the resources, education, connections and experiences they need to achieve their career goals and build their businesses.
For instance, someone interested in owning a restaurant may use The People’s Place’s café as a starting point for gaining experience among other tools essential to launching their business.
“We’re doing it is because we know we need more, and we know people cannot do it by themselves,” monque ravenel said. “We’re bringing people together so they can work together to create generational wealth and economic mobility and independence.”
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Next steps for The People’s Place
The project is aimed for a late-2025 opening, contingent on funding, securing a location, and completing the necessary work to outfit it to meet their needs.
Ideally, The People’s Place would become a part of The Block, a historic neighborhood at Eagle and Market streets that was a thriving district for Black businesses in the mid-20th century.
“What inspired us about The Block, for example, is how much collaboration there was and how people lifted each other up,” greenson said. “When you hear how there were 20 restaurants on The Block. … Clearly, those restaurants were not trying to put each other out of business.”
The museum will focus on urban renewal and its historical and current impacts in Asheville and across the country, and what life was like before it changed the landscape of thriving Black neighborhoods, monque ravenel said.
“There’s no museum in the United States that has that as its primary focus and it’s one of the most powerful and least understood forms of racial injustice that’s happened in this country,” greenson said. “It’s caused the displacement of millions of people, most of them Black, and totally transformed this city."
He said that urban renewal's imprint continues to cause ripple effects that are still felt every day in Asheville.
monque ravenel said they aim to be a part of the revitalization of The Block and Asheville and inspire others across the country.
As things are now, there isn’t available commercial space on The Block, greenson said, but the group is open to considering other areas of the city.
The People’s Place partners
The idea for People’s Place emerged from the work, volunteering and community connecting and the discovery of shared goals.
monque ravenel owns Noir Collective, a boutique, bookstore and art gallery on The Block that carries merchandise by Black entrepreneurs. She has volunteered and now works part-time in various roles next door at YMI Cultural Center, which is currently closed for renovations, but offers cultural programs and exhibitions preserving the heritage of the Black community in Buncombe County.
She said her experience with the nonprofit brought her to open Noir Collective, and now to The People’s Place.
“The intersection between YMI and People’s Place is the same intersection of any Black-led organization in Asheville in that it’s important that we work together,” monque ravenel said. “It’s important that we have more than one space that we can call our own and feel comfortable in.”
greenson works fulltime as the advocacy director for the Racial Justice Coalition of Asheville.
They developed a partnership called Collaborative Organizing in which they work with local organizations seeking an understanding of race and racism to recognize and address blind spots to create better workplace cultures.
“I don’t think politics is the only answer. It’s not going to just come through political change, but I also don’t think it can only come through entrepreneurial change,” greenson said. “I think there has to be a way that we build this together, and so we want a place where people can come have these conversations.”
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greenson and monque ravenel met through Building Bridges, a local organization that “fosters antiracism by educating people on how to intentionally engage in dialogues about racism.”
Their experience led to the formation of Encouraging Antiracism Together in which attendees are prompted to have conversations addressing topics such as racism in intimate places and over a potluck meal.
Their workplaces and other organizations are not a part of The People’s Place but there is some crossover in ideologies.
“We got into conversations about how we could transform ourselves and our city,” greenson said. “These are all different projects that we worked on, but it exposed us to lots of different people and comrades who were interested in how there could be more of a community here. … that could come together to work on making Asheville a racially just place.”
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Fundraising goals
The People’s Place's first fundraising goal is to raise $50,000 in seed money to put a down payment on a building once it finds a suitable one. greenson said the goal is to reach the $150,000 threshold by the end of the year.
The People’s Place’s fiscal agent is Eagle Market Street Development Corp. CDC.
In January, the fundraising campaign officially launched at a dinner catered by the award-winning Chef B.J. Dennis of Charleston, South Carolina.
The event, modeled after the E.A.T. dinners, gathered nearly 90 diverse community members with varying backgrounds to the same table to learn about The People’s Place’s concept, garner support and encourage donations. The nonprofit leaders said they chose to make the event free to make it accessible.
Community and individuals’ partnerships, donations and sponsors are welcomed by The People’s Place leaders.
The group welcomes in-kind donations, such as hosting events or offering services and talents for community events. Also, those who can offer skillsets that will aid in the operation of The People’s Place, such as those with museum and restaurant experience.
More communitywide dinners and other crowdsourcing events are intended to continue building a buzz about the project, encourage involvement and attract supporters.
“We want to keep the spirit of the building before we even have the building,” he said.
For more about The People’s Place, visit peoplesplaceavl.com.
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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: People's Place launches with fundraiser for Asheville Black community
