11/27/2021, Business Spotlight Fred's Fried Dough
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Kyle “Fred” McNair was in Portland’s Old Port when an idea hit him. It was around closing time for many bars and he saw a line out the door for Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Seeing that line, he realized two things: one, Five Guys was making quite a bit of money staying open late, and two, that there obviously weren’t many late-night options for food in Portland. So what did he decide to do? Start a fried dough cart, of course.
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Press, 02/02/2021
Bowdoin Athletics
Celebrating Black History at Bowdoin: Track Teams "Bear the Torch" For Black Owned Maine
BRUNSWICK, Maine - In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020, head women's track and field coach L.J. Que along with students Claire Traum '21, Gillian King '22, and Jada Scotland '23 approached Jerry Edwards '04 and Rose Barboza of Black Owned Maine...
12/22/2020 Press, 11/11/2020
News Center Maine
Black Owned Maine partners with Portland Buy Local
Rose Barboza was at home with her four-year-old child in late May of this year when she saw news coverage of the death of George Floyd, and watched the video of the 46-year-old Black man being handcuffed and pinned to the ground as Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck long after Floyd was dead…
Press, 11/11/2020
Portland Phoenix
‘Filling in the pieces’ to help Maine’s Black businesses
When Rose Barboza lost her job last spring, she never imagined she would soon gain two new business ventures and more than 14,000 Instagram followers as a result.
Barboza, 30, is the founder and co-director of Black Owned Maine, a passion project she started as a way to bring attention and support to businesses owned by Black people statewide...
Black Owned Maine Podcast
Echoes of Old Systems featuring Ali Ali
Ali Ali came to the U.S. from Ethiopia as a child in 1999. As a teenager, Ali was incarcerated at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, first briefly and then, after a parole violation, for 18 months. While at Long Creek, he quickly got his GED, then started taking college classes and joined a theater program that focuses on the stories of incarcerated youth. He became artistic director of Maine Inside Out, which runs those programs, after his release.
Press, 10/15/2020
Downeast Magazine
Furloughed By COVID, She Became a Champion for Maine’s Black-Owned Businesses
Rose Barboza’s brainchild went live back in June. Furloughed from her tourism job due to the coronavirus pandemic and grieving the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, the Saco resident spent three days using her rudimentary coding skills to build a simple website called Black Owned Maine, a directory of bookstores, mechanics, food trucks, dentists’ offices, and other businesses owned by Black Mainers. “There are all these big directories that list Black-owned businesses, and Maine is never on them,” she says. “I was like, I wish Maine was on that list. And then I realized I can actually do that myself.”...
09/03/2020, BOM Through Time BOM hits Fundraising Milestone
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Money will combat racism in Maine and strengthen the local Black community Portland, ME: Today, Black Owned Maine announced its fundraising milestone of $6,200 in one week, thanks to the partnership with Bowdoin College’s Track and Field and Cross Country Team…
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What you can do...
1. Educate
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2. Donate
Contribute to the local Black ecosystem
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