"Can't cook but so much chicken bog"

BlkMrktClt’s latest project is located above downtown Charlotte and beneath the exposed ceiling of an art gallery, but it’s instantly recognizable as a corner store.

“We decided to essentially turn the fifth floor of Mint into a bodega,” says Carla Aaron-Lopez, a member of the BlkMrktClt collective, founded four years ago as a safe creative space for artists of color. “Because if we’re going to talk about food in America, especially down South, a lot of Black and brown communities depend on local corner stores: They are so special to Black and brown communities.”