A MARKET dedicated to spotlighting black-owned businesses is set to return to Manchester in its most dramatic form yet.

Melanin Markets launched last December in the North-West city to eager shoppers ahead of the Christmas season and its second stint as a market is expected to be its biggest yet ,with the event preparing to be held at one of Manchester’s oldest and most coveted theatres.

The Royal Exchange Theatre, once a stock exchange and used as a bomb shelter during the Second World War, has been centre stage to some of the theatre world’s most loved shows and musicals in its over 100-year history.

But amidst the grandeur and drama that the long-standing space boasts, its creators – Kelly Morgan and Bianca Daneille – say they also want to lift the curtain on the theatre’s often forgotten links with the slave trade ahead of the highly-anticipated event.

“The history of the theatre cannot be ignored,” Bianca tells The Voice, “the theatre has gone from something that was white collar, political and is now an art space. 

“Yes, it was a stock exchange, but we’re now exchanging joy. We’re now exchanging the goods that we make. We’re now using it as a way to really like, shout loudly about what we do and who we are as people. 

“And I think that that’s what’s important, that we are taking over the Great Hall and that when it was named the Great Hall they didn’t think of it as the greatness of black people. 

“They don’t think of it as being monumental and huge in our love and our pride in our history.”

The old, wooden trading board still stands high on one of the theatre’s grand walls, when the Royal Exchange acted as the main trading floor for cotton that was picked by enslaved people in the southern states of America until slavery’s abolition in 1865. 

The theatre being the epicentre of Manchester’s own part in the trans-Atlantic slave trade saw the city nick-named “Cottonopolis” throughout the 19th-century.

Over 100 years later, Kelly says the remnants of the past are just as historical as they are personal.

“I think it’s coming at a really interesting time again because we are of Caribbean heritage and obviously we’ve got Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados talking about reparations and apologies for the slave trade,” she tells The Voice. 

“And we’re connected to that history, The Royal Exchange Theatre is connected to that history. 

“My grandma used to pick cotton, not as a slave, but when I hear about people picking cotton, it’s got that kind of layered history where you know it wasn’t really an option and it was more about feeding back into the colonies, and those legacies of racism which are all muddled up in there. 

“So, for the Royal Exchange to have been trading cotton and then for us to be trading as a market, it’s wonderful.”

She added: “It’s interesting to kind of reshape that narrative of what it looks like to see black businesses take up this historic space with this kind of legacy so boldly and how the wider community interacts with that as well.

“When you have institutions that focus on the Royal aspect it is kind of like this grandeur, and that’s wonderful. But I feel like so often there’s maybe an unsaid idea that the grandeur is not us black people.”

“It’s just so connected, so layered, so emotionally tied. I think it’s going to be a really significant moment, not just for the Royal Exchange, but within the context of what society is doing and talking about today.”

Melanin Markets is preparing to showcase over 50 vendors throughout the theatre’s Great Hall with the sole aim of putting black-owned businesses on the map for consumers across all communities.

Visitors making their way to the one-day event can expect food businesses offering a fusion of vegan and African cuisine, to mouth-watering rum and sorrel premium spirits, and traditional Jamaican ginger beer. 

Self-taught bakers will also make an appearance and African-Caribbean inspired accessories will also be available amidst live music and performers.

A tattoo artist specialising in tattooing on dark skin will be present on the day as well as designers promoting everything from jewellery to postcards. 

As black business-owners themselves, both Bianca and Kelly know first-hand how important it is that events like Melanin Markets exist.

“The Black Pound Day initiative plays an extremely important role in creating opportunities for the black community to gain a stronger standing economically,” says Kelly.

“Black owned businesses in the UK face a variety of challenges such as underrepresentation, limited access to start-up funds, and barriers accessing wider markets. 

“Recent reports have shown that 88% of black-owned businesses have been self-funded and quite relevant to this figure, studies have shown that black owned businesses are 5 times more likely to be rejected for Loans and Grants.”

She added: “These figures highlight the need for change, so that black businesses are able to imagine, actualise and succeed fairly in the UK. 

“And so, in alignment with the Black Pound Day movement which aims to address the economic inequalities and imbalances affecting black businesses and entrepreneurs in the UK and global diasporic communities – Melanin Markets Manchester celebrates and promotes black-owned business vibrantly within unorthodox spaces not usually frequented by the black community – with the aim to normalise seeing and spending with black businesses.”

After amassing over £25,000 from their last Manchester-based event and welcoming crowds of over 1,000 people, Bianca says that “the things that seemed like dreams before we’re making a reality” as they near the launch of the second Melanin Markets.

“Now we know what we’re doing much better, it’s less of asking permission to take up space and more of an offering of this is what it looks like when you take up space,” she says. 

“I just can’t wait to see Kente cloth on the tables. I can’t wait for the smells of patties, and a plantains and rum punch. I can’t wait for everyone to be authentically them in a space like that.”

Bianca previously told The Voice that the theatre “historically is not a place for black people, and black people in our community don’t go to the theatre normally,” but says she now hopes that Melanin Markets creates a movement for other black entrepreneurs to be inspired in taking up space in art-venues like the Great Hall across cities like London and Birmingham. 

“We’re in a time where people are starting to vocalise and think about inclusion and these institutions don’t often actively engage with our communities,” says Kelly.

“We have to beg or shy away when we’re taking up these spaces. And often when we do walk into these spaces, we’re brought back into almost unspoken rules that don’t make sense, like we can’t talk loudly in theatre, even though no one is doing any anything. 

“You have to tip-toe or you can’t wear a certain thing, or can’t be curious and just look around because it’s suspicious.”

She adds: “The theatre had kind of made a statement saying, whatever we choose to be, we’ll be here. And I think that’s kind of what we’re saying. Whatever we choose to be, whatever we choose to define ourselves as, we’re going to be here, present and visible.”

Melanin Markets will be held at the Royal Exchange Theatre on Sunday 8th May 12-5pm.