Racks of colorful clothing, glistening waist beads, perfumes and handmade gold jewelry lined the mounds at Pitzer College on Friday, Feb. 2, creating a vibrant scene for excited shoppers. The aroma of homemade cookies, cupcakes and catfish filled the air. The Pitzer Black Student Union (BSU) Black Flea Market was back for part two.
Following the success of their inaugural Black Flea Market in October, Pitzer’s BSU decided to host the event once again this winter, celebrating the diverse culture of the Black community in Claremont. Attendees supported local Black-owned businesses and student vendors, ate delicious soul food and danced to music.
The event’s lead organizer, Hannah Chimpampwe PZ ’26, was inspired to create the event during the summer after visiting a Black flea market in Los Angeles.
“I wanted to make an impact for the Black community at the 5Cs and build that community through a healing and meaningful event,” Chimpampwe said.
The principal aim of the event was to support Black business owners, including Black 5C students and thus support the community that these owners help cultivate.
“Small Black-owned vendors are the backbone of our communities,” Chimpampwe said. “Growing up in LA, it was always the small business owners that established community spaces … it is these vendors that help cultivate these types of events and bring people together, which is why we as a community need to support them the same way they support the community.”
Organizer Bee Joyner PZ ’25 stated that there was a greater collaborative effort in the preparation for this event compared to last semester’s inaugural flea. Pitzer BSU established a committee where specific members were in charge of coordinating logistics, including managing vendor invoices, arranging DJs and setting up the venue.
“[This semester] we have more vendors and we have two special guest performers: YFR Eazy and Asha Imuno,” Chimpampwe said. “We have many of our vendors returning from [last semester’s] Flea Market and most importantly the same community.”
Despite concerns about the weather due to rain in the days leading up to the event and the projection of a historic rainfall on the weekend to follow, the sky was kind to the Black Flea Market and all patrons stayed dry.
The Flea provided a much-needed space for the Black community to feel represented and celebrated.
“It is important for us to have a space like this on campus because in a [predominantly white institution], every space is meant for white people to shine and thrive,” Joyner said. “We don’t pay attention to the people of color on campus a lot of the time.”
William Marshall PZ ’25, a returning vendor who was selling clothing at the event, saw this event as an opportunity for students and community members to generate income for mutual aid and other causes by selling their designs, clothing and handmade art.
“I think [the Flea] is a great opportunity which lets students here make a tangible difference through mutual aid and through supporting people who most need that help, as well as just sharing the culture,” Marshall said. “Any working educational and cultural institution should work to implement [all that good stuff] in our daily lives.”
Chimpampwe agreed with these statements, stating that she wanted her idea to flourish in order to celebrate the beauty of the Black community — specifically, the student community.
“Throughout my freshman year, I noticed many Black students had talents like singing, clothing brands, dancing and entrepreneurship and I wanted to make an event that allows Black students to show off their talents and interests,” Chimpampwe said. “Every person who has talent should be given the opportunity to express themselves and I wanted the Flea Market to be the space for all Black students to do that.”