I started editing Oh My! Handmade Goodness in 2010 after being a young entrepreneur running a handmade business and parenting full time since 2003 as a place to offer resources, advocacy, and community for the global maker movement. We grew to 50+ contributors from around the world reaching millions of visitors a month and became a leader in the handmade community advocating ethics, best practices, and peer support. Since 2010 I have worked with grassroots movements, makers, companies, organizations, non-profits, and collectives across North America to develop collaborative, equitable economies and communities of care.
Starting in 2014 with co-organizer Fatema Sidat we began pioneering new economic models and regional cooperation by hosting Etsy Made in Canada events in Halifax, piloting Etsy Maker Cities initiatives in two provinces and developing Maritime Makers as a resource for regional creative entrepreneurs and event organizers across Atlantic Canada. After the deaths of my partner Chris’s parents in June 2016 our family purchased a historic community cafe in the town of Mahone Bay and worked together at The Biscuit Eater Cafe & Books to gather community around a common table that centred Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, community care, and local food security.
I was driven to solve problems that impacted me as a kid growing up with a Black Jewish single mother and activist in one of Canada’s poorest communities. I sat on my first Board of Directors in East Vancouver by nine and had worked with over fifty inner city and rural organizations before I turned 20. Drawing on this rich, diverse history of social activism and collective action I have used my community organizing and facilitation skills to bring people together around shared values to solve collective issues. I have developed programs for both rural and urban communities across North America building relationships with thousands of makers, innovators, companies and communities, to create projects that support equitable economies and communities of care through real meaningful connections on and offline.
Past projects:
- CEO, The Biscuit Eater Cafe
- Co-Founder/Organizer, Maritime Makers
- Former Secretary, South End Environmental Injustice Society
- Etsy Maker Cities consultant
- Co-organizer of Etsy Made in Canada Halifax
- Design & consultation for Bamboletta
- Design & consultation for Gentle Clothing
- Design & consultation for Tara Swiger
- Community engagement strategy for Playful Learning
- Etsy Team Captain’s Summit
- Plenary presenter at Hollyhock Summer Gathering
- Host of Maker’s Retreat at Hollyhock
- Etsy Road Trip (video)
- Altitude Design Summit
- Spark Retreat New Mexico
- Named one of Canada’s top bloggers by Etsy
See more projects and design portfolio here.
