“It’s more about drawing people into conversations...”
Based in Brooklyn and inspired by Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker, maestra is the brainchild of De'Ara Balenger and Stacie Gillian — a creative collective built to be a resource for business strategies that promote equity within communities, on a mission to "build community and amplify stories that are typically untold, undersold, or marginalized."
They first joined forces to support Shaniqwa Jarvis, a Black woman photographer whose voice and accomplishments were going unnoticed despite decades of experience. Stacie and De'Ara built a campaign to raise her profile — and her career now speaks for itself. "We realized we had an actual business when we got our first New York tax bill," Balenger says with a laugh. "This business really evolved from a friendship. Stacie and I understood very quickly that we were value-aligned in terms of our obligations and responsibilities to our community."
The success of maestra is a case study on effectively choosing the right business partner…
"So much of this work we're doing is because we understand that the fastest way for Black folks to become equitable to White folks is through entrepreneurship," Balenger says. "A lot of businesses don't get to start off with the high-profile relationships we have, so we work to build Black wealth however we can."
Their partnership balances two different rhythms. "De'Ara will move faster in spaces where I move slower and vice versa," Gillian explains. "That pacing really balances things out... You need those parts, otherwise you can become stagnant." When tension arises, it always comes back to one question, Balenger says: "'Can we pay everyone at the end of the month?' and 'How is this going to feel for us, our team, and our client partners?' That's how we detangle things."
Running an ethical business is, for them, a necessity. "We are trying to create a steady example of how you can run a business ethically, equitably, and with empathy and kindness," Balenger says. "The work is never about us. It is about community, a collective, and us being able to live our personal lives the way we wanted while having space and time for our families."
Gillian speaks to facing fear. "Not all fear means you should stop," she says. "Ninety percent of it, you may have done previously, but 10% is something you've never seen before... the person that's by your side can say, 'We can do that.'"
“what Greenwood represents is how brilliant and resilient we are as a people.”
"There's always a way to execute the thing," Gillian says. "Bigger than ourselves is our belief that we are representing what can be for other Black women to come... we only want to show them what the possibility is."
Meeting maestra's founders is to experience a concentrated version of the spirit that birthed Black Wall Street. "Even though we may not all be from Tulsa, the stories of where we are from are so similar," Balenger says reflectively. "We all know what our people have endured, but I think what Greenwood represents is how brilliant and resilient we are as a people."
▪️ STORY BY Alaina Jones | PHOTOS BY Amber Venerable
Featured in Issue No. 1
The inaugural issue features stories of entrepreneurs from Tulsa, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles and London. It connects the spirit of Greenwood that began in North Tulsa, Oklahoma to the rest of the world.
