Update: The SHE. Xperience was canceled due to weather. SHE. Event Indy is planning on rescheduling the event.
Indianapolis residents will be able to watch musical performances and a fitness demonstration, purchase products ranging from liquid lipstick to vegan tacos and support small businesses from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 16 at Richard G. Lugar Plaza.
SHE. Event Indy, an organization that provides connections, education and opportunities for mainly minority-women-owned businesses, will host the shopping event, the SHE. Xperience.
At the SHE. Xperience, about 60 booths will feature goods and services in health and fitness, fashion, food and cosmetics. Martin University, the state’s only predominately Black institution of higher learning, will have a booth, and SHE. Event Indy will have a station to pass out meals to homeless individuals.
Deeply Rooted, an herbal medicine store, will be a vendor at the event. Owner A’Dah Whitfield Bey will sell some of her herbal items, including weight loss tea and elderberry cough syrup, which helps prevent and fight against illnesses such as colds or the flu.
Whitfield Bey said she makes and has used all the products in her store. One of the reasons she enjoys participating in SHE. Xperiences is she has found other businesses who also sell handmade products, such as lotions and vegan foods.
“I try not to buy things in the store because the ingredients that are in them that can be harmful,” she said. “Meeting people who make homemade products that are meant to heal and not harm you, that does it for me.”
Joli Beauty, formerly known as Joli Hair Company, will sell items from the company’s cosmetics line, Joli Pretty Cosmetics, and other goods from beauty professionals who work in its stores. Customers will be able to sample some of the makeup they are interested in purchasing, such as eye shadow palettes and liquid lipsticks, said Joli Beauty owner Angel Fant.
The artists from Joli Beauty will also do the hair and makeup for the models involved in the SHE. Xperience fashion show, which will feature local brands such as Twenty5Eight.
Other performances at the SHE. Xperience will include a fitness demonstration from Bounce Back Indiana and music from local performing and recording artist Yadin Kol. Kol, who plays the guitar and sings, said he will perform some of his original songs and covers of popular songs, such as “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye.
Kol said he returned to perform at another SHE. Xperience because he loves that the event advocates for and supports small businesses, especially minority- and female-owned companies. He said it is important to support small businesses because they create products with more care and better ingredients than larger conglomerates and they play an important role in local and national economies.
“Small businesses, for me, make the world go around,” he said. “It’s important for people to continue to understand that and to continue to support and pour into those businesses, or else we could all suffer.”
This July 16 shopping event will be the first SHE. Xperience to take place outside and in downtown Indianapolis. Katina Washington, SHE. Event Indy president and CEO, said she hopes the location of the event will attract more new patrons, and in turn more dollars to recycle in the community and sustain the local economy.
“We are finally getting the opportunity to be in the center of the city,” she said. “I’m sure we’ll draw more people in.”
Contact staff writer Madison Smalstig at 317-924-5143. Follow her on Twitter @madi_smals.
