Aurora James's Blog
August 9, 2023
We have so much power as consumers…
We have so much power as consumers… perhaps even when we get our morning coffee! It was such a treat to visit Buunni Coffee, a Black-owned shop in Inwood to talk about Wildflower: A Memoir with Jamie Stelter. The owner of the coffee shop is from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, where Brother Vellies has a workshop - we live in a beautiful, small, interconnected world!
Watch and/or read our conversation here!
Watch and/or read our conversation here!
June 20, 2023
Cats out of the bag!!
I have been working for over a year on this incredible project that has been taking so much of my focus and in so so many ways feels incredibly full circle to me. Anyone who has read my book Wildflower: A Memoir, or has been with me since the early years knows just how hard I had to work bootstrapping my own business and meeting with countless investors along the way. Most of them really just never got ‘it’ or me, to be honest. But the data also shows this to be the case. Black businesses are not being funded.
When I launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge I knew that access to capital to scale Black businesses would be the single largest barrier to entry in us completing this mission. And while countless VC firms and big banks were making promises to ‘support the Black community’ I didn’t know that I could trust them to get the job done or that Black founders would trust them to let them into their businesses. So, in 2021 I set out to learn how to be the investor I would have dreamed of having when I was starting out. It’s been so important to me to get into the weeds and do the actual work before talking about it. So I apologize for not sharing earlier, but there’s so much more to come!!
A big thank you to Alisa and Mike and everyone at the VMG Partners family for being such huge supporters of me, 15PP and the incredible founders we’ve been journeying with already. Nothing about this is charity, Black business is the future of America. Happy Juneteenth Friends 🖤
Read the announcement here!
When I launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge I knew that access to capital to scale Black businesses would be the single largest barrier to entry in us completing this mission. And while countless VC firms and big banks were making promises to ‘support the Black community’ I didn’t know that I could trust them to get the job done or that Black founders would trust them to let them into their businesses. So, in 2021 I set out to learn how to be the investor I would have dreamed of having when I was starting out. It’s been so important to me to get into the weeds and do the actual work before talking about it. So I apologize for not sharing earlier, but there’s so much more to come!!
A big thank you to Alisa and Mike and everyone at the VMG Partners family for being such huge supporters of me, 15PP and the incredible founders we’ve been journeying with already. Nothing about this is charity, Black business is the future of America. Happy Juneteenth Friends 🖤
Read the announcement here!
May 14, 2023
What a crazy week!
I kicked off pub week by waking up early to go on Good Morning Americaand present Glory Edim’s Well-Read Black Girl with a $10,000 check from the Fifteen Percent Pledge, celebrated the release of Wildflower with many friends at a party co-hosted by the amazing Diane von Furstenberg, visited The View to tell Whoopi Goldberg how she literally paid my rent (and didn’t know it!), had my first in person conversation event with the talented Huma Abedin at the iconic Brooklyn Museum before jumping coasts to catch up with Kerry Washington at another book event where I got to see so many of your smiling faces! I’m sure I’m forgetting the other 5,000 things that happened this week (Chatted with Rachel Hollis on her podcast! Ebony! CNN with Zain Asher! ABC News Live!), and I can’t wait to properly sit down and let it all soak in…
But I couldn’t let this week slip by without saying a sincere THANK YOU. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, support and glee with me! Thank you for everyone who is reading/has read/will read Wildflower. This moment is a special one and I will cherish it forever.
Thank you to everyone who came out to our book events this week and waited in line for me to sign them - I truly enjoyed getting to meet you all and hearing YOUR stories. We’re getting ready to announce a few more events, so please watch my website for those. In the meantime, you can order signed copies of Wildflower from Reparations Club & Rizzoli while supplies last.
More to come very soon!
Aurora
But I couldn’t let this week slip by without saying a sincere THANK YOU. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, support and glee with me! Thank you for everyone who is reading/has read/will read Wildflower. This moment is a special one and I will cherish it forever.
Thank you to everyone who came out to our book events this week and waited in line for me to sign them - I truly enjoyed getting to meet you all and hearing YOUR stories. We’re getting ready to announce a few more events, so please watch my website for those. In the meantime, you can order signed copies of Wildflower from Reparations Club & Rizzoli while supplies last.
More to come very soon!
Aurora
May 7, 2023
My memoir Wildflower 🪷
Friends,
I'm so excited to let you know that my memoir, Wildflower: A Memoir, is coming out THIS Tuesday, May 9th.
As I write in the prologue, people think of me in a myriad of ways. The light-skinned woman with the nasally voice. The fashion girl from Canada. The founder of Brother Vellies, who won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. The designer who dressed AOC for the Met Gala in a gown that said “Tax the Rich.” The entrepreneur who launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge.
All of these things are true—but there are so many more parts of me. Some of my story may surprise you. Some may make total sense. Other moments might be hard to understand. But ultimately, all of these fragments pieced together make me, and all of us, human.
I hope you’ll join me on this next chapter and order a copy of Wildflower.
Lots of love,
Aurora
I'm so excited to let you know that my memoir, Wildflower: A Memoir, is coming out THIS Tuesday, May 9th.
As I write in the prologue, people think of me in a myriad of ways. The light-skinned woman with the nasally voice. The fashion girl from Canada. The founder of Brother Vellies, who won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. The designer who dressed AOC for the Met Gala in a gown that said “Tax the Rich.” The entrepreneur who launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge.
All of these things are true—but there are so many more parts of me. Some of my story may surprise you. Some may make total sense. Other moments might be hard to understand. But ultimately, all of these fragments pieced together make me, and all of us, human.
I hope you’ll join me on this next chapter and order a copy of Wildflower.
Lots of love,
Aurora
