August 8, 2025
Black women are creating a blueprint for community building and business collaboration on Upshur Street in Washington.
In the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a single block of Upshur Street is home to multiple Black woman-owned businesses.
The women are redefining what community entrepreneurship looks like. Primarily Washington natives, the Black women’s establishments are rooted in both legacy and collective empowerment.
For Alexes Haggins, founder of Flowers by Alexes, entrepreneurship is generational. The women of Upshur Street spoke to WUSA 9 about their business endeavors and connections to the community.
“I’ve been here since I was 9 years old. My father moved to the other end of the block, and that’s where Flowers by Alexes was born,” she told WUSA 9. “We reopened the shop, and we’ve been here and doing really well since then.”
Local creatives and side hustlers regularly use Haggins’s event space. It’s more than just a storefront. It’s a springboard.
Across the street from Flowers by Alexes, Petworth Cigars blends tradition infused with neighborhood pride. Dyane Johnson, the shop’s owner, sees cooperation, not competition.
“It’s excellent to be able to have the support and integration of different businesses,” she said. “Shops that offer clothing, flowers, food.”
That mix includes Elephant in My Room, a lifestyle boutique owned by Tisha Brown, who went from styling racks in her apartment to claiming her own brick-and-mortar space.
“I started selling clothes with a single rack in my two-bedroom apartment five years ago,” she said. “From there, I did pop-ups. I was in Fia’s middle room when she was here, so it’s full circle to be back, and this is now my space.”
Just a few doors down, Michelle Smith’s Cookie Wear has clocked 25 years of business.
Haggins moved away from the area but has returned and is excited to reconnect with the community.
“Just coming back, reaching out and reconnecting with the community and how they receive me, it was just a good feeling,” she said. “So the things that we do is we host all different types of events–-we do yoga, Pilates, crocheting, just something where the community will have a place to come and just enjoy the space.”
Black women now own nearly 40% of Black-owned businesses in the District, according to the city’s Department of Small and Local Business Development.
Washington leads the nation in the number of Black-owned businesses per capita. While these women are part of the growing statistics, the way they do business creates the blueprint for others to follow.
The Black women of Upshur Street are working collaboratively and locally. Their presence boosts economic activity and helps the surrounding community in its ecosystem-building.
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