New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
TEACHING BY EXAMPLE
Couple aim to be role models while running new corner store
“Right now everyone respects me for changing so drastically. They look up to me and think I’m something.”
Michael Massey
NEW HAVEN — Michael Massey realized during his 11-year prison stay for armed bank robbery that part of the problem was that he didn’t have positive role models as a child, as the men he looked up to were drug dealers, gang members and/or aspiring rappers.
Massey said he vowed during imprisonment that he would try to change that for others when he was released, and lucked out by falling in love with Kenia Lowery, as she, too, had the same yearning to help pull kids out of the poverty cycle.
Lowery also had demonstrated the heart and ability, having spent years in Texas enlisting the help of kids to feed the homeless and other economically disadvantaged in mass quantity.
The couple, now engaged, recently set the wheels in motion to realize their dream together by taking over a neighborhood corner store — or a “bodega,” as she likes to call it — at 275 Edgewood Ave.
They sell all the usual corner stuff — lottery tickets, milk, cookies, toilet paper, soup, incidentals and she has a homemade food/deli — “Ms. Kay’s Kitchen” — but in addition to trying to make money, they are working to have the store be welcoming to kids in the neighborhood of many Black residents, and working hard to be role models.
Every Monday from 3 to 5 p.m., they plan to serve a meal to any school-aged children through twelfth grade and are collecting clothes, toys, shoes, food and other items kids may need.
Anyone who wants to donate can
bring goods directly to the store.
Lowery said there are children in the neighborhood who do not have adults who “take care of them.”
“I want to be that safety zone,” she said.
As for the role modeling — Lowery and Massey said they are doing it by being Black role model business owners, looking for Blackowned businesses’ items to sell and talking to kids to steer them straight.
The mission is in the name of the store, “Black Corner,” and yes, the word Black refers to race.
What’s all the sweeter for Massey is that it’s the same corner store in the neighborhood where he grew up — and some people recognize him, marveling at his successful turnaround.
Now he gets respect and takes any chance to talk to a young person about how there are all kinds of lawabiding avenues open to them to earn success — and Massey doesn’t downplay the importance of money.
“We don’t have any positive Black role models around here. We have to start doing better as a people,” Massey said. “I’ve done so much stupid stuff without guidance in my life.”
Massey, 40, said when he was growing up it was all about drugs, gangs and rappers. Drugs are still out there and “killing these kids,” he said.
“Everybody wants to be the tough guy — that’s our climate, our culture,” he said.
It was while in prison that he “changed my whole life,” he said.
Massey said he treated prison like a college, and learned.
“Jail was horrible, but it made me who I am,” Massey said. “It changed my life — I’m not bitter, I’m a better man because of it.”
Massey said in what would become a defining moment he saw former President Donald Trump and Republicans talking about business, he said, and realized, “We have to be better businessmen,” and it can become reality through hard work.
“We (Black people) have options, but we don’t see it because we don’t have the role models. … I just want to change that and be someone you can sit with and see,” he said. “Right now everyone respects me for changing so drastically. They look up to me and think I’m something.”
Massey has his own contracting company, GMF Improvement LLC, and said he gets treated with respect by kids when he’s at Black Corner, which was not Black-owned when he was a kid. The GMF in his company name stands for “God, Family, Money.”
Massey said he talks to as many kids as he can about the importance of business plans and honest ways to make money
Massey had been out of prison for about a year when he and Lowery were introduced by friends.
“I think I fell in love with her the first day. She does it for me.” Massey said. “She’s a way better person than I am.”
As a relationship bonus they also quickly discovered their common goals to help children.
Lowery said they’ve been together since that day they were introduced and know they’re going to be together so decided to “go all in,” and marry soon.
“He happened to be as ambitious as I was,” Lowery said.
Before they took over the store, he was working full time in his construction business and she was a manager for hospital parking, but she took “a leap of faith” in April and quit the job because “the pandemic really wore me down.”
Lowery, who said she is “business minded” and that more of the Black community should be, said she and Massey knew they wanted to go into business together, but weren’t sure what to do.
Aside from carrying the usual products at Black Corner, Lowery is looking for products from Blackowned businesses to feature in at least one aisle and said, “I’ve tried to make the store very different, I want it for the people.”
Inside the store is her “Ms. Kay’s Kitchen,” where besides deli sandwiches she sells her specialty items such as chicken wings, buttermilk chicken sandwiches, fried fish, steak and cheese sandwiches and salads.
They are open at 8 a.m. when fish and grits and breakfast sandwiches are served.
Lowery knows she and Massey aren’t the only ones who love to give back and is asking the public to drop off any food or kids’ items they can to help local children. She’s also looking for toiletries for the kids and said she’s looking forward to learning about anything else they might need.
“We want to be role models” so people don’t have to live in poverty,” and may instead be inspired to start their own business, she said. “When they come in here and see he’s the owner, it gives them hope.”
The couple said the financial struggle to keep the store going is real and Lowery said they have “no money” even though some think they do because they have a store.
“The business is really good, but it’s very stressful — everything I have goes into this business,” she said. “You just can’t give up because you have to see the bigger picture.”
Massey said he knows the future involves helping, no matter what form it all takes.
“We’re going to do nice things somewhere,” he said.