CBS News reporter John Elliott has recently earned quite a few stamps in his Nyack visitor passport!
Photo Courtesy of Black Parakeetz
A popular host on the CBS Shop Local Saturday program, Elliott celebrated Black History month on the show with interviews featuring members of Nyack’s vibrant community of Black-owned businesses – including Black Parakeetz: Paint, Swig and Sing! on Main Street, as well as Teagevity and Rebecca’s Paradise, regulars at the weekly Nyack Farmers Market.
Links to the video interviews are available here:
While filming at Black Parakeetz, owners Terry and Naomi Clarke took Elliott on a tour of their establishment, which boasts an art lounge for painting experiences (no prior experience needed), a karaoke lounge (also no prior experience needed), and a bar/kitchen offering a menu of specialty foods and art-and-music-themed cocktails hand crafted by Terry.
As Terry and Naomi describe it, Black Parakeetz is an experience-based venue for curated gatherings of every kind – birthday celebrations, pre-wedding parties, holiday get-togethers, music and theater events and corporate meetings, to name just a few possibilities. Terry cites a recent art-themed team-building workshop as an example.
Black Parakeetz is not your ordinary “party place,” so Naomi encourages everyone to stop by the business at 298 Main Street, and visit the Parakeetz website, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook pages. “We’re everywhere and we’re here!”
Photo Courtesy of Teagevity/Preston Powell
As part of his Nyack tour, Elliott also interviewed Preston Powell, owner of an artisanal boutique tea company – Teagevity – at the Nyack Farmers Market.
Powell, who happens to be the grandson of Abyssinian Baptist Church Pastor and politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., credits his time sipping “comfort drinks” like coffee and tea in church as the original driving force behind his love for tea. He also says the idea to start his business came to the fore when one of his martial arts students suggested he sell the tea that he was serving after class.
Powell carefully sources his teas from organic growers, offering a wide range of special blends created to promote health and longevity. ”I tell people ‘don’t buy tea from strangers,’” Powell said. According to Powell, his customers are neighbors, friends, family. “That’s what I love about the Nyack Farmers Market…it’s all about community.”
Elliott also had a conversation with Annie Rebecca Roberts of Rebecca’s Paradise, another shop at the Nyack Farmers Market. Roberts creates organic, plant-based skincare products.
Photo Courtesy of Rebecca’s Paradise
Sharing a thread with Powell’s story, Roberts’ experiences growing up in an ecofriendly family environment shaped her business concept and mission. Her grandmother was a skincare professional in Jamaica.
“It’s very important to know what you’re ingesting or applying to the skin,” said Roberts.
With Rebecca’s Paradise skincare products, customers can be confident that they’re caring for their skin naturally, and don’t have to worry about harmful toxins, which are not uncommon in commercially produced lotions and soaps.
“Customers support me because they like what I do, and they like that the products are clean beauty.”
You can view the full interviews with the Clarkes, Powell and Roberts below. For more information about the Nyack Farmers Market, click here.
Also featured earlier in the year on the CBS Shop Local program include Nyack’s Pickwick Book Shop and the Hickory Dickory Dock boutique, a purveyor German handicrafts, clocks and decorative goods sourced from Europe.
Click below for Pickwick and Hickory Dickory Dock interviews.
We hope to see more Nyack businesses in the spotlight for future CBS Shop Local segments!
