Be Connected Durham

10/17/2026

HAYTI REBORN is hosting a conversation on Wednesday, October 21st about “HAYTI’S FUTURE: A COMMUNITY CONVERSATION ROOTED IN COMPASSION

Join us as we come together to discuss preserving HAYTI’s rich history, protecting its legacy, and ensuring restoration puts people and community first. Come share your voice. Help shape the future of Hayti!”

When: Wednesday, October 21, 2026 @ 6:00 PM
Where: St. Mark AME Zion Church 531 South Roxboro Street Durham NC

09/12/2026

The origin story of Third Friday Hayti.

In 2016, Be Connected Durham hosted a conversation with City of Durham transportation and planning professionals at Beyu Caffe. That conversation led to an intervention: the design of the original Equitable Engagement Blueprint, adopted by Mayor Steve Schewel in 2018.

Shortly after, Be Connected Durham formed the FSC Fellows Project as a container to revitalize the historic Hayti neighborhood. The Project was activated in 2020 through community-member-led research, built on canvassing and capacity-building.

The result was the inaugural Third Friday Hayti: a Five Site public art activation that engaged residents, artists, vendors, culture bearers, and everyday citizens. Here, people organized around civic duty for the sake of restoring and boosting economic mobility, and art and culture were the medium.

Each event featured food trucks, vendors or a map of neighboring businesses to support, and outdoor live music by local musicians, in the courtyard or on the front plaza at Site One, Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, NC.

Swipe to read how it began.

Source: The Fayetteville Street Corridor Project Five Years Report. Be Connected Durham. 2026. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: OMNI by Jamila Davenport
Live Music Curation: Quentin Talley and Dwayne Jordan

Alt text also provided in the comments.

09/10/2026

Why BE WELL? The serious and last of a five-part musing written by Angel Dozier, Founding Visionary & CEO.

https://angelisetdozier.medium.com/no-chatgpt-for-me-part-2-why-be-well-1eef6a1a8a6d?sharedUserId=angelisetdozier

Photo: Julian Wilson

09/03/2026

A Be Connected Durham & Beyond Dedication in reciprocity and the highest form of Love. Written by Angel Dozier
Photo: Julian Wilson

A Be Connected Durham & Beyond dedication in the highest form of Love.

08/20/2026

BE WELL, a business viability program anchored at Be Connected Durham & Beyond.

Check out this short article on LinkedIn.

Since January 2025, more than 600,000 Black women have been pushed out of the American workforce. Most people read that as their loss. It is everyone's.

08/19/2026

At the time we began our prework for BE WELL, more than 250,000 Black women were being forced out of leadership positions or out of the workforce altogether. That number quickly climbed to over 500,000 Black women and a new report insinuates the number is even higher, upwards of 750,000.

"A new IWPR report finds systemic barriers are pushing highly educated Black women out of jobs, with 600,000 sidelined since 2025."

07/14/2026

What Makes Us Well? Live Music.

Late this summer, drummer Jeremy “Bean” Clemons shows up and shows out at Sharp 9 Gallery. Three nights, three different bands.

And there’s a thread tying the shows together: Bean, Robert Trowers, and Mavis “Swan” Poole all came up through NCCU’s jazz program. World-class players including Tinashe Blu, Eve Cornelious, Kevin Beardsley, Chuckey Robinson, and Julia Head, who’ve shared stages with everyone from Count Basie’s orchestra to Lauryn Hill, Prince, and Sun Ra Arkestra, in a room where you can sit close.

The run:
🔸 Sat, Aug 1 SwanBean Quintet, with vocalist Mavis “Swan” Poole
🔸 Fri, Aug 21 The Durham Central Jazz Workestra, w/NCCU Jazz Studies director Robert Trowers
🔸 Sat, Sept 5 The Some of It All, Bean’s avant-garde trio

All shows 7PM · Sharp 9 Gallery · 4608 Industry Lane, Suite L
$35 adult / $20 student · tickets in the bio Jeremy 'BEAN' Clemons

Tag someone you want in the room with you. 🎷

07/12/2026

Briana Young-Roane. This one is special and the perfect business to highlight first because we share a name! Her wellness company and our new flagship program are each called Be Well.

Visit Be Well Apothecary for beautiful smudge wands, silky skin oils, tea and herbal blends, and so much more.

06/25/2026

About half a million Black women pushed out of the labor force. BE WELL was built for this moment. Swipe. Support our very real problem-solving expertise in community and economic development, where we honor the arts and culture as the vehicle for change. This too, is heart work. Link in bio.

06/25/2026

Hey Sweetie! Are you sure you want to BE WELL? The latest from our Patreon. Join us and witness our space programming there.

"Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well? Just so's you're sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed, cause wholeness is no trifli