We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle Alerte a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

New Women Space started in 2016 as a response to the election and the need for more safe spaces for women and the QTBIPOC+ community. The space is intended to be an environment for gathering and connecting with like minded people. As it has evolved overtime and especially throughout the pandemic, the space has become a place for women and the QTBIPOC community to have a place to produce their ideas and see them come alive. We work with tons of creatives and community organizers who are looking to see their ideas come alive. Our community can propose event, workshop, and class ideas to us and we collaborate to put them together and curate a successful event that encapsulates their vision and fits our mission to be an inclusive and safe space.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

On March 13, 2020, as a queer Black woman of Haitian ancestry I stepped into the role of curating a safe space for marginalized voices with joy and excitement. I learned about and started volunteering at New Women Space in 2019. Back then, New Women Space was a source of community for me on my own journey toward healing. With the help of my brother, I took over the space when the previous owners made separate career moves. I have a profound respect and understanding for the principals upon which NWS was founded. Beginning in the height of the pandemic brought forth major challenges and introduced new definitions of what it means to be in community. I continue to define a space that is inclusive, inviting, and safe amidst a new post-pandemic reality.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

The best way that we are able to keep in touch with clients and foster loyalty is through our membership program. Offering our members, those who consistently utilize the space to host events, access to discounts on rentals is a major way to incentivize them to use our space for their events whenever needed. In addition we try our best to build community and offer both members and our regular subscribers unique offers and opportunities through our weekly newsletters. This is also an important method through which we are able to advertise our regular programming to keep our community informed.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

As a team we have hosted reading groups reading Audre Lorde’s The Uses of The Erotic, and Adrienne Maree Brown’s Pleasure activism. Although neither book is intended to provide entrepreneurial advice, both have offered powerful insight into how to practice detaching from patriarchy and white supremacy. Their words have offered us inspiration for designing and developing a business model that challenges those patriarchal and hierarchical standards that are so inherent in this line of work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.newwomenspace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newwomenspace/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newwomenspace

Image Credits
Phil Alerte