The African People’s Education & Defense Fund (APEDF) regrets to announce that Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles in Philadelphia, PA, and Oakland, CA, will be closing after 30 years and 34 years in business respectively. Our last day in Phila. will be on Sunday, October 31st.
Since the 1990s, Uhuru Furniture has provided free furniture donation pick-up services and Uhuru on the Move’s moving services. We have resold gently used furniture and household goods at affordable prices, saving thousands of tons of furniture from the landfill. Uhuru Furniture has also provided volunteer opportunities, job training, and work experience.
We have been through many ups and downs, but now we are facing a situation where the U.S. economy is in a crisis. Throughout the U.S., small businesses and large corporations alike are closing their stores. Skyrocketing rents and rising prices of gas, food, and goods across the board have created untenable conditions, especially for African, Indigenous, Mexican, and Puerto Rican communities in the U.S. In an economy that is based on the exploitation of oppressed peoples, these communities and our small businesses are hit the hardest.
In the last 20 years, it is estimated that more than 50% of the historic African community of Oakland, CA, has been pushed out by gentrification and these economic conditions. In Philadelphia, over 30% of the city (485,000 people) were forced into deeper poverty and hunger when the city cut off supplemental SNAP benefits in March of this year.
These conditions have also made it impossible for Uhuru Furniture stores to absorb rising expenses, provide sustainable wages for employees, and keep our furniture at affordable prices. The cost of doing business keeps so many African and other underserved communities from long-term success.
We consider it a victory for these black-owned institutions to have made it for over three decades through conditions that normally keep our community out of the economic arena. It is a statement of the tremendous support from the community for what Uhuru Furniture stands for and the mission of APEDF.
As economic development institutions of the nonprofit APEDF, the Uhuru Furniture stores have stood for the right of the African community to have self-determination. APEDF has shown through Uhuru Furniture and its other programs what self-determination for the African community looks like through these on-the-ground institutions, taking it from an idea to a concrete reality that the community can interact with and support.
Hundreds of thousands of people have chosen to shop, donate, and volunteer at Uhuru Furniture because they support APEDF programs, putting power in the hands of the African working-class community.
From APEDF and Uhuru Furniture, we say a heartfelt THANK YOU to every person who has chosen to stand on the side of the African working-class community’s fight for self-determination!
Because of your support, there are programs on the ground, transforming the conditions of life in our community. The Black Power Blueprint programs based in St. Louis, MO, continue to expand. These programs uplift our community and provide genuine solutions to the disparities we face. APEDF has built an African farmer’s market and community garden, a state-of-the-art basketball court, created a doula training program, and women’s health center, and much more.
Under the slogan “Our Labor, Our Future” the African Independence Workforce Program (AIWP) that we are initiating will reverse the negative economic impact of the colonial economy and prison system. AIWP will provide training and jobs so our community can contribute to a prosperous future through the development of our independent liberated economy.
This colonial economy may be in crisis, but it is not our crisis–and now more than ever freedom-loving people have the opportunity to directly support the rapidly growing programs of APEDF.
Uhuru Furniture is closing, but you can still support the rising power of self-determination in our communities! Uhuru Means Freedom!
1. Donate to APEDF programs and the Giving Tuesday Campaign at www.apedf.org. Make a one-time donation or become a sustainer!
2. Stay informed and sign up for the APEDF email newsletter! Sign up at Uhuru Furniture or email us at ufcphilly@gmail.com.
3. Sign up to volunteer with APEDF wherever you are. Email or call us!
4. Share your Uhuru Furniture story! Email us, and we’ll put it on our website!
5. Support and participate in Philly’s One Africa! One Nation! Marketplace.
6. You are invited to take an in-person tour of the Black Power Blueprint’s uplifting programs in St. Louis, MO. Contact us.
Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles 832 N. Broad St. Phila., PA 19130, 215-546-9616 ext 3, Website: UhuruFurniturePhilly.Blogspot.com
