Left, Kim Hill at Radical Women. Photos by Susan De Vries.
More Than Just a Store
HAPPENINGS
26
When Kim Hill opened Radical Women, a boutique
on Tompkins Avenue in Bed Stuy, she was in a
predicament. The year prior, the single mom and
independent business owner had started a wellness
brand called Next of Kim and was finding it hard to
store all the products at home. “I was sitting in a twobedroom
apartment right down the street,” she says. “I
was going, ‘What am I going to do with all of this stuff?’”
A nearby commercial space belonging to a former
attorney, stuffed with boxes up to the ceiling, opened
up. Influenced by a recent exhibition at the Brooklyn
Museum that featured Latin American and Latina
women artists and the community they built together,
Hill and three other designers decided to collaborate
on a store. “For myself, the exhibition resonated
with how important it is to step out on faith when you
have an idea,” Hill says. “But it is equally important to
have a village of people that can help you actualize
those visions and dreams.” The four founders would
alternate days working and promote each other’s
brands. “We watched our businesses flourish.”
Hill, a musician and one of the founding members of
the group Black Eyed Peas, now occupies the spot
herself, recently bringing in as a partner the actor
and Bed Stuy resident Gbenga Akinnagbe, whose
furniture and clothing line are available in the store.
But for Hill, the space has grown into something
she never expected. When women who were going
through cancer treatments kept coming to the shop,
looking for some of the products in her Next of Kim
line to help them through radiation or chemotherapy,
she realized Radical Women was becoming more than
retail. “It started to become a safe space for people to
come in and talk about extremely personal things,” she
says, remembering being with her mother in similar
places as a child and hearing the women talk about
their lives. “It’s what got you through the day.”
What the boutique provides keeps expanding. Hill and
Akinnagbe will soon launch a podcast called Radical
Conversations, which aims to replicate the kind of discussions
that routinely happen inside the store. More
recently, Hill has brought on a series of young designers
as interns—akin to the original idea for Radical
Women, they will help out with the shop in exchange
for having a platform to sell their products. “I’m watching
their confidence grow,” she says about the young
designers who now work with her.
What Hill is most proud of is being part of a community—
commerce is only a small part of the equation.
The conversations and the camaraderie are just as
important. “It’s always more than just a store,” she
says. —C.H.