Creating Community

by | Jan 10, 2025 | Uncategorized

In the heart of downtown Asheville, along Market Street, in a district known as “The Block,” sits the Noir Collective AVL. A beehive of creativity and community, the business is many things to many people — art gallery, boutique store, bookstore and, perhaps, most...

Three Years. That’s Significant

by | Oct 1, 2023 | Current

3 years. It’s definitely a milestone. Opening during the pandemic may have seemed counterintuitive AND when we think back on that decision, it was the right thing to do. The journey of Noir Collective AVL began as Ajax’s mission to serve the Black creatives and...

36 hours in Asheville, NC

by | May 4, 2023 | Current

by Shayla Martin, New York Times, May 4, 2023 Friday 2:30 p.m. Walk ‘the Block’ Seventy years ago, Eagle and Market Streets, known as the Block, made up a prosperous African American business district. The Young Men’s Institute (now the YMI Cultural Center) was a...

Le Mot Noir

by | Sep 20, 2022 | Current

Le Mot Noir Weekly meetings are held in the the art gallery so that attendees are surrounded by the works of local Black artists, with the gatherings designed as a stream-of-consciousness writing and sharing session. Writers are also welcome to bring pieces that they...
Bringing Black back to the Block

Bringing Black back to the Block

by | Mar 12, 2022 | Current

Located on South Market Street in the historic YMI Cultural Center building, Noir Collective AVL is a boutique and art gallery of Black entrepreneurs.  “We are a network of wellness warriors, creative activists, justice visionaries, cultural keepers, and peace...

New Black-owned businesses populate The Block

by | Jul 16, 2021 | Current

For nearly 70 years, Eagle and South Market streets in downtown Asheville were home to a vibrant residential and commercial district for Black residents. But with the city’s implementation of urban renewal policies between the 1950s and 1980s, the area known as The...