August 15, 2026 marks the historic grand opening of the Uhuru Bakery & Cafe in North St. Louis! Uhuru Bakery is part of the strategy led by African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) Chairman Omali Yeshitela, implemented by Deputy Chair Ona Zené Yeshitela to transform every aspect of life in the long-neglected colonized black community on the Northside.
As August 15—the weekend of Marcus Garvey’s 139th birthday—nears, institutions of the Black Power Blueprint are experiencing a tremendous outpouring of support and engagement with our community, locally and worldwide.
The Black Power Blueprint, Black Star Industries and other organizations of the Uhuru Movement continue the legacy of Marcus Garvey by rebuilding what once was, and will return to, a vital economically self-reliant black community. Like Garvey’s organization, the Uhuru Movement is growing throughout the world, including on the continent of Africa.
Uhuru Bakery provides employment, serves as an uplifting cultural gathering place and anchors community commerce in the deliberately neglected Northside.
The grand opening program will start by raising large red, black and green flags at four locations along the West Florissant corridor accompanied by the Marching Musical Lions Band from Cardinal Ritter Prep School!
The Uhuru Bakery & Cafe will provide free samples of our tantalizing, healthy African comfort food specialties, our famous pies and freshly made beverages. The cafe will be open and serving highlights from our menu and souvenirs to take home.
Like Marcus Garvey in the early 1900s, we are going beyond protest; we are seizing territory and creating a liberated community by bringing back the institutions our people need to thrive.
The program will include powerful voices from the community, including Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Deputy Chair Ona Zené Yeshitela, St. Louis Historian Gwen Moore, the People’s Alderman Jesse Todd, Zaki Baruti, leader of the Universal African People’s Organization, and community members telling their own stories.
There is a full roster of soulful culture including poet/artist Makeda Baraka, poets Rob Soule and Fofeet Alkebulan, storyteller Gregory Reed, drummer Enchanted Empress and many more.
The Black Power Blueprint and the African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) will host a Build-a-Black-Doll booth with dolls and accessories. Marcus Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey did not invent the black doll, but they were monumental in mass-producing and popularizing them for black children. In 1919, their Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and Negro Factories Corporation established a toy company and doll factory to ensure children could play with toys reflecting their own image and beauty! We want to celebrate this at our event.
We will feature a booth by Courtney Creative Chess Club which brings critical skills to African children and adults through chess.
A broad spectrum of Uhuru Movement organizations will host booths with information on how everyone can get involved! Each Uhuru booth represents a continuum of the legacy of Marcus Garvey that Chairman Omali Yeshitela has kept alive for over 60 years. They represent dual and contending power in the hands of the African working class.
Find out about the Shamba La Uhuru Freedom Farm; the Black Power 94 community radio station; the Buy Black Power Store featuring African accent pillows and jewelry and Uhuru Planet Reparations Apparel.
Meet the African National Women’s Organization with powerful activities and natural beauty products, the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project with the Black Ankh emergency preparedness organization and regional Uhuru Movement leaders from throughout the U.S.
Hear about the Reparations Investment Company (RIC) which is renovating unused homes left to rot by the city on the Northside for low-cost housing; rebuilding, not gentrifying, our community and creating employment for African and Indigenous workers.
Everyone is welcome to bring your family and friends to celebrate our people, our culture, our resilience and our future!
Uhuru Bakery & Cafe Grand Opening
Saturday August 15th noon-5pm CT
3719 W. Florissant Ave. St. Louis MO 63115
800-578-5157 • uhurupies.org
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