A family that makes history together excels in business together (We don’t make the rules!). Darryl Lelie and his family have expanded their horizons from one restaurant to a second — located in City Island in the Bronx borough of New York — making it the first Black-owned restaurant to land in the vicinity, the Bronx Times reports. In the case of Lelie and Seafood Kingz 2, delayed does not mean denied because the new location was originally vetted by the team five years ago. When they initially set out to find a home for their first business, Seafood Kingz, the timing was not right, but now that it is, things are already looking up with a groundbreaking move. Despite some hiccups along the way with the original second location opening and closing during the pandemic, Lelie jumped at a chance for a fresh start, bringing his family and their traditions with him every step of the way. “We give them an avenue to have some of their own food, with the things that they love,” Lelie said,...

Raven B. Varona is known for capturing some of the best sides of our faves in the industry. However, this time she’s getting a bit more personal by capturing the real stars in her life, people in her home city — The Bronx. Her virtual art gallery titled “And The B is For” is Raven’s personal love letter to the city that raised her and the everyday people who have always been essential to her life, long before COVID-19 deemed what it meant to be an essential worker. And The B is For — “B” being symbolic of how we have the power to define life to whatever we want it to be — is her first-ever solo gallery and a virtual hub that takes viewers on a journey through The Bronx. AfroTech had the opportunity to sit down with Raven to further discuss the meaning behind the exhibit’s art, the love she has for her city, and how it all came to fruition despite the challenges of COVID-19. AfroTech: If your photos from the exhibit could talk, what do you think they’d say? Raven: The people in the...