Make Manifest BK doesn’t look like a single business from the outside, and that’s part of what draws people in. The storefront at 382 Tompkins Avenue operates as a café and culture shop, while the space next door at 384 functions as a gallery and event venue. Together, the two create a culturally grounded environment that feels less like a retail stop and more like a gathering place.
Since opening in December 2017, Make Manifest BK has become a fixture for local youth, artists and longtime Bed-Stuy residents who move comfortably between both buildings. The audience is diverse, including young creatives, elders, families who have watched the business grow and newer residents drawn in by the shop’s warmth.
Inside, founder Isha Ma’at has built a place that reflects her creative practice and the diasporic aesthetics she grew up with. “I’ve been a creative for a while, and I wanted a space to showcase what I had and other brands from throughout the diaspora,” she said. She remembers not always knowing how she would get a storefront. “I didn’t really have the means or the know-how. I wanted to ‘make manifest’ this dream.”
The culture shop stocks pieces that track across the African diaspora. Mud cloth, woven textiles, upcycled garments and small-batch accessories appear alongside skin care and scent goods made by local Black creators. Much of the clothing is produced in-house: Ma’at and her brother make many of the garments and upcycled pieces. Other vendors provide jewelry and craft objects.
The café and shop operate as one flow. The menu is fully vegan, and the culinary choices are part of the draw. “Food brings people in in a different capacity. Everybody eats,” Ma’at said. The shop’s scent reinforces the feeling of being in a carefully tended home: incense, sage and plants blend with warm tones. “One of the biggest compliments people give when they come in is that it smells good, and it feels so good. And that’s spirit,” she said.
Programming makes the space feel lived-in. Chess afternoons, concerts and sewing workshops draw consistent crowds; in the warmer months, events spill onto the sidewalk. The gallery at 384 remains transitional, hosting pop-ups and workshops even as plans are made to integrate more programming in 2026. The shop also runs a holiday pop-up at 384 during December, a curated shopping experience that brings vendors together for the season.
Ma’at’s work extends beyond her storefronts. She helped organize the Tompkins Block Association, a community-led initiative of residents, business owners and creatives, and now champions the Bed-Stuy Weekend Crawl, a corridor-wide program that enlists local businesses from Bed-Stuy into Crown Heights. “Our first community led initiative was Shop Bed-Stuy for the holidays,” she said. “It was connecting with other spaces where people could buy gifts for the season.” The crawl amplifies foot traffic and reinforces networks between small businesses along the avenue.
That community focus exists alongside the realities of a shifting neighborhood. Ma’at speaks bluntly about gentrification. “Gentrification has taken a toll,” she said. “A lot of our customers over the years have moved. You can feel a bit despondent looking around and not seeing the people who look like you reflected in the neighborhood. It means people have lost their homes.” For Ma’at, the answer lies in collective care and collaboration. “It’s needed more than ever. That is the only thing that can save any Black enclave,” she said.
Family and legacy are central to Make Manifest’s future. Ma’at envisioned the business as a home for her family’s creativity, and today her daughters help run projects, support events and design new products. “Family is the way. That is your foundation, your ‘groundation’,” she said. Expansion and sustainability are part of her long-term plan, but the focus now is on strengthening the Bed-Stuy base.
As the shop keeps its doors open and its calendar full, Make Manifest BK remains anchored in the blend of Blackness that shaped it: Caribbean roots, African ties and Black American expression folded into a single, everyday practice. “I’m born in Grenada, but truly, I’m black first,” Ma’at said. She added a broader reason for the work of the shop: “Spirituality is what got me here.”
