This photo of Selma Jackson of 4W Circle with Cae Byng, whose company is J & L Handmade Soap, illustrated a feature story in the New York Times last year. Photo: Angela Jimenez, New York Times

More than a unique boutique-style shopping experience, offering one-of-a-kind Afro-inspired designer fashions, art from around the world, hand-crafted jewelry, greeting cards, wedding accessories, a natural hair salon, a showcase for local artists, community space for programs celebrating African-American culture and much more, 4W Circle of Art & Enterprise is an incubator of dreams.

In a feature story published June 11, 2006, in the New York Times, 4W Circle's role as an incubator for women's businesses was emphasized. "[R]ather than being the single shop it seems, the operation is actually nine separate businesses - laid out, though, to avoid the atmosphere of a mall and to emphasize the noncompetitive relationship among the occupants. There are no dividers or other obvious demarcations, for example, between adjacent businesses."

For artists in the Brooklyn community, Selma Jackson has provided a space to showcase their work as well as workshops to benefit our community. She has openly supported our poetry family, musicians and visual artists.

As a business owner in the Fort Greene community, I was devastated and heartbroken to learn that after 17 years, 4W Circle was going to close its doors. I am most concerned that many people will simply look at this as just another business closing.

Losing 4W Circle to gentrification warfare is a devastating blow to the community. Selma Jackson, a founding member of 4W Circle has devoted the last 17 years of her life to keeping our community together, fighting for the rights of all business owners, opening the doors of opportunity for others and providing jobs for people in our community. We will never understand the type of sacrifice that Selma Jackson has made on behalf of her people in an attempt to preserve our communities and to open the doors of opportunity for young entrepreneurs.

The closing of 4W Circle deeply wounds the cultural diversity that made Fort Greene what it is today. Unless we recognize how important it is to make a conscious decision to support "our" businesses, the domino effect that has been planned for us will progress rapidly.

4W Circle of Art & Enterprise, an incubator for home-based Black businesses to grow into retail stores, is being pushed out by the gentrification war.

They never ask, "How can we become a part of this community and help make what is already here special?" They never ask, "How can I invest in this community in order to preserve what is already here?"

Instead, in no time at all, Brown and Black people will be made to feel unwelcome in their own communities that they were born and raised in. The newcomers will start off by walking down the streets in our communities looking away from us without a "Hello," "Good morning" and forget about a "How are you doing?"

I often wonder what was the process of removal like for the Native Americans that inhabited this beautiful country. Did they try and carry on the regular day to day tasks of life, like marriage, raising a family, planning for the future even though they knew their days were numbered?

As our businesses continue to close up and down Fulton Street and as less and less of us are coming up out of the train stations in historically Black neighborhoods, I ask where are all of my people going? I didn't hear anything about a reservation being created like the government did for the Native Americans so many years ago. It seems that all over the country there is a gentrification war and no one has told me, where are we expected to go?

In closing, I salute Selma Jackson for contributing towards making Fort Greene and Brooklyn what it is today. As all of the international magazines describe Brooklyn as being the "hottest," "trendiest," "coolest" and "hippest" place to be right now, despite the warped speed of gentrification that will displace thousands of Black and Brown people, I pledge to tell the future generations who and what was really the "Heart of Brooklyn."

I ask all people, whether you are white, Black, yellow or red, to support Selma Jackson's 4W Circle enterprise with your heart, soul and wallet until its closing on Feb. 1 and to let her know that you appreciate her commitment to the community. Moreover, I ask that we wake up to the fact that our local businesses are what makes our borough unique and sets us apart from everywhere else.

This must be preserved; our businesses foster the very definition of community. My best of wishes to Selma Jackson in her new endeavors and to all local businesses owners, I support you in your struggle to fight for our right to have a community.

4W Circle of Art & Enterprise is located at 704 Fulton St., between South Portland and South Oxford, Brooklyn, New York 11217, www.4WCircle.org. Laurie A. Cumbo, founder and executive director of MoCADA, can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Abena Anum, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , contributed to this story.

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