Kazeem Lawal, Owner, Portland Trading Co., Portland

“When I travel to source goods, whatever region I go to, I will typically bring something back that’s culturally significant. Ultimately, working with independent artists and talking to them about what they’ve created is a spiritual thing for me. It’s like they have a baby and they give it to me to give it new life. In that interaction, bonds are formed. I come from the Yoruba tribe, and it is amazing to see the Yoruba Divination object presented here in Portland, Maine. It says to me, the Yoruba culture existed and will forever have its mark as one of human history’s significant cultures. The soul and the history of humanity started in Africa. It breaks my heart that the Yoruba tribe, or the nation in which it resides—Nigeria—or other African countries, do not have a seat amongst the world’s superpowers.”

Kazeem Lawal moved to Maine and became involved more here than in any community he’d lived in before. In 2012, he started Portland Trading Co. At his store, everyone is welcome. His background is in engineering—his dad’s profession. His mother traveled the world sourcing fabrics and bringing them back to Nigeria. Though neither lived a full life, Kazeem strives to achieve all they could not. He wants his story to be told, his voice to be heard, to touch lives.