Meet Maud Alcorn & Tayleur Crenshaw Maud Alcorn & Tayleur Crenshaw: Co-Founders of Gold Beams

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maud Alcorn & Tayleur Crenshaw Maud Alcorn & Tayleur Crenshaw and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maud Alcorn & Tayleur Crenshaw, do you have some perspective or insight you can share with us on the question of when someone should give up versus when they should keep going?
This work is really hard. Being an entrepreneur and building a career in a new industry, with new people, and a new audience takes many hours of labor, energy and thought. It takes a certain abundance of love and care to be present for people.

Luckily, rewards like freedom derive from our hard work. Being able to create and design gives us a feeling that we value in a way we can’t yet describe with words. When we’re racing towards these rewards we know that it’s important to keep going.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Tayleur: I want to shout out the community that raised me, a town called Greenburgh, New York. Coincidently nicknamed ‘The Town’ like Oakland. God knew what he was doing. I want to thank my town for the block parties, the friends, the youth camps, the nature, the auntys, the uncles, the nostalgia, the coming to age moments and everything else that makes up who I am.

I am very much a product of my environment.
The Gold Beams brand curates beautifully eclectic events, experiences, programming, and productions for Black creatives and our Black community at large. Our signature event, Second Mondays, is a home for an array of Black art and ethereal communion.

We support Black creatives making careers from their art. We create environments that love on Black people. And we’re really proud that our people are happy in the spaces that we activate. We’re proud to give people the time of their lives. The love we give is reflected back and that’s why we’ve been able to find success. We’ve started our own business so the lessons come in droves. Everyday we’re learning how to make better business decisions, a new social platform or a new skill to support the brand.

We want the world to know how beautiful, inspiring, magical and majestic Black people all over the world are.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We really love Red Bay Coffee’s roastery location in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, CA. We are super bias, but think the space is so beautiful there and filled with beautiful people.

The Damal is an Afro-Brazilian restaurant in Oakland that has some amazing food! From Empanadas to Acarajé that are just mouth-watering! Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Tayleur: I want to shout out the community that raised me, a town called Greenburgh, New York. Coincidently nicknamed ‘The Town’ like Oakland. God knew what he was doing. I want to thank my town for the block parties, the friends, the youth camps, the nature, the auntys, the uncles, the nostalgia, the coming to age moments and everything else that makes up who I am.

I am very much a product of my environment.

Maud: We want to shout out to our whole community of Black artists in Oakland, CA, who have supported us from day one when we were still just a little get-together in Tayleur’s apartment. We also want to shout out to people and spaces like Red Bay Coffee, Ashara Ekundayo, and Oakstop for giving us spaces and guidance to do the work that we do!

Website: https://www.goldbeams.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gold.beams/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCefRLZ0AVswXO1L5nD2nbEQ

Image Credits
All images by Dorean Raye (@doreanraye on instagram)