All of us have been witness to the slow erasure of a once legendary building. Often these structures appear to have been resuscitated by their inevitable transition into something vapid like a boutique dental office, a pet grooming salon, or a chain restaurant, when really, they ve entered the Sunken Place. The building at 1449 S. Michigan, once the headquarters of the groundbreaking recording company Vee-Jay Records, had indeed seen its share of dark days; but now it s home to the not-for-profit Overflow Coffee. For this edifice, the arrival of the coffee shop came with a renovation of its structure and a restoration of its soul.
L. Brian Jenkins’s Overflow Coffee, at 1449 S. Michigan Ave., is in the building where the famous black-owned label VeeJay Records once operated. Besides the coffee shop, Jenkins also has a co-working space, Mox.E, upstairs. Jenkins has spend more than 20 years helping Black, Latino and female entrepreneurs in Chicago.
Zachary Clingenpeel/Sun-Times
When L. Brian Jenkins earned his master’s degree in theology from Wheaton College in 1993, many of his classmates went on to doctorate programs.
Jenkins, though, wanted to serve his religion in a way that brought change to his local community’s youth.
He stared working with Lawndale Christian Development Corp., a nonprofit that taught young people to own and operate their own businesses. That’s when he decided to leave the world of theology and help Chicago entrepreneurs even though he had no formal training in business or entrepreneurship; he studied English and religion at the University of Iowa before going to grad school
Chicago NonProfit, Entrenuity Celebrates the Grand Opening Of New Co-Working Space And Coffee Bar in the South Loop prweb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from prweb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.