A local entrepreneur decided to bring a piece of her homeland back to the city — leading to the creation of the Caribbean Street Market.

Typically located at 715 River St. in Hyde Park, it’s an outdoor marketplace where community members can shop and support local small Black-, women- and Caribbean-owned businesses on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Market Manager Elle Pierre spoke more about her journey of bringing the market to the city.

“I was born and raised in Boston, grew up in Hyde Park, and my family’s lived there since the ‘90s. This idea came about because I’m Haitian. Growing up and going back to Haiti and traveling to other Caribbean islands, I always saw these open markets. When I came back to Boston, I realized we didn’t have any of that,” she said.

At the same time, Pierre saw an increase in local small businesses looking for customers. It felt like the perfect time to create a market.

She also talked about why she chose to center Black and brown vendors and their small businesses at the street market.

“A lot of people can’t afford to have a brick and mortar [stores] or they’re primarily online. Having a space where people know [there’s] a lot of Black and brown small businesses, they’ll have more access to more customers,” she added.

Prospective Street Market vendors must fill out an application form, be a registered business in the city and have a social media presence so that what they sell can be tagged and marketed.

Pierre also said that along with small-business owners, community resources and larger vendors set up at the Street Market, such as Planned Parenthood and AT&T.

She works to make sure that the Street Market gives back to the community. For example, they held their annual Back to School Event in August, in partnership with Diaspora Massachusetts, where they gave away backpacks for kids, free food, games and a bounce house. And of course, there was the opportunity to shop with local small businesses.

“Our back-to-school event is very important to us, because we want to be able to provide resources for the neighborhood and for…people that might not be able to afford it,” she said.

Feedback from the community has been positive, Pierre said, and she wants to have more free events.

While the Caribbean Street Market is traditionally on River Street each Saturday, it will take a pause during the colder weather. In the fall and winter, the market is held at different locations.

To keep updated on the Street Market, Pierre encourages community members to follow their Facebook and Instagram pages.

Pierre said she sees the Caribbean Street Market growing and impacting their community years from now.

“Honestly, what I would love is for it to be something that happens every single weekend throughout the year,” she said. “These vendors and businesses, they’re really putting themselves out there at different events and pushing their products, their business[es]. They really want to excel at this.”

ON THE WEB

Keep an eye on the market schedule at instagram.com/caribbeanstreetmarket