Scott talks with Suhaly Bautista-Carolina, a Black queer entrepreneur bringing plant medicine to the front lines of the movement for Black lives. Brought to you by GoDaddy.
After witnessing a loved one suffer with a lack of relief from traditional medicine, Suhaly knew there had to be a better way. She began exploring herbalism and plant-based medicine to find a natural alternative to the synthetic pharmaceuticals of the Western world. Being raised by a mother who believed in the healing power of natural medicine, Suhaly decided to embrace her roots and answer the call to formally study herbalism. She apprenticed under queer Black master herbalist Karen Rose from Sacred Vibes in Brooklyn, and it was there that the idea for Moon Mother Apothecary was born. Today, Moon Mother is an online shop carrying heart-centered, plant-based medicine. More than just an entrepreneur, Suhaly is also involved in the movement for Black lives. She’s an active member of Sacred Rapid Response, a collective of herbalists creating and distributing spiritual protection medicine, wound washes, and immunity boosters at vigils and protests across the country. Suhaly chats with Scott about the power of plants, the stress of COVID-19 on her business, and challenges she has faced (and overcome) as a Black queer entrepreneur.
Suhaly Bautista-Carolina links: https://www.moonmotherapothecary.com, https://www.instagram.com/moonmotherapothecary, https://www.facebook.com/moonmotherapothecary, https://www.twitter.com/lamadredelaluna
GoDaddy links: https://businesscuriouspodcast.com, https://www.godaddy.com, https://www.youtube.com/user/godaddy, https://www.instagram.com/godaddy, https://www.facebook.com/godaddy, https://www.twitter.com/godaddy
Suhaly:
I carry the great power and wisdom of my own ancestors to walk in this movement confidently and to really show up as an herbalist.
Scott:
Welcome to Business Curious, a show about queer trans and gender-nonconforming entrepreneurs and the stories behind their journeys. A podcast by GoDaddy. Hey everyone, it's Scott Shigeoka, your host, and we're giving you queer chicken noodle soup for the soul, because on today's episode Suhaly Bautista-Carolina is bringing plant medicine to the front lines of the movement for Black lives.
Scott:
Suhaly runs Moon Mother Apothecary in Brooklyn, an online shop where you can get all kinds of plant-based medicine. Suhaly reminded me that humans have been using plants to heal themselves for as long as we've been on the planet. But today, there's a cultural disconnect and we don't see that plants can heal us. The natural healing power of plants is undervalued by Western medicine, but Suhaly and Moon Mother are trying to change that.
Suhaly:
In 2012, my wife Naima, she was going through some really severe migraines and we were going to brain doctors and head doctors, and going through a series of MRIs and very traditional Western practices. She was being prescribed seizure medicine, even though she wasn't having seizures. There were just all of these medications being thrown at her and I was like, there has to be another way to do this. And so, I started just my own investigation, right? I started reading books and figuring out, which herbs were good for headaches and just scratching the surface. And it really got to a point where I was feeling called to respond to her need for an alternative. That was really the inspiration for me, was seeing someone that I love suffer and not have the tools to be able to support them and knowing that there was another way.
Scott:
Tell me about your experience with plant medicine up until this point. What was it like growing up?
Suhaly:
My parents are both from the Dominican Republic and my mother was deeply tethered to her homeland. She inherited all of this knowledge from her own parents who learned from their own parents. And so many of the things and traditions that she practiced as a young girl, she brought those with her, and so I got to see a lot of that play out in the kitchen. My brother and I had a stomach ache, for example, she would blend oregano tea with star anise and anatto seeds.
Scott:
When Suhaly was pregnant with her daughter Luna, she began formally studying herbalism, and she apprenticed under queer Black master herbalists Karen Rose, who's from Sacred Vibes in Brooklyn. And that's around the time the seeds for Moon Mother Apothecary were born. Suhaly runs the online shop out of her Brooklyn home, and there you can purchase things like heartbreak support tea, rose, bath oils, and protection and immunity syrups, all of which are what Suhaly calls, moon powered medicine.
Suhaly:
I offer medicines that are made throughout the moon cycles. So when you receive your medicine, you'll know what phase the moon was in when that medicine was made, because of course everything that's happening in the world around us, including the position of the moon and the position of the stars, those all go into whatever it is that you're doing or making on that specific day.
Scott:
It's not just a celestial position, Suhaly says, the plants that grow on our streets, they're there for a reason.
Suhaly:
Everywhere I go in New York city, mugwort is growing wild, and mugwort works on the nervous system to inspire deep sleep. And of course it grows in New York, a city that never sleeps, right? A city that is constantly on the go and our plant allies are telling us actually it's time to rest. And so, the plants that grow around us, they're purposeful. Plant medicine is really about understanding, not just the physical body based healing that the medicine can provide, but really what is the spiritual work that this plant is asking you to do with it.
Scott:
I'm wondering with COVID-19 going on, how is it affecting Moon Mother?
Suhaly:
The pandemic really inspired people to consider holistic health. And as a result, there were more eyes on Moon Mother and more eyes on me. I had a client approach me about doing wholesale prices with Moon Mother and carrying over 200 of my products. So, I thought that was a beautiful, wonderful opportunity, something that had never come across my lap. And when I sent my proposal over, which I thought to be an equitable proposal, considering the labor that was involved, considering that I'm a one person operation and just the additional layers of danger that are involved in going outside and shipping and being at the post office.
Suhaly:
So this client then slashed that price in half. And so, it meant I would be earning only 50% of what I proposed. I ultimately accepted the offer because I saw the visibility as having greater value than what I was losing in terms of revenue in that scenario. But I really think the process serves as an example of how many inequities exist along the way for small businesses, particularly for queer women led businesses and for entrepreneurs, there's so many extra negotiations that need to be made.
Scott:
I think what's important here to remember is that the typical Black entrepreneur will have a harder time building their business than a white entrepreneur because of systemic racism in our country. As you may know, studies show that the net worth of a typical white family is 10 times that of a Black family in the US.
Suhaly:
I don't know another Black queer entrepreneur who is not working multiple jobs and trying to hustle and be creative about how we're going to get our income. I think the fact that we start from so far behind is just deeply tied to societal inequities and the disproportion that we experience as people of color in terms of our economic opportunities.
Scott:
The most critical and central work that Moon Mother is involved in now, Suhaly says is the movement for Black Lives. Soon after George Floyd's murder, Suhaly created products for protestors, things like wound washes, immunity boosters, and even spiritual protection medicine. And she joined a collective of herbalists called Sacred Rapid Response.
Suhaly:
We were making medicines in our own home apothecaries and we were sending them out with organizers who could then be on the ground at actions and protests and vigils handing out the medicine. So, something that organizers had to get creative about was how they were going to hand out medicine. Sometimes it was setting up a table with other first aid medicines and leaving the herbal medicines there. Sometimes it was pulling up in a car on the side of the protest route and having a big sign that said, free herbal medicines for Black and indigenous people of color. And other times it meant herbalists themselves or other organizers were walking through the protest routes with the medicines in their backpacks or in a cardboard box in the rain with banners that said, free herbal medicines. So we just, we were really operating from a place of hoping that the medicine got in the hands of people who needed them most.
Suhaly:
People of color and indigenous people have been wronged for centuries and people are finally talking about that. And I am so happy that I get to live to witness that and to be working at the intersection of justice and herbal medicine. I carry the great power and wisdom of my own ancestors to walk in this movement confidently and to really show up as an herbalist, we all have a role to play.
Scott:
Suhaly found a way to create a small business that works to heal others. Moon Mother reminds us that even the plants on our street have some kind of message for us and some could even heal us. As we continue to fight for the liberation of Black people in our country, let's take care of ourselves and each other you all. If you've got the time and can safely do it, get out in nature, receive those messages. What I love the most about Suhaly's story is that her work as an entrepreneur isn't profit motivated. She didn't create Moon Mother to make a ton of money. Her work instead is deeply personal, it's about weaving a paycheck with purpose.
Scott:
You can learn more about Suhaly and Moon Mother at moonmotherapothecary.com. And, you can check us out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere you forge for podcasts. And if you like what you heard, please share, rate or leave us a review. It makes a huge difference and it's a great way to make sure that these amazing queer and trans small business owners get the platform they deserve. Thanks for joining us, and until next time, this is Scott Shigeoka, your host of Business Curious.