Blackbird House, a Black-Owned Co-working Space is Working to Advance and Support Diverse Businesswomen

When Lisa Gordon was looking for a new coworking space for her business, the retired psychologist tried a litany of places but noticed they didn’t feel welcoming, especially to women of color.

“I knew I needed a space where I could feel very focused and be in my flow and push me past [these] dips while I’m making this transition [to entrepreneurship],” Gordon told NPR.

Gordon added she found places that were empowering but that didn’t include many people that looked like her.

“And I accepted it because I didn’t know that there was anything else available.”

Eventually, Gordon found her haven in Blackbird House, a Los Angeles-based coworking space that supports, guides, and advances women of color and their allies, professionally and personally. Blackbird House founder and CEO Bridgid Coulter Cheadle said she saw many of the same things Gordon saw, including the struggle to find an inclusive coworking space.

“I didn’t see a lot of women of color represented in coworking spaces. I was curious about what it would look like to start a space like this,” Cheadle told NPR. “We are unapologetically centered on women of color. But, we are also open to allies.”

While women of color, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, are taking their financial freedom into their own hands, many still find it difficult to find an inclusive work environment that supports them. Erika James, the dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said in a 2020 interview said the business world has been slow to reflect the racial makeup of the country.

“I think if we can create social media platforms, if we can put people on the moon, and if we can have self-driving cars, there’s very little that we can’t do,” James said. “So the fact that we have not yet created a more diverse work environment means that we simply haven’t prioritized it.”

Blackbird House is more than just a coworking space, offering in-person and digital opportunities that cater to the productivity, well-being, and advocacy of women of color. And Cheadle said she plans on expanding the Blackbird House in other states and internationally.

The L.A. Blackbird House space includes a communal work environment, six private offices, multiple conference rooms, a meditation room, and a café.