One Detroiter sees head wrapping (think turbans and African-style head wraps) as a way to build bridges between cultures and an opportunity to start a business.
"I have always been fascinated with the global art of head wrapping," says Zarinah El-Amin Naeem, founder of
Beautifully Wrapped.
Naeem has taught head wrapping for several years now. She created a head wrapping calendar to raise money for
10,000 Girls, a non-profit that promotes education and employment opportunities for 10,000 girls in rural Senegal.
That inspired Naeem, a
D:hive BUILD program graduate, to start Beautifully Wrapped from her Cody-Rouge home. Beautifully Wrapped promotes education, classes, and events around the art of head wrapping. It also hosts the annual
Headwrap Expo on June 8th at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn dedicated to head wrapping styles from cultures around the world, such as Sikh, Pakistani, and West African, among many others.
"My goal is to have 1,000 people at this expo this year," Naeem says. "Last year we had 350 during a day when we had a tornado warning."
She adds Metro Detroit has such a diverse population that it's pretty easy to find head wrapping enthusiasts of all colors and creeds. The challenge that Beautifully Wrapped tackles is bridging those cultures through a shared art form.
"Metro Detroit is very diverse but very segregated," Naeem says.
Source: Zarinah El-Amin Naeem, founder of Beautifully Wrapped
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at
SEMichiganStartup.com.