2 Chainz, Brittany Howard, and more join livestream to help businesses owned by women and people of color

By Sam Barsanti | June 15, 2020 | 9:08pm

Aux Features Music

2 Chainz, Brittany Howard, and more join livestream to help businesses owned by women and people of color

Photo: Kevin Winter

According to Rolling Stone, a bunch of musicians are banding together this weekend for an online event called Small Business Live, with its official website describing it as “a one-day musical experience to raise money for Accion Opportunity Fund” and raise money to help “the most at-risk small businesses hit hardest by COVID-19, with a focus on those run by women and people of color.” The artists involved include 2 Chainz, Brittany Howard, Leon Bridges, Brandi Carlile, T-Pain, and more (plus “more to come” on top of that), and you can find out more about the specific business each one of them is supporting at the aforementioned official site.

Small Business Live will be happening this Saturday, June 20, across all of the various places that people stream videos—i.e. YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, something called LiveXLive, and TikTok (which seems to be the main focus for this). In a statement given to Rolling Stone, Accion Opportunity Fund CEO Luz Urrutia explained that “entrepreneurs of color are denied credit more often and charged higher rates for money they borrow to fund their businesses,” and so this live event is a “fun way to do something really important” that will “make a huge difference to small business owners, their families, and employees who have been devastated by this pandemic, the recession, and centuries of racism, xenophobia, and oppression.”