By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
On Juneteenth, a room full of Black entrepreneurs at a soul food smokehouse in Albuquerque did something radical: they told a U.S. senator exactly what’s wrong — and what they need to survive.
The Black Chamber of Commerce of New Mexico hosted U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich at Nexus Smokehouse on Friday for a roundtable focused on the economic pressures bearing down on Black-owned businesses. About a dozen business owners, advocates and community leaders joined the conversation — the kind Heinrich said he came specifically to hear.
“There are a lot of headwinds right now,” Heinrich said before the discussion began. “We might be able to help both programmatically and in individual work with constituents.”
Access to capital: Still the biggest wall
The recurring theme around the table: Black entrepreneurs can build the business — banks just won’t fund it.
Ken Carson, who left a career as a federal bank examiner and bank president to open Nexus Brewery in 2011, put it plainly. Rollbacks to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau remove one of the few guardrails protecting small and minority-owned businesses, he said — and he credited his own survival in the restaurant industry to having startup capital that most Black entrepreneurs simply don’t have access to.
“I guess I was a DEI hire because the federal government looked at me and said he’s a kid in college and they hired me,” Carson said. “I passed the test, I did everything — why don’t I deserve it?”
Chris Moore, who started 9 Mile Tees out of his garage in 2013, said he hits the same wall every time he tries to grow.
“To grow the business would be more than $10,000,” Moore said. “Without capital in your account, they can’t give you a loan.”
Black Chamber President Karla Causey, who is launching a new $10,000 down payment assistance program Aug. 1 aimed at homebuyers at or below 120% of area median income, said the barriers aren’t incidental.
“Banks for the Black community — the barriers to access definitely are an issue,” Causey said. “Our businesses don’t often even seek out banks because we just don’t get access.”
Federal cuts hitting community, not just business
Trey Pickett, executive director of NM Black Cat Cultural Center in Nob Hill, said the consequences of federal arts and mental health funding cuts show up in the streets.
“Just in the last week, we’ve lost five people — either gun violence or drug overdose — all under the age of 30,” Pickett said.
His center built youth programming around dance, music and creative arts as mental health interventions — work he said was on track through a New Mexico Department of Health partnership before funding was cut. The center drew nearly 4,000 people to a recent international cultural festival, up from 1,300 the year before.
“When people are heard, seen and feel like they are worth something,” Pickett said, “it changes how they interact — and it changes their community.”
Tariffs, energy costs and the policy picture
Heinrich tied the roundtable’s economic concerns directly to federal policy, naming tariffs and energy costs as the twin pressures squeezing small business margins.
“Tariffs hurt small businesses,” Heinrich said. “It may sound good on paper, but none of the results we have seen have been favorable to the business community at large.”
He said ending the Iran conflict on favorable terms would directly lower fuel and diesel prices, and called on the Interior Department to sign off on energy projects that have cleared the full permitting process and sit waiting for approval — moves that could add supply to the grid and bring down retail electric rates.
Heinrich also tied the day itself to the political moment, warning against efforts to whittle down how American history gets taught and remembered.
“We are stronger as a state and as a nation by knowing the full, complex breadth of our history,” Heinrich said. “We should never run away from that.”
In a statement released Friday, Heinrich called Juneteenth “a celebration of freedom and resilience” and said the holiday is also “a reminder of the horrors of slavery, the long fight to end it, and the work that remains to address racial injustice and discrimination.” He cosponsored the bipartisan legislation that made Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021.
The youngest entrepreneur in the room
Not everyone at the table has been in business for decades. Khalil Lornado, 11, is the founder of Kyreeze Lemonade, a Rio Rancho-based beverage business he registered with the State of New Mexico in 2025 — making him the youngest member of the Black Chamber. His mother, Kenzetta Lang, a prosecution specialist with the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office, accompanied him.
MORE DETAILS
- The Black Chamber’s down payment assistance program opens Aug. 1, awarding $10,000 to qualifying buyers — no second homes, any loan type accepted (VA, FHA, HUD). Applicants must complete homebuyer counseling and be under contract on a property. The Chamber aims to expand the program statewide through a pending legislative appropriation, targeting at least 45 additional awards.
- NM Black Cat Cultural Center hosts events, youth arts programming and is developing a recording and podcast studio at its Nob Hill location near Central Avenue and Monte Vista.
- 9 Mile Tees produces custom screen-printed apparel for local businesses, nonprofits and Albuquerque Public Schools.
- Nexus Brewery opened in 2011 and was featured on “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” in 2013. Carson opened Nexus Smokehouse at 1511 Broadway Blvd SE in 2019.
INFO BOX
Connect with the organizations represented:
- Black Chamber of Commerce of New Mexico: bccofnm.org
- Down payment assistance program: Opens Aug. 1 — eligibility details at www.bccofnm.org/programs/down-payment-assistance-program