Emily Anadu Is on a Mission to Elevate Black Joy

Emily Anadu Credit - Aundre Larrow

Emily Anadu arose one Saturday morning in 2020 and grabbed a dustpan and broom, ready to take on what she assumed would be a daunting task after racial-justice protests swept through New York City the night prior—cleaning her block. “This was a night where someone threw a Molotov cocktail into a police van that exploded,” says Anadu, the Brooklyn-based CEO and founder of The Lay Out, a community platform that centers Black joy. But despite all the pain and chaos just hours earlier, she says, “it was like nothing happened.” Everyone seemed to have moved on.

Anadu felt out of place in the changing landscape of Fort Greene, once an enclave of the Black community. In 2022, the Black population of Fort Greene stood at 16%, down from 42% some 20 years earlier. The median gross rent increased by 108% over about the same time period, up to $2,850 from $1,370, pushing out locals and their businesses, including South African restaurant Madiba, which had been a neighborhood staple for nearly two decades. “This neighborhood just felt really hard to be in,” says Anadu, now 46. “I didn't know what I wanted. I just knew that I needed to see and be around people that were experiencing the turmoil of the country in the same way.”

Anadu—whose own understanding of race came from her mother, who grew up as a Black woman in the Jim Crow South—sprung to action. She reached out to four friends, and by the next weekend they had drawn more than 500 people to a neighborhood park for what became  The Lay Out’s inaugural gathering. The event was so well received that the organization held a Juneteenth celebration 12 days later, again with a goal of reclaiming space. The group has brought together people from New York City and beyond ever since through events such as Nourish Me, Nourish My Community, where individuals make meals for both themselves and the community with a Black chef. Anadu also launched BuyBLK, ByBLK, an initiative that creates in-person marketplaces for small, Black-owned businesses.

Anadu, who moved from Nigeria to Texas at the age of 11, attributes her desire for community to her upbringing as an immigrant. That experience, she says, made her want to ensure that people “feel at home and comfortable and feel like they have a sense of belonging in places.” And she feels strongly that those who show up at the Lay Out should be able to be themselves and not have to “water down the Black experience.”

Given the many moments shared over the years, from wedding proposals to impromptu hair braiding and styling to loud singing renditions of Keyshia Cole’s hit song “Love,” she’s clearly meeting a need. Still, despite the goal of elevating Black joy, Anadu insists that all are welcome in the space. “Everyone can come to the cookout,” she says. “But what we're not going to do is put raisins in the potato salad.”

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