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Name: Tameka Dawson
How long have you been in Greenville? Eighteen months
What is the most interesting about yourself? I meet no strangers, I am a chameleon; I can adapt to my surroundings.
What is your background? I grew up in the Bronx, New York. My mother had me and my brother, but I just recently lost my brother unexpectedly a couple of years ago as well as my mother in April 2019.
I am taking care of my brother’s son [nephew], which is one of the main reasons that I moved down here to Greenville. My nephew needed to have a new environment, something that wasn’t familiar.
Growing up in the inner city, I was able to see so much culture. It was so great to me, to see so many things. There were many challenges, because living in a big city is not easy, but being from the Bronx made me who I am today.
New York can be a rat race, you need a special kind of energy and a special skin to survive in New York. And then on top of that, I was living in the Bronx: this is where I was taught to make decisions which has helped me as a business owner.
I have always enjoyed business, people would utilize my services if their businesses were failing, they would call me the ‘Business CPR Lady,’ and I would help try to revive their business however I could.
My mother was guarded over my brother and I. But at the same time, my mother allowed us to have an experience. They say that common sense is really not that common, my mother on the other-hand would say it really has to be common for us to have an experience: going to Central Park and being allowed to live in our own world, that was our experience.
I love the movie Shawshank Redemption. In that movie, it taught me that you better get busy living. Even though I have lost recently [family], I am not going to give up.
My mother lived this way, she gave me that type of mentality. She was a teacher in Spanish Harlem, which she did not become a teacher until 55 and prior to that, my mother worked for the Postal Service for thirty years.
At the age of 51, my mother was walking across the graduation stage with Magna Cum Laude Honors. It never stopped for her, until her last days in April.
What are you currently reading and/or watching? I am watching Power on Starz.
I am reading a book called, ‘Crushing’ by Bishop T.D Jakes
What are you hobby(s): Traveling. My mother and I would also try new restaurants, so I like trying new restaurants.
What phrase do you try to live by? It could have been worse.
The majority of time, in life, you are either walking in a storm or have just walked out of one. No matter where you are in it, you have to know: it could have been worse.
Who do you work for? I work for Brow Loft New York here in the Village of West Greenville. I am the Founder.
What does your day-to-day entail of? Meeting new people, adapting to new personalities, transformation all day.
I love the Village of West Greenville: I have always wanted to be apart of something up and coming and that is what the Village of West Greenville is, up and coming.
How would you describe Greenville? Greenville is like a Pop-Tart in a toaster oven. I am telling you, there are things going up all the time in Greenville.
How would Greenville describe you? Greenville would probably say that I am eclectic.
What about Greenville makes you proud? Recognizing the movement in the World. I understand that Greenville had its past but now being the first African-American woman to have a business in the Village of West Greenville, that says a lot.
Where is your favorite Greenville morning hangout? Falls Park, that is like my Central Park.
Where is your favorite Greenville evening hangout? Big Air Greenville with my nephew.