When Ashley Marrero, founder and owner of Kente Cones , opened her first brick-and-mortar location in East New York on Juneteenth, she never imagined the shop would so quickly become what she now calls “a safe space for the community.” But the path to that moment began years before the storefront opened its doors.

Kente Cones is an Afro-American–inspired ice cream shop that offers what Marrero describes as educational food experiences. “Kente” — referring to a “time-consuming” Ghanaian textile dating back to the 11th century — reflects the handmade, natural-ingredient ice cream products Marrero creates.

“We started in 2022 and were vending at different pop-up events throughout Brooklyn,” Marrero told Brooklyn Paper. “We were even traveling to Philadelphia and New Jersey — it was

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