Global Flavor
n a sunny Thursday afternoon this past summer, a customer peruses racks neatly stocked with more than a dozen brands of hot sauces and salsas at Ruby’s Market, an artisan store housed in a former brick duplex on South Pearl Street. Inside the Platt Park building, four ivory-walled rooms are lined with tables and shelves showcasing more than 175 snacks, spices, cooking supplies, textiles, jewelry, plants, and other products made by local and global artisans, the majority of whom identify as women or members of immigrant, refugee, or Indigenous communities. In one room, a homemade sign declaring “Refugees Welcome” in large yellow letters hangs above a fireplace next to a display of colorful animal paintings by artist and Iraq native Mousa Al Khafaji. Reggae plays softly in the background, and the scent of warm spices wafts through the air as a woman shopping with her school-age daughter chats with owner Michelle Lasnier. “Just pull up to
