Rituals + Ceremony — Black-Owned Brooklyn

“If you could do anything, what would you do?” As Sarah Williams hung out with a group of friends a couple years ago, conversation drifted to this question. Working at the time as a fashion account executive and costume designer, Williams had an immediate answer.

“I was like, ‘I’d love to have a space where people can come to grow spiritually that’s also about self love and self care,’” she says. She wanted to build the kind of space she’d been looking for herself, a shop where you could be comfortable and buy crystals, incense, empowering books, candles and other zen things. “A lot of times, these are very white spaces owned by white people,” Williams continues. “I wanted a place where I could have that type of energy, and also walk in and see a familiar face.”

Rather than defer her dream, Williams, 36, took steps to build her business. She gifted herself with an LLC for her next birthday and used her savings for a retail space in Crown Heights. Last November, she opened the shop she had imagined the year before — a home goods and lifestyle store called Rituals + Ceremony

Walking into Rituals + Ceremony off the bustling city street is an immersive, transporting experience. The minimalist white space, punctuated with intentional pops of color from display stands and an AstroTurf-lined accent wall, prompts you to slow down and be easy. Warm oak shelves — holding an array of products, from sage smudge sticks, to crystal pendants, to herbal teas, to books on 21st century social movements and holistic wellness — invite you to linger.

“Some people say, ‘This looks like it belongs in SoHo. It shouldn’t be here,’” says Williams, who is originally from Queens, with parents from Liberia. “But this place should definitely be here. We need spaces like this.”

Rituals + Ceremony is stocked with unique, aesthetically pleasing products. “I really care about things like packaging and the details of how things are done,” says Williams. “We deserve high-quality products too.” Among her shop’s specialty goodies are tins of rose-scented shea butter, glass candles with gemstones nestled at the bottom, Adinkra intention candles for manifesting various desires, oil infusers that transform herbs into homemade oils and butters, green-friendly paraphernalia and all varieties of incense.

“Some people say, ‘This looks like it belongs in SoHo. It shouldn’t be here’. “But this place should definitely be here. We need spaces like this.”

“There are times when things are hard and I think, ‘Was this the right decision?’” Williams says. “But it’s the moments when people come in and say thank you, or that something was helpful, that I remember why I’m here. It just makes sense.”