AfrAm Style

AfrAm Style

is a phrase coined by writer/educator/marketer,

Geneva J. Chapman, B.A., M.Ed., Ed. Sp., who

created the word "AfrAm" from blending the words "African" and "American" together in the manner used by our slave ancestors to create words like "Juneteenth" and "some'n't'eat." AfrAm is the people, the language, and the culture of the descendants of American slavery who have no knowledge of the tribal and/or national origins of their African ancestors.

The MISSION of AfrAm Style is to reclaim the culture created by our slave ancestors from the remnants of African culture they were able to salvage when their language, religion, music,literature, and cuisine were lost during the Middle Passage and consequent enslavement; by celebrating the language, spirituality, music, literature, and cuisine African slaves created, we preserve and remember that legacy; we also remember the one thing that no African forgot: regardless of tribe or nation, all retained the same sense of style and community. It is that commonality and the culture that Africans in American created when theirs was lost centuries ago that constitutes AfrAm style.  

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Our Business

We put the principle of Cooperative Economics into practice by providing a Marketplace for AfrAm vendors on this site.

We celebrate the unity, self-determination, collective work & responsiblity, purpose, creativity, and faith our slave ancestors brought with them from Africa and never forgot, as well as the culture they created from the bits and pieces of their native cultures that they were able to remember when they had to learn a new language, religion, and way of life.

AfrAm Style is a business that sells more than products and services. We sell history, culture, and community. And the price for that is just your interest and support.

Who We Are

Geneva J. Chapman is an educator/writer who has been working in the field of developmental disabilities for over twenty years, sixteen-and-a-half of them in a county board agency as a behavior support specialist, special ed teacher, habilitation specialist, professional mentor, and habilitation coordinator. Geneva has a bachelor of arts degree in English, a master’s degree in elementary education, and a specialist degree in special education.  While Geneva’s professional career has included a total of eleven years as a classroom teacher, she has also been a VISTA volunteer, working with the homeless. Geneva’s avocation is theatre and she has been writing, directing, producing, and acting in plays for over thirty years. Her plays, monologues, and vignettes have been performed throughout the Midwest. One of her poems was selected for the 1973 Anthology of College Poetry, and another was featured in the 1983 Anthology of American Poetry. Geneva has also worked as a part time journalist, writing for three local weekly newspapers in Toledo, Ohio, and earning a media achievement award in 2008. She was also nominated in 2006, for a Toledo Press Club award for a series of articles she wrote. Geneva also composes music for her musical plays, as well as other songs. Her original composition, “A Little Peace Song,” and a refrain for Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman” speech were recorded by SPECTRUM, a women’s music group with which Geneva sang for six years.