I receive requests for coverage of local people and institutions all the time. While the number of worthy stories far outstrips the time available to do them all justice, a few stick out for reasons other than the original pitch.
Recently, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh reached out about a story on single moms who have used CLP’s services to start, maintain and build businesses.
The library isn’t promoting a particular class or sponsored program, but it is reaching out to the media to gauge interest in talking to successful, charismatic women who credit it with helping to forge a quicker path to their dreams.
Dorisa King, CEO of Yoni Steam 412, and Rae Coleman, founder and CEO of Enhanced Creativity Event Planning, are two women who have started businesses with advice and support from their respective libraries in East Liberty and Homestead in recent years.
Because King’s and Coleman’s businesses set up such intriguing contrasts, that seemed the direction to go in for this column. Both women are friendly, talkative and proud of what they’ve built in the last decade.
Yoni Steam 412
“I introduced Western Pennsylvania women to the self-care tradition of Yoni steaming and created my own lane in holistic women’s reproductive health that sets me apart from the competition,” King, a longtime resident of East Liberty, says.
“I’m helping women in their menopausal years, women in their childbearing years and young girls going through puberty.”
Yoni (vaginal) steaming, as King explains it, is an ancient practice during which a person sits over, basically, a cup of tea with their bottom exposed, allowing the steam to enter through their reproductive parts.
“This will dissolve any mucus buildup, any stagnant blood, any old energy that’s stuck in these reproductive organs. It helps to relax the pelvic floor to allow the blood to flow more freely. It’s all about the blood flow.”
On her 30th birthday, King had a dream she says changed her life. Before her dream, she doesn’t recall ever hearing of vaginal steaming as a business in Western Pennsylvania or anywhere. She instinctively turned to the CLP for advice and resources to explore that possibility.
King also suspected that if she literally followed her dream, something would come out of it. The first thing a librarian did was sit her down at a computer terminal to do basic market research.
King quickly found that there was no business in Pittsburgh or the entire state offering the service quite the way she envisioned it. She did find a school in Georgia that would certify her as Pittsburgh’s first vaginal steamer after she took courses in anatomy, herbal healing and the complex history of the practice.
“I’m a certified Yoni steam practitioner and a womb minister of holistic women’s health,” she says proudly.
Pointing to the 600,000 hysterectomies performed in the United States every year, King blames the lack of knowledge about the female body and poor education about reproductive health and the American diet for what she considers a health catastrophe. Yoni steaming, along with a plant-based diet, is a way to avoid such a terrible outcome, she says.
Asked what her long-term goal for the business is, King says, “Our five-year plan is to expand into a mobile spa business converting the Yoni steam spa into an RV, going on a northern and eastern American tour promoting holistic women’s wellness and vegan feminine hygiene products.
“Our 10-year goal is to open three international locations in the Spanish and French Creole regions.”
“This is my first business,” she says, adding that it has been her all-consuming reality since spring 2018. Her teenage daughter has been pressed into service. They wrote a book together about Yoni Steam and puberty.
Find Yoni Steam 412 at SolSpace in Murrysville and Boss Hair Studio and Esthetics in Lawrenceville.
Enhanced Creativity
Rae Coleman, a certified event planner, florist and linen company owner, started a business a decade ago called Enhanced Creativity Event Planning. The Wisconsin native who spent her formative years in Homestead, but now lives near Downtown, left a relatively comfortable position in nursing after 17 years to pursue event planning and being her own boss (except when it comes to fulfilling her clients’ wishes).
“Enhanced Creativity is innovative and captivating,” Coleman says. “I’m always trying to find ways to evolve and keep up with the latest trends in the event industry. I’m very good at creating and beautifying any space I’m in. I’ve always had an eye for art and beauty since childhood.”
She admits that when she left nursing, she knew little to nothing about the event planning business, but she had a passion she couldn’t ignore. She figured she could always return to nursing if she hit brick walls, so she kept her licenses up to date. Her mother did not approve of her decision to abandon a steady income. This is where the CLP became crucial to her vision and her success.
“The Carnegie Library has helped my business in lots of ways,” she says. “When I first started my business, I did not have the resources to market or print materials — and my car had broken down. I’d use the (Homestead) library because it was within walking distance.”
Coleman did her initial research, printing, social media posting and marketing for her business at the library. Sometimes she would host informational workshops on Enhanced Creativity as far away as the East Liberty library.
Coleman did get a degree in business management during that first year even without a steady nursing income. She was also single and pregnant, which added to the complexity of her life but did not detract from the joy. Everything that happened to her was a gift as long as she could maintain her dream to be an event planner.
Coleman’s business began as part of a women’s cooperative before she began hosting a variety of multiethnic events on her own around Pittsburgh.
“I specialize in cultural events,” she says.
The pandemic focused her attention even more. There were a lot of funerals during that period. She had to fight to maintain her optimism during grim times, especially when it came to the funerals of young people.
“In addition to being a certified planner, I decided I wanted to become certified in floristry. Lastly, I have a linen company and I dress events from head to toe.”
Asked where she sees her business in a decade, Coleman sees nothing but blue skies.
“Within the next five years, I hope to have an event building. I hope to generate enough wealth I can hire younger, creative people and have a staff of maybe 20 for upscale events outside of Pittsburgh.
“I also at some point will partner with my child because she will then be a young adult,” Coleman says of the 13-year-old book lover who is always with her. Her daughter already works for her and draws a salary.
Like Coleman, King has nothing but good things to say about the library. “The CLP has been a part of my life since I was a kid, and I now live across the street from one of the coolest libraries in the city,” King says referring to the East Liberty branch.
“I have spent the last decade voting for local and national policies at the CLP, my children have grown up there participating in summer food programs and events. The CLP has helped me as a business owner tremendously, offering support in marketing and industry data, writing business plans and one-on-one meetings for entrepreneurial resources.”
King and Coleman are only a small sample of visionary women who are taking advantage of opportunities to grow into business owners with the help of the Carnegie Library, arguably an underused resource in a city full of ambitious young people on the verge of losing hope.
Tony Norman’s column is underwritten by The Pittsburgh Foundation as part of its efforts to support writers and commentators who cover communities of color that historically have been misrepresented or ignored by mainstream journalism.
