Title sponsor
Golden Hour Unboxed
Between 130 and 150 people came through the garden
and stayed until the light went.
When the sun softened, we showed up.
August is National Black Business Month. On August 23, as the sun came down over the Eastside, the light softened, the air warmed, and people slowed down and showed up for one another.
Golden Hour Unboxed was a free, cross-cultural evening at Bellevue Botanical Garden where Black entrepreneurs, artists, families, and allies gathered under the sunset to mingle, share, and rise together. It celebrated the many ways our community contributes to the Eastside — through art, food, storytelling, mentorship, and the everyday work of building something from nothing.
It was more than an event. Emerging Black entrepreneurs met seasoned professionals. Families experienced cross-cultural exchange in real time. Artists, vendors, and community builders were seen and supported.
This page is the record of that night. Every vendor is still linked to their shop, because an evening like this is measured by what people carry out of it.
What we can stand behind.
Every figure here is one we can source. Attendance is our own estimate, given as a range, because that is the honest shape of it — a range we would stand behind in a room.
Bellevue is one of Washington's most diverse cities. Intentional spaces for Black entrepreneurs to be celebrated and seen by their neighbors are still rare on the Eastside.
Golden Hour Unboxed is a free, public evening built to close that gap — for Black entrepreneurs, their families, and the whole Eastside community that gathers around them.
We hold this gathering in August, during National Black Business Month, because the timing matters. We hold it at Bellevue Botanical Garden because the place matters. We hold it as part of the City of Bellevue's Cross-Cultural Center without Walls because the structure of belonging matters.
This isn't a passive cultural showcase. It's an active exchange — Black entrepreneurs, allies, and neighbors sharing names, ideas, and how to find each other after the sun sets.
The evening, as it ran.
Doors at 5:30. Program at 6:00. Twilight social until 9:00 — and then a room full of vendors, volunteers and guests broke it all down together before the garden closed.
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5:30
Doors open
Vendor Village, the garden, and check-in. Some makers sold out.
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6:00
Welcome
Besa Gordon, our emcee for the evening.
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6:08
Producer welcome
Katoya R. Palmer, founder of ToyBox Consulting & Management.
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6:16
City of Bellevue proclamation
Conferred at Bellevue City Council on August 4 and accepted in person.
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6:22
A welcome from King County
A recorded message from King County Executive Girmay Zahilay.
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6:27
King County proclamation
Black Business Month, dated August 23, 2026.
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6:36
Storyteller for the Convening
Chezik Tsunoda, founder of No More Under, honored with a lapel pin.
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6:56
Spoken word
“Keep the Receipts” — on the investments nobody sees.
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7:04
Vendor Village, the garden, and conversation
Thirty-six minutes with nothing on the stage competing for you. This is the golden hour the night is named for.
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7:40
Micro Speed Pitching Showcase
Jermaine Murray of Fathers Against Human Trafficking took the mic — two minutes, no slides, no net — with live feedback from our judges, Derrick and Tanise Love of Sync Seattle. He walked away with a ToyBox consulting engagement.
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8:12
Sunset toast
A non-alcoholic toast for everyone, all ages. Thank-yous.
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8:24
Close
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8:30
Twilight Social
Microphones off, music off. Just the room, the garden, and the last of the light. Tables stay open.
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9:00
Good night
“Keep the Receipts” · Melissa Margain
Commissioned spoken word · 6:56
Every entrepreneur has receipts, and not just the ones printed on paper. Melissa wrote and performed a commissioned piece, and donated her time. It is about the unseen investments behind every dream — the sacrifices, the setbacks, and the quiet acts of faith that never make the highlight reel.
An author, poet and speaker who collects stories the way some people collect passport stamps, she is drawn to the beautifully awkward, deeply human moments we usually keep to ourselves. A U.S. Army veteran with a career in public service, she is as comfortable in a boardroom as on an open mic stage.
All night, no schedule required
Twenty tables. Black-owned businesses and makers selling inside, community organizations out in the garden. Everything bought went straight to the person who made it — and every shop is still linked below.
Pack the Box, our school supply drive, ran all evening and raised several hundred dollars in supplies and cash for the schools with the highest need.
The Black Hair Care Drive, led by Identity Unboxed and the Black Roots Coalition and hosted at the Zara Jo Beauty Supply table. Hair care products for young people across the county, in its third year.
A giving page that guests used from their phones during the evening. Gifts go through Eastside For All, our nonprofit partner, so giving to Golden Hour is a charitable donation. It is still open →
The night, in pictures.
Photography by Erik “Kaligraphy” Wilson, Co-Founder, Converge Media. He shot every frame on this page and gave them to the event.
Photography by Erik “Kaligraphy” Wilson, Co-Founder, Converge Media.
Three doors out of this page.
Shop the vendors
Every Black-owned business and artist who tabled in the garden, still linked, still open. Search by what you are looking for.
Shop Black-owned →Thank you
The sponsors, partners, volunteers and civic champions who made a free evening free — and what people said afterward, unprompted.
See who made it →The public record
Two proclamations, the press coverage, and the documents behind the night.
Read the record →How a free event actually gets funded.
Katoya writes about the work underneath — the budget, the licensing, the asks that landed and the ones that did not — on Substack.
Plus what year two looks like, as it is being built.
Read on Substack →Two drives.
One whole evening.
Pack the Box raised several hundred dollars in school supplies and cash gifts for students in the schools with the highest need, PreK through high school.
The Black Hair Care Drive, led by Identity Unboxed and the Black Roots Coalition and hosted at the Zara Jo Beauty Supply table, collected hair care products for young people across the county, donated to Treehouse.
Gifts to Golden Hour are received through Eastside For All, a DBA of Alliance for a Just Society, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
Give to Golden Hour →We built this in public.
A first-year event, a City grant, and no safety net. Sixteen posts on what it actually took — the yeses, the declines, the budget math, the parts nobody puts on a flyer. The series is still up.
Watch the series on TikTok
The operating system underneath.
Katoya produced Golden Hour Unboxed the same way she runs her client work: the vendor licensing, the insurance, the run of show, the giving page, the volunteer roster, the closeout — all of it built to hold. If your organization is running a program, an event, or a whole year on goodwill and one spreadsheet, come talk to her.
Presented by ToyBox Consulting & Management as part of the City of Bellevue's Cross-Cultural Center without Walls.
Book a discovery call → toyboxconsulting.netSee you again in the golden light.
Year two is in motion. Get the date first, and the vendor call the day it opens.