Act 2 in the life of Ewaniki “Niki” Moore-Hawkins
Sitting grounded in the place where she made roots and blossomed, Ewaniki “Niki” Moore-Hawkins talked with us about her history at the African American Culture & Resource Center at the University of Cincinnati and about launching act 2 of her life during the height of the pandemic.
Interview by Michaela Rawsthorn. Photography by Chelsie Walter.
What’s your elevator pitch?
I am Ewaniki Moore-Hawkins. Most people call me Niki or Miss Niki. I consider myself to be a visionary, a trailblazer, and a servant leader. That's the core of who I am in all different facets of my life. I love people a lot, and I receive that love back.
Tell us about the space you chose to sit down in today and what it means to you.
Oh, man. So, this space, the African American Culture & Resource Center at the University of Cincinnati (A.A.C.R.C.), is near and dear to my heart.
I actually arrived here when I was 18 years old as a college freshman. I graduated from Walnut Hills High School. I came here essentially alone because a lot of my friends went to other schools out of town. I was planning to go out of town, too. I was going to Florida A&M, and then my plans changed. I was like, “Oh, I'll just stay at U.C.”
So, it was almost a last resort, but really it was a blessing in disguise.
So when I came as a scared freshman looking for my sense of place or my circle, I came here [the A.A.C.R.C.], and I was embraced. I started volunteering here, and I got involved as a student leader. I became involved in the A.A.C.R.C. choir. Singing is one of my passions, so I did that for the five years I was a student here. The staff at the time became my mentors and my supporters. My service to the center then translated into a full-ride scholarship as a Darwin T. Turner scholar. That put my life on a different path.
I had a great first five years here. I started in pre-med/biology, and very quickly, I was like, “You know what? I don't think this is for me.” So I had to pivot. I graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Carl H. Lindner College of Business.
After graduation, the former director here, Dr. Eric Abercrumbie, one of my biggest mentors, asked, “So are you going to corporate America?” And I was like, “Oh, I don't know that I'm a corporate America type-person. I'm more of a free spirit creative. I got this business degree, but I really don't know where I'm going.”
He said, “Would you consider working here?”
I loved being here. I graduated in June of 2002 and by August 2002 started working here. I came in as a temp worker first, but by November, I was a full-time University of Cincinnati employee. After that, I worked my way up. By 2013, I became A.A.C.R.C.’s second director in the center's history – its first female director.
I was a director from 2013 to 2020. When the pandemic hit, they sent us home. That gave me time to pause and reevaluate life. And my two daughters were at home at the time, too. I had spent essentially 18 years serving everyone else's children, helping their children get to the next level and nurturing them. And at the time, my kids needed me more. So in August 2020, I resigned. I stayed home and then went full-time in the business my husband and I had started.
U.C., and specifically A.A.C.R.C., is the place where I grew up. I spent over half my life, from 18 years old until age 41, here. It’s the place where I spent most of almost every day. Because when you work this kind of work, it includes nights and weekends, too. I became a woman here. I blossomed into who I was meant to be in this space. I made a lot of firsts here.
Not only was I the first female director, but I was also the first Ms. Kuamka. A.A.C.R.C. does a leadership pageant, and in 1999 I was crowned. I know I left U.C. a better place than how I found it. I've got a legacy in place here. Students who come after me can see that and benefit from that. So that's why I selected it. It's a special place for me. A lot of who I am is rooted in this place.
Tell us about Soul Palette.
Soul Palette is our third baby. You know, people are always like, “When are you gonna have another?” We're not. We birthed the business.
In January 2016, my husband and I married our gifts and talents together to create Soul Palette.
My husband has been an artist since he was a child. It's something that he kind of put on the back burner. You know, how you often do when you have to be an adult, and you have a family. Sometimes you have to put your passions aside. He did that for many years, working traditional jobs to make sure we had income.
I was working at A.A.C.R.C., basically doing the same thing. We thought, “Oh, what if we created something that we could do together?” We both had other businesses separately. I had an event planning business, and he had another art thing, but not anything like Soul Palette.
So we said, “What if we bring our gifts and talents together? What could that be?” Because I worked here at U.C., I thought about the different activities and vendors that we would bring in to do things with students. That sparked the idea for me.
And then I thought about the concepts of places like Paint with a Twist or Pinot’s Palette. They're usually socially based. But I thought, “What if we created something mobile where we could bring it to the client's preferred location, and it can be educational leadership, team building-based, ministry, cultural, you name it?” I felt like it was a good idea, but I needed to convince him that that was something that we could do.
So I took him on a date night to one of the other paint places. As we were painting, I said, “Now do you think this is something that you could do?” And he was like, “What? I don't know.” I said, “Look, you paint murals; you can do this.” It took a little while to convince him, but once I got him on board, the rest was history.
For the first couple of years, we worked on the business nights and weekends as we were working full-time. Then in May of 2018, he left his full-time job and went full-time in the business. It began to grow and thrive. I left [the A.A.C.R.C.] in August 2020 to go full-time in the business in the middle of the pandemic. People thought I was completely nuts.
Why would you leave your good, respectable job in the middle of the pandemic to do your business? Because I felt it from my higher power. That's what I needed to do. We took that leap of faith and haven't looked back, and, you know, actually, the pandemic year was one of our biggest years yet.
Soul Palette has been pretty amazing. We get to eat, sleep and do art all the time. I handle all the business, logistics, client booking, communication, marketing, social media, you name it; anything that's not the art is what I handle as the Chief Detail Officer. At my core, I'm a very detailed and organized person. I manage details, and I do it well. I handle all the details of Soul Palette, so when [my husband] Brandon shows up at an event, he knows exactly what's going on and exactly what to do. It's gonna be flawless.
Working with your life partner must be a challenge. How do you make it work?
It can be a little challenging working with your partner, but early on, we established what our roles were gonna be in the business. And as we like to say, “Stay in your lane.”
So as long as everybody stays in their lane, we're good. Now once you start swerving in someone else's lane, that's when we get a little irritated, and we say, “Back up.” Also, we have separate spaces in the house where we work. I've got an office upstairs, and he's got a studio in the basement. We can both be doing our thing in our separate spaces, and then we come together when we need to.
Do your daughters get involved at all?
Absolutely. This is really a full-time business. Since we started it, they’ve been involved.
When they were younger, it was more helping us pack up, stacking cups, folding aprons, and things like that. But now, as they've gotten older, if we have a children's party, they might be helping to lead the children's party. They'll be working alongside Brandon.
We've taught them and trained them along the way. They are staff team members of Soul Palette. They're all in.
Because we've got that entrepreneurial spirit flowing in our house, one of my daughters launched a business in 2020. Our 10-year-old put on her goal sheet that she wants to launch her business this year. She's gonna be working on an apparel company that's gonna inspire women of color.
We’re exposing them to the business and teaching them a work ethic, and holding them to certain standards. If you're gonna clock in, I wanna see you consistently working. Don't clock in and get on TikTok. You know, that's not how it works in the real world. So we're teaching them those values.
Is setting goals and working toward them something you learned as you were growing up?
I don't remember specifically sitting down and talking about goals when I was a child, but I had a lot of hardworking people around me. My mother and father worked hard. I had some really hard-working grandparents. I saw that type of leadership as an example.
Being here at U.C., part of my job was to develop leadership in students, and a lot of that we would do by setting goals. We used to joke when I was here that in my office, I had a special couch, and people would say, “I need to go sit on Miss Niki's couch ‘cuz I need to get my life together.”
So they'd come in, and we would do a goal session or whatever it is that they needed. I would say, “Okay, now tell me what your action steps are.” Then they have to come back and follow up. I'm holding them accountable.
I think folks from my generation were taught to go somewhere, work hard, and that's all you need to do, and everything else will work out. But I have learned so much from the young people I've been around and even those I mentored that you can do things a little differently than what we were taught.
Do you have advice for women looking to transition out of long-term careers into something new?
I'm in my second act. I'm living my life. I'm going to coffee shops and working on the business. I'm taking naps. I'm doing my fitness in the morning. I've been waiting for this all my life, right? For this freedom and flexibility, I don't plan on ever turning away from this way of life.
I can also decide that one day I might have an act 3 or act 4. There are other things I want to do. You don't have just to pick one thing you wanna be or wanna do, you can do 'em all. It might not be all at the same time.
People saw me get free now they want to be free, too. My peers, my friends, and my girlfriends want to be able to do the same thing. I tell them how I did it. I ask, “What are you passionate about, and can you monetize that if that's what you wanna do?”
When I left during the pandemic, I was completely exhausted. So part of that time when I left was about recuperating and rejuvenating and and resting my mind, body, and soul. I don't want people to have to get to that breaking point where they feel like they're gonna break down because they've done everything for everybody. They can make the change well before that and feel good about it.
What does it look like to hire Soul Palette?
Soul Palette is pretty cool because we've got a lot of different offerings; it’s a unique paint experience that's going to bring your team together. We've got something called the Soul Collage, where we've got a large interactive piece that the whole team could work collectively together on, and then they could display it somewhere in their office as a reminder of their collective work.
Paint parties are one facet of what we do. We also offer private lessons. People have signed up their children, or young adults have signed up with us wanting training around a certain visual, genre, or technique. We also do commissioned portraits and paintings. We also do lots of mural work, especially in the summer, with entities like ArtWorks, and we've also done some independently.
Then, in addition to that, we just launched a visual arts youth program called Canvas. It helps creative artists by nurturing their vision and advancing their skills. We launched this idea, and then we had the opportunity to apply for the United Way Black Empowerment Works Grant.
We decided that we were going just to apply. If we got the grant, then we’d know this is something we should do and move forward with the plan. If we didn’t, then maybe we don't have to worry about it right now. Well, out of 200 plus applicants, we were one of the 50 or 60 that got funded with the grant.
Who is an inspiring woman in your life, and why?
I've surrounded myself with so many women who inspire me – whether they're mentors or former bosses, friends, or family. Even my girls inspire me. But today, I'm going to say my mom inspires me. I know a lot of people probably say that, but my mother really inspires me.
I watched her do whatever it took to raise three children to become great adults. She always made sure that we had what we needed when we needed it. She provided a great example for us. Now on the other side, she's a great grandma, a supportive grandma, a helpful grandma. Who doesn't love a good grandma? And so, my mom gets the award for being my inspirational woman.
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