Herman “Big Herm” Baskerville himself. (Photo by Aidan Lubin.)
By Aidan Lubin and Logan Jones-Wilkins
Herman Baskerville, the man who puts the “Herm” in Big Herm’s Kitchen in Jackson Ward, gave up his chance for a steady paycheck years ago. He found something more meaningful.
Big Herm, as he is called by many in his orbit, has a one-of-a-kind character, and is compelled, it seems, to consistently express his love for everyone he interacts with. He waves at everypassing bus, he converses with every passerby, he meets those who don’t want to talk with eye contact and a smile. Our conversation was interrupted countless times as friends passing stopped for a dose of Big Herm, or just to say hello.
He is, as he says, the Mayor of Two Street.
Big Herm’s Kitchen on 2nd Street in Jackson Ward. (Photo by Aidan Lubin)
“We’re not a five-star restaurant.,” Herm said. “We don’t have white table cloths, or any of that stuff. But we have really, really good food. On a scale of 1-10, it’s a seven or eight on a regular day, sometimes nine or 10. Then, I add a personality to it.”
“It’s not the prettiest street, it’s not Carytown, it’s not the Fan [District], but I love what I do, I love this community and I love being here.”
Herm’s priorities as a business owner are ordered as follows: First, to feed his customers. Second is to make someone smile. And his third priority is to show, at all times, “that Big Herm loves you,” and that he “wants you to love yourself.” The content of his character, his disposition to be a loving member of his own community, are undeniable.
The street art of Jackson Ward (Photo by Logan Jones-Wilkins)
Jackson Ward is a neighborhood that is vivid when the sun shines right and today is as bright as can be. But it has not always been that way. Herm opened his business in Jackson Ward 15 years ago, a neighborhood he knew was avoided by many.
“I was here 15 years ago, when it wasn’t cool to be here,” he said. Jackson Ward has come a long way since then, but even now, Herm says, there are many in the neighborhood who can’t “catch a shuttle” to a sustainable grocery store, something he can do from his house in Hanover.
His emphasis on the human element of owning a business in this small community overshadows the importance of what he provides. It is not simply about the food, although the food is fresh and delicious. It is not about the jobs he creates, although the jobs bring prosperity. It is about the connectivity he provides to a place that has been blighted by its detachment from sources of wealth, a chronic problem in minority communities throughout the country.
(Photo by Logan Jones-Wilkins)
Down Two Street, with its sporadic trees, cracked sidewalks and yellow, green and red facades are businesses that have grown from that new connectivity Herm has brought to the block, both directly and indirectly. Plastered onto these walls all around are expressions of the Black experience that celebrate the history and heritage that exists in Jackson Ward as it does in few other places. Yet, many of the storefronts still show the degradation that plagued the neighborhood after Interstate 95 cut the district in two in the 1960’s.
Nonetheless, times are changing and with each season something new seems to spring up. While Big Herm’s Kitchen is as old as some of those trees, other shops on the street are almost as new as the nascent leaves fluttering in the cool spring breeze.
The facade of Buna Kurs, a block down from Big Herm’s Kitchen. (Photo by Logan Jones-Wilkins)
A block down from Herm’s is Buna Kurs Ethiopian Cafe, the newest addition to the block. Buna Kurs was started six months ago by Lily Fasil as a way of connecting her culture to her passion for visual media. The cafe sells Ethiopian coffee and breakfast food, which Lily says is a rarity for Ethiopian restaurants in the United States.
Lily, who emigrated as a child to the US from Ethiopia in 2009, came to Richmond to study broadcast journalism at VCU. After graduating, Lily bounced around the corporate world before COVID shut things down and gave her a chance to kick the tires on some of her more ambitious dreams.
She settled on opening a kind of mecca for creativity. Buna Kurs includes a large open space where any freelance artist, writer, or entrepreneur is welcome to sit, think, and create.
A good example is Selan Hailu, a PhD in clinical psychology who co-founded The Human Connection, a Richmond-area think tank focusing on how to bolster marginalized communities. She too is Ethiopian, and has quickly become a regular at Buna Kurs. She also happens to focus her work on the benefits of personal, economic and cultural connectivity as a way to improve the lives of disadvantaged people.
“During grad school I was looking at a lot of variables in the community,” Selan said. “At the core there was disconnection perpetuating social issues, political issues, and economic issues.” The Human Connection is built to overcome those issues by fostering connection to self, connection to others, and connection to Earth. Jackson Ward, in both its ebbs and flows, is where it is plain to see the power of what an improvement in connection can mean to a place.
“Post COVID, it’s become abundantly clear what role connection plays in communities,” Selan said. “Now, because of that we can see the connection in the workplace, in the home and across industries, [as covered] in the Harvard Business Review and Forbes. Now the issue of connection is everywhere. For us who come from marginalized communities, connection is how we get by. So it’s a good time to elevate everyone’s connectivity.”
Connectivity is a chain and that chain just keeps growing down Jackson Ward’s Two Street. Buna Kurs is connected to Tigers Eye Hair Studio through a friend of Lily’s. And who helped Tiger Eye find their foothold? Big Herm himself.
Selan Hailu (left) and Lily Fasil (right) at the counter of Buna Kurs. The two have become quick friends over that counter. (Photo by Logan Jones-Wilkins)
After the pandemic receded in 2021, owner Sara Parker and her business partner decided to move from their small upstairs studio to the spacious storefront below. Within days of completing renovations, Herm was crossing the street to see how he could help, extending a hand like any good mayor would.
“We would be out here at 9:00 p.m. painting and renovating our space, and of course Herm would come over and start talking,” Sara said. “We knew historically this was a Black community, and we wanted to respect it and the people here. They were just so welcoming and so nice to us. We were immediately connected here.”
Connection, whether it’s someone stopping by to pick up their blackened chicken sandwich or an entrepreneur setting up their hopes and dreams, is Herm’s secret ingredient. Spread from person to person, business to business, table to table, it’s what makes Jackson Ward a community.