“Some of us are in search of regaining our strength to deal with humanity in a way that helps everyone,” Dawud Kennedy says.

Today he is selling wares outside of his friend, Abdul Haqq’s store, Haqq’s Drawer, at 11 E. Broad St., a community-focused, cultural apparel store that sells clothing, fragrances, bath and body products, vitamins, teas, books and more, including traditional Islamic garments.

Haqq welcomes everyone into the store with fresh tea and cold water.

A Philadelphia native, Kennedy was incarcerated for 25 years, but throughout his time in prison, he found ways to positively influence people. He started a psychology major in 2003 at Adam State University. “I always was interested in the human mind or spirituality,” Kennedy says, adding that he even “debunked some of Sigmund Freud’s analyses.”

But taking a course while incarcerated came with difficulties, such as test proctors not showing up for midterms, missing mail, and the two years that Kennedy waited to get a paper back.

Due to Virginia’s Fishback Law, he was released unexpectedly in 2021 which interrupted him from finishing his degree. A mentor told him that Virginia was the best state for a previously-incarcerated person to be released, he says, due to policies and wide job opportunities, especially in Richmond.

Kennedy has worn many hats — student, mentor, mentee, Imam, workforce development clerk, public utilities worker. He says that he currently works in medical billing in South Carolina and mentors at-risk youth with an intervention and gang prevention program.

In and out of prison, Kennedy wants to use influence as a way to help people, believing that listening and empathy are important. “I believed that was my calling, intellectually,” he says.

Kennedy and Haqq were in prison together.

Haqq notes that his journey took him through the road of incarceration, but it was not a reflection on his upbringing. “Actually it came by way of not listening to the advice of my father — may Allah have mercy upon him,” Haqq says.

Haqq says that his friend Kennedy is a great example of what a mentor should look like, while Kennedy compliments Haqq for his sensitivity to helping people as well as for the vision of his store, Haqq’s Drawer.

The store all started with selling clothes off the back of his truck in 2021, says Haqq. (He adds that it actually began with a joke from his wife, who told him he had too many clothes.) Haqq started to sell clothing and became a traveling merchant, commuting from Richmond to Philadelphia, where his childhood sweetheart-turned-wife lived.

When he began to offer more traditional Islamic garments, rather than trendy ones, he says that began attracting more people to his business,.

It was August 2022 when Haqq and a business partner opened Haqq’s Drawer on East Broad Street. The business relationship eventually ended after Haqq spent some time in Egypt for personal and religious reasons.

“I’m passionate about whatever I do,” Haqq says.

The Bronx native says that Richmond has been very welcoming and encouraging of his vision. He sees a difference between here and a big city like New York; here, one has space to find themselves. Haqq feels that Richmond also calls for a more “zeroed in” attitude for businesses.

“Thank you for letting me be on Broad Street. I couldn’t have chosen a better location,” Haqq says. “I really would like my store to not only serve as a place for retail, but [to] have some positive impact on others who may look like me, [or] don’t look like me, have different issues and lives – because it’s a safe space.”

Haqq says that he feels this is an opportunity for redemption.

Haqq’s Drawer is located at 11 E. Broad St. Visit haqqdrawer.myshopify.com for more information.

Gabriela de Camargo Gonçalves was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. She is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University graduating in December and a current intern at Style Weekly, while also leading VCU’s independent student newspaper The Commonwealth Times.