Newsonyx

Clera’s Creative Gifts is a company that sells gift-wrapping paper and gift bags with unique Afrocentric designs, owned and founded by Lorna D. Cheatham.

With holidays and birthdays being a particular time for her family back when she lived in Nashville, Tennessee, Cheatham created the company to ensure that Black families celebrated special events and moments with gift-wrapping paper and gift bags representing POCs.

Named after her mother, who passed away when Cheatham was nine, the business owner believed that naming the business after her would keep her memory alive.

“The product idea for this company came out of my desire to see more African-American representation on store shelves,” Cheatham said on Clera’s Creative Gifts website. “So we began focusing our efforts on designing gift wrapping paper and gift bags that represent People of Color to celebrate life events and special moments.”

She also created the Detroit-based business to help women of color who are disadvantaged and victims of abuse find employment. While Clera’s was created in 2018, Cheatham has been successful as an entrepreneur since 1997. According to Black News, Cheatham worked

at residential facilities for those who were mentally disabled. It wasn’t until 2018 that she maneuvered into the business lane.

Clera’s include gift wrapping paper for various occasions, like baby showers, birthdays, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and weddings. The businesswoman made sure the gift wrap and bags portrayed

different genders, depending on who the gift was for. Not only do the gift wrapping paper and gift bags show people of color but include African American traditions like jumping the broom for the wedding gift paper.

The gift-wrapping paper does cost $6.99, but Clera’s has a sale for the holidays where $2 was deducted from the original cost. The original price of the gift bags was around the same as the paper, but the sale deducted $1.40.