Tiffany Griffin built her business around designing specific aromas that evoke Black narratives and memories
By Holland Bodner and Leah Berry | Photography by John Michael Simpson
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a candle? Warmth? Glow? Fragrance? The sense of smell is closely linked with memory, which means scents can be powerful tools for storytelling. That’s why Tiffany Griffin has built her company, Bright Black, around designing specific aromas that evoke Black narratives and recollections.
“The thread that has tied everything together professionally for me is this passion for storytelling in general and, more specifically, getting at and or sharing accurate stories around Blackness,” says Tiffany, who initially aspired to make documentaries. “As a young person, 17 years old, it was pretty clear to me that people had very inaccurate information around Blackness.” Tiffany earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and communications at Boston College in 2002 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in social psychology with a focus on racial identity, discrimination and public policy from the University of Michigan. She then served as a postdoctoral fellow in UNC’s psychology department, which helped her realize her passion for work that motivates influence and change.
Tiffany then worked as health staffer in the Senate for six years during both the Obama and Trump administrations.
“That work was really great … but once the administration changed and it became clear that I didn’t have the same levers of change that I had under the Obama administration, I decided to leave,” she says.
Tiffany revisited candle-making – a fun couples activity that she and her husband, Dariel Heron, started doing together in 2014 – in an effort to create more freedom in her life. She wrote a business plan for a candle company in 2018, and the pair took the leap and launched Bright Black in November 2019. They converted the finished basement of their home into a studio and began producing a collection called “Diaspora:” candles crafted from natural materials and distinctive fragrances that pay homage to five cities known for Black excellence that also hold special meaning for the couple. For instance, “Kingston” has scents of rum and sugarcane inspired by Jamaica, where Dariel’s family is from.
Bright Black opened its storefront in the Lakewood Shopping Center in late October 2022, creating a physical space for Tiffany to connect with her customers beyond mere transactions, fostering engagement through scent workshops, showroom activities, art talks, story hours and more. They’ve also built an audience online via social media and newsletters – time well spent for a business without a big marketing budget.
Looking ahead, Tiffany plans to expand the store’s offerings to include products sourced from small, women- and Black-owned businesses, like Ethiopian honey to pair with their “Addis Ababa” candle and Jamaican coffee for their “Kingston” candle, aiming for a more comprehensive gift shop experience. The company also plans to continue to partner with local and national organizations – from NBA player CJ McCollum’s wine company, McCollum Heritage 91, to the San Antonio Spurs, to Durham’s Ella West Gallery – to design custom scents. Tiffany further hopes to lean into multisensory experiences with respect to art by partnering with exhibits rooted in different facets of the Black experience at museums across the country, such as the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. “Having an opportunity to really integrate scent into these more visual, sometimes auditory … exhibits, I think could be a real game changer with respect to how people take in information,” Tiffany says.
