Just as Bright Black founder Tiffany Griffin has a mission, her KOI candle has a namesake: Christopher Koi Fonville, who was 28 years old when he died last year, a victim of gun violence in Springfield, MA — and Griffin’s much-loved cousin. Proceeds from sales of KOI support the 100 Males to College organization, an effort by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education meant to help low-income students and students of color succeed in college. “I’m inherently a systems thinker by heart, so when I contemplated the root causes of why Chris tragically passed away, I realized it wasn't the guns per se that were the root cause of the problem,” says Griffin, whose professional background is in government and public policy, with a PhD in Social Psychology from The University of Michigan. “In my opinion, part of the root cause was living in a context in which your options are constrained by intergenerational trauma and all that comes along with poverty.

That sense of mission is inherent in all of the Bright Black candles, including the sold-out Diaspora Collection, which includes scents inspired by destinations in Ethiopia, France, Jamaica, and Brazil — as well as Durham, North Carolina, where Griffin lives now with her Kingston, Jamaica-born husband, Dariel. (“Durham is also a city of great historical importance in the U.S. — for instance, being home to the first Black Wall Street in the country,” she says.) “The intention wasn't to be comprehensive, by any means, but instead, to hone in on a few places that held special significance to us, and to use these places as jumping off points for broader conversations about the beauty and brilliance of Blackness,” says Griffin.