Kwabena & Taunia Nkromo: A Marriage of Love & Partnership
Many of us have heard the syrupy sentiment from some love drenched newlywed couples, “ I married my best friend!”. In fact, I could honestly say this about my wife Taunia Evette Nkromo-Stevenson as well. During the relative short months of our courtship, she did in fact become my best friend in addition to our being engaged. We went through a gamut of intense experiences together in the time period leading up to our wedding, including the tragic loss of her father Thomas Edward Stevenson in August of this year. Having lost both of my parents from this earthy dimension at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, I felt even more bonded to Taunia in the process of supporting her during this difficult period of grief and us both embracing the natural even if painful cycles of life together.
However, it has been more than family transitions that have characterized our pre-nuptial journey and now matrimony. I first met my wife as a client of mine during my years working full-time as a Master Cosmetologist at Bronnor Brothers salon within the Mall West End of southwest Atlanta GA. Even though we have estimated our acquaintance to have begun approximately 12 years ago, it’s possible that I first met Taunia as early as 2006 when I was at the peak (thus far) of my career as an Eyebrow Sculptor. She was already fully involved then with her career in the journalism production field, specializing in video editing at the Cable News Network (CNN) corporation. I intentionally cultivated a clientele of professional women who best appreciated my particular style of eye beauty services, so having Taunia in my portfolio was somewhat unremarkable given her lifestyle and status. But then again there was always something extra special about her to me.
Although our relationship began with Taunia as my client, she eventually became an early collaborator in business with me. I launched my own eye beauty brand named The Brow Tutor around 2010 and Taunia agreed to be my Assistant for promotions and remote location services. By March of 2012, we were working together on service events at the Intimate Cafe formerly owned by Chef Ameerah “CreolePeach” Watson. Taunia worked to schedule our clients and make all necessary logistics arrangements, including follow up to promote the next event. Within the Responses section of a “Feeling the Love at Intimate Café” blog post I wrote following one of our service events Taunia commented, “Awesome event… Can’t wait for the next one and other future events to come!! Many thanks to all who came out and supported this brand new exciting venture!”. I have come to know that unbridled enthusiasm and support even more in the recent work my wife and I have done in another career field of mine: urban agriculture.
A core element of my life’s work is growing food as an urban farmer. When Taunia and I began dating in earnest earlier this year, I soon started joking with her about our relationship being similar to the Green Acres television sitcom of the late 60’s on CBS. In actuality though, the joke fell flat as Taunia quickly embraced being engaged to a “Earth Man” and rolled up her sleeves to dig in the soil right beside me. Rather than an aloof Eva Gabor playing the character Lisa Douglas, Taunia showed no hesitation in learning horticulture skills and understanding the basic Plant & Soil Science that under girds the work of urban agriculture. I honestly didn’t expect this outcome from my stylish and urbane sweetheart, but it was just one more affirmation and example of how Taunia presented herself as a helpmate for almost the entire time I have known her. Even though there was no full throttled romantic overtures made by either of us until this year, in retrospect I can see that we were drawn to each other in a spirit of cooperation all along.
The truth for me is that I married my best “partner”. For years now, my now wife Taunia has proven herself to be a consistent collaborator and supporter of my needs and dreams. As a eyebrow client, she was among the most consistently pleasant and high tipping of all my customers. In this way, she helped me pay my bills and be a provider for my children for years. As my business partner with both the Brow Proz/The Brow Tutor business ventures and now our North America Food & Farm PBC Inc (NAF2) consulting firm, she has been essential to my success and shown up in efficacious ways I did not imagine. In a display of balance and reciprocity, I am now also being a partner to her concept enterprise Sass-A-Frass Events Company and we are working on launching projects which are squarely in her primary career field of journalism. These developments will allow me the privilege of following her lead in our marital partnership, with me supporting her being in the spotlight as much as she has lifted me into the sun. Work is central to life for me, so having a wife that joins me at this center fully is a kind of deep and abiding love I am so thankful to have found. I love you Taunia, my partner and wife! ❤
Kwabena and Taunia will be partnering together with Darrin Demetrius Leverett of Leverett Media to produce a streaming television show named “For the Love of Food & Farm: A Farmer Citizens Tale”, which will highlight a Black cultural prism on the foodie lifestyle and local food movement/urban agriculture industry with the Nkromos love life at the center. Look for our upcoming pilot episode on Nubian TV and contact info@NAF2PBC.farm for details.
