Lakhiyia Hicks wears many hats (literally and figuratively), from a fashion statement wide-brimmed dandy positioned just so, to roles as event curator, poet, university professor and an overall creative individual. The Charlotte area transplant (originally from Rockford, Ill.) has made the Queen City home and had an impact on the Charlotte community in less than five years of residency.
The owner/operator of HOMEplxce Retreats, the destination is a welcoming space for the under served and a culturally rich environment everyone needs to experience firsthand. With views of uptown Charlotte and beyond, it’s a breathtaking space that impacts all five senses.
Hicks has an undergraduate degree in communications from Northwestern University, a Masters in applied theatre arts from University of Southern California and a keen knowledge of arts and interaction with oppressed communities from study abroad at a Belfast, Northern Ireland Prison for Women.
L’Monique King: What does Lakhiyia mean? What’s the origin of your name?
Lakhiyia Hicks: My dad actually put together a few letters on a little sheet of paper in the hospital waiting for me to arrive. According to him, Lakhiyia, along with my first middle name, means lovely flower. But I later learned that my name means ‘Home” in Haitian Creole and IsiXhosa, an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe. It’s a birthright and a reminder that I belong and don’t have to plead with the world for space.
LMK: How long have you been in Charlotte?
LH: It’s been about three-and-a-half years. I moved here from L.A., I lived there for about 12 years prior.
LMK: What do you love about Charlotte?
LH: I love the pacing and the energy. It’s giving granny’s front porch energy, something I really appreciate after living in L.A. It’s like a small big city, it feels like the best of both worlds. I also love how the city is super creative and supportive of creative entrepreneurs.
LMK: What are your pronouns? How do you identify?
LH: I’ve danced through using all the pronouns over the years during various stages of my life. All of them and none of them resonated fully so I’ve landed on just using my name. I [identify as] a Black Queer AFAB [Assigned Female at Birth] gender expansive spirit of love, having a human experience with a non-apparent disability.
LMK: What’s the non-apparent disability?
LH: I’ve had a heart condition since childhood that no one believed me about until I passed out unexpectedly at the peak of my fitness level while playing basketball at North Western.
LMK: Who are you now sharing your heart with? Are you happily single or eagerly looking for a life partner?
LH: I am joyously self-partnered – whether or not I’m with someone I trust I will always cultivate that relationship with myself. I want to be partnered one day, but right now, I’m attending to my baby, my business baby that takes a lot of time to cultivate.
LMK: Choose your preference: the beach or the rainforest?
LH: Beach [without hesitation].
LMK: Spring or Fall?
LH: Summer? [laughs]
LMK: What motivated you to open HOMEplxce Retreats?
LH: While visiting Charlotte and doing consulting work I was attracting big hearted folks, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, solo operating business owners (without teams) and I noticed that folks were burning out. As I was having meetings in my work from home space, I thought, what would it look like if I re-imagined my home space to look like more of a retreat center? So, I started – adding a hammock, weighted blankets and foot massagers along with activations for self-healing in certain areas, little nooks for self-contemplation and integration. The type of consulting that I do with organizations and businesses is trauma informed, because as one of my mentors [Qween Hollins from the Earth Lodge Center for Transformation] used to say, “What’s coming up is coming up so it can come out.” With that I began to offer trauma informed business consulting and curating the inner child healing sanctuary known as HOMEplxce Retreats.
LMK: As a business owner, what frightens you the most?
LH: Operating under a glass ceiling and not knowing that it was there. Things are rough right now. I invested everything into this space as a love letter to my fellow recovering people pleasing perfectionists who need support and often don’t ask for it. But right now, HOMEplxce Retreats is financially struggling and needs support to continue the work.
LMK: How do you want the space to speak to those who don’t share your identity as a Black person?
LH: It’s definitely a Black Queer survivor and disabled-centered space. I appreciate all folks who have the capacity to honor such centering and understand the importance of that. Everyone is welcome to visit, co-work and experience the peacefulness, the views of the city and the ability to recharge. So, I encourage everyone to book a retreat, bring staff and attend a class no matter what ancestral roots they hail from.
LMK: What about your business brings you the most joy?
LH: Seeing folks who have experienced houselessness, like I have and they walk into the space and I see their spines raise – standing erectly. Bouncing back was a reminder that we all deserved to be safe, housed, have financial security and access to food and clean water. We host many groups of individuals who have recently experienced being unhoused and seeing them come around the corner and pick up an Arnold Palmer in a champagne glass is just – whew!
LMK: When you look at your life thus far, what are you most proud of?
LH: I’m most proud of how my heart is still committed to a love ethic in the midst of and despite all that I’ve been through – remaining, soft, subtle and hopeful.
LMK: How do you practice self-care?
LH: I spend a lot of time in water, showers, swimming and floating. Hanging out with people who I love and laugh a lot with is healing for me. I enjoy spending a lot of time in nature and I love to create. Creating for me is a way of composting and seeing myself more clearly.
LMK: Does your family have a history of community engagement and entrepreneurship?
LH: My grandmother [who recently passed away from cancer] had the longest standing Black woman-owned business in my hometown in Rockford. Her elbows were blacked from leaning on display cases, counseling community members, first ladies, pastors, mayors and elders who had been forgotten. [That] greatly inspires the queer elder care that I do. She didn’t just run a store, it was [like] a community center, and I plan on living up to that legacy. There must be a way that decisions we make are simultaneously good for our business and physical health. Cornell West once said, “Justice is what love looks like in public,” and I believe that should be the norm.
LMK: What do you want young LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs to know?
LH: Entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey and I definitely feel that one’s capacity to be transparently honest and authentic with one’s self will impact your capacity to steward business ownership to the best of your ability. Part of that is not going at it alone. We need people. There’s more than the options of hyper independence or co-dependence. There’s also interdependence — one of the truest facts of our existence. When we get excited about that, our ventures will become all the more joyous and fruitful.
LMK: What do you want your life to look like 10 years from now?
LH: I’ll be almost 50 and just getting started. I trust that I’ll still be moving in a spirit of play. I’ll be globally engaged in this community care network – with healing and transformative justice being more of a norm; with a love ethic being the most accessible and affordable option, no matter our circumstances.