Inspiring Conversations with Sabrina Cates and Pytron Parker of Shelly’s Vintage

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sabrina Cates and Pytron Parker. Them and their team share their story with us below:

This is about the owners of Shelly’s Vintage – Sabrina Cates and Pytron Parker

Sabrina Cates, is a cultivator of her desired future, planting seeds of self-love, introspection, and healing along the way, Sabrina is a force to watch out for and certainly learn from. Vulnerability is her strength, creative expression is her god-given gift. This warrior embodies the liberation we all seek in a society that ruthlessly attempts to control us otherwise. Born and bred in New Orleans, Sabrina Cates endured many challenges such as losing her mother to scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease, at the age of 11. Life for Sabrina was hard. When Sabrina turned 15, she realized that her mother had risked her life to bring her to this earth and that she has a responsibility to live a life that her mother would be proud of. This realization led her back to journaling completely, and writing poetry, which helped her to work out her experiences of being abused (mentally, emotionally, sexually, and physically), abandoned, passed around to multiple households of family members, almost dying on more than one occasion, and more, on paper. She is meeting and healing her child self alongside her adult self in hopes to coexist as one healed entity, creating a true level of happiness and freedom and simultaneously encouraging others to do the same. It is relentless and continuous work, but one that is completely necessary. Part of this work called for getting out of the country and traveling the world. Traveling for Sabrina is an exercise of the heart, of courage, and a tool for growth and expansion. She feels that she can grow the most when she is challenged to discover a new way of living, make new friends, and learn about new cultures. This led her to live in remarkable places such as New York City, Thailand, and many others.

Sabrina is a poet, screenwriter, visual artist, fashion icon, world traveler, educator, event coordinator(to name a few), and soulful, raw, multifaceted, and remarkable light that permeates the souls of all she encounters, Sabrina is and always has been what we all should aim to be; unstoppable.

Her body of work includes the Creator of the bartering community, a collective created for people of color to exchange goods or services for other goods or services without the use of money. Screenwriter and Director of a project called “Get off the Paper” where she demonstrates how she has allowed life to continuously work through her, creating a strong, passionate, and empathic poet, entrepreneur, and friend. This project went on to be featured in four film festivals in 2019, including the New Orleans film festival: her hometown. Sabrina is a performing writer and poet, a teacher who regularly hosts poetry workshops, a major print and film model in NYC, and an actress. She has been featured in shows such as the Five Bloods, Pose, The Walking Dead, and many more. Her latest project entails launching Shelly’s Vintage with her partner Pytron, a brand that includes a “Name Your Price” Vintage Shop, Vintage Interior Design, Styling, and Event Planning, and Photoshoots that is inspired by her mother, whose love for thrifting has provided Sabrina with some of her fondest memories of them together.

Pytron Parker is a creative genius with sixteen years of dance education experience. She was the first in her immediate family to graduate from high school and attend college. She graduated from Brenau University with a B.A. in Theatre and a minor in Dance in 2013. She is honored to have served as the first black female director of a prestigious dance competition “Kids Artistic Revue” and “Rainbow Dance Competition” touring the United States and Australia. She served as a performance artist, performing in productions nationwide such as Ragtime, In the Heights, Westside Story, A Christmas Carol, a White Christmas, and will be debuting in The Queen’s Ball, A Bridgerton Experience in July in Atlanta, GA. A highlight of her career was teaching Drama and Dance at Varee International in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She prides herself on being a team player, adaptable, and always anointing every room she walks in. She’s a super auntie and a true artisan at heart and her mission here on this earth is to spread love.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
One of the biggest obstacles that Pytron Parker and I, Sabrina Cates faced in life was the loss of two of the most influential women in our lives, our mothers Michelle “Shelly” Parker and Rachelle “Shelly” Cates when we were both eleven years old. When they both passed away, that left us vulnerable and abandoned in a sense, where we were not able to receive proper nurturing, love, and support from them. We grew up living parallel lives, though we didn’t meet until three years ago, we both did not have the proper foundation and stability to help us grow into the strong women that we are today. Both of us lived in multiple different homes from 11 to 17 years old. Pytron shuffled around Conyers, GA with her sister until she was adopted by her best friend’s family at 17 years old and Sabrina moved back and forth between New Orleans and California living in many different households until she moved in with her cousin at 17 years old where she worked during high school and got a full-ride scholarship to Alabama A&M University. Both of our fathers were not present in our upbringing which impacted our self-worth and confidence and made it a challenge for us to both believe that we were enough and worthy.

Our upbringing was dysfunctional and we experienced many different forms of abuse which played a huge part in how we had to navigate this world. Though we had these experiences, both Pytron and I, knew that we could not allow our past to define and determine our present and future. We are both trailblazers and charged with choosing to create the life we desire to have and accept that we are both deserving of love, support, partnership, joy, peace, happiness, safety, stability, and wealth. Hence why we both choose to break the generational curses of our family and heal the generational trauma that was not only passed down to us but that we have also encountered in our own lives. Pytron and I, both dare to dream and have the audacity to see it through, that’s why when they met and learned of each other stories, we became determined to create Shelly’s Vintage in honor of not just our mothers but also in celebration of ourselves as artists, healers, and two black women who choose to create the lives that they themselves have never got to see or experience growing up.

We’ve been impressed with Shelly’s Vintage, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Shelly’s Vintage is a multifaceted brand that has three major components to our business. We provide our customers with a new shopping encounter by being pioneers of a “Name Your Price” vintage shop that allows consumers to feel empowered by navigating their budget while being able to buy some of the rarest, one-of-a-kind vintage items from different eras, found all over the world. Shelly’s Vintage specializes in vintage interior design where we hunt for vintage furniture and decor from antique stores to create spaces for our supporters that are centered around the energy and feeling our customers want to experience in their homes, businesses, or offices. We also curate experiences of healing, authenticity, community, and self-discovery through styling, photoshoots, event planning, and more.

Many say that there’s divine light and an immersive feeling of love when experiencing Shelly’s Vintage. My partner and co-founder, Pytron, and I have a captivating story about our unique partnership. Emerging from nearly mirrored upbringings, both Pytron and I found ourselves interconnected, sharing similar passions for the arts, thrifting, exploration, service, fashion, traveling, and – perhaps the most parallel – the commonality of the loss of the most influential women of our lives, both our mothers at the age of eleven years old. Our business, Shelly’s Vintage was created in their honor.

These two women, our mothers Rachelle “Shelly” Cates and Michelle “Shelly” Parker who never met before yet shared the same nickname “Shelly” planted in us both at young ages the art of thrifting and how to appreciate the value in all things, even if some considered it to be trash. Our mothers both taught us the importance of sustainability and how to treasure the quality of things that came from decades past; they taught us the value of paying homage to what our ancestors wore and passed down from generation to generation; they taught us how to be of service to our community and our families.

Who do we do it for? “It’s bigger than us” We have always worked to build others’ dreams, so now with Shelly’s Vintage — we are focused on creating a legacy of our own. We do it for our community of unique individuals who choose to stand out and honor the art, importance, and history of thrifting. We do it for those fairly new to thrifting but dare to explore. We do it for our ancestors, for the shoulders we stand on that fought so hard just for us to be able to live this dream and share our gifts with the world. We do it for ourselves, we love what we have created with Shelly’s Vintage and it never feels like work. “It’s bigger than us”. This is an affirmation and a reminder that we created this business to build generational wealth, heal generational trauma, and have the resources to create job opportunities for our family.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, Sabrina Cates was an active child who was tomboy-ish and curious always exploring any and everything that came in her path. She was kind, loved drawing, tough, played all the sports in her neighborhood with the boys, such as football, basketball, karate, and track (beating all the kids her age), and also very interested in dancing and playing hand games with her friends that were girls. She picked how to do things very quickly, like jumping on her friend’s ten-speed bike for the first time and riding it without ever being taught. She was a shy child who didn’t vocalize her grief or feelings about the things she was experiencing, so she started journaling. this then led her to write her very first poem to her mother at just 11 years old.

Growing up, Pytron Parker was popular in high school and well known and liked in college. As a child, she considered herself to be very flamboyant, kind-hearted, and exuded confidence but struggled with her self-worth and self-love. Pytron was charismatic and suppressed a lot as a child, and was very curious as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shellysvintage.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/shellysdaughters
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shellysdaughters
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyxIdwLyi6YQ4BaSI29KSTw

Image Credits:
The first two photos were shots taken by Eric Mov The photo of two people in front of school buses was taken by Paul Abraham The other photos were taken by us, Shelly’s Vintage