ABOUT
OUR STORY
In 2019, Miss Monopoly — also known as Onyxx Monopoly — experienced a life-changing moment while covering and assisting with Kanye West’s Sunday Service in Salt Lake City, Utah. From the top level of the Gateway Mall, she looked out over a crowd of nearly 40,000 attendees and noticed something that would alter her perspective forever. Among the sea of faces, aside from the choir, a few Utah Jazz players, and their security teams, there were fewer than two hundred people of color.
Having grown up in Utah, Onyxx was no stranger to the state’s limited cultural diversity. Yet she also knew how deeply many Utahns appreciated African American art, fashion, and music. In that moment, she realized something profound — the culture was not absent; it was simply unseen.
Driven by that realization, Onyxx embarked on a personal mission. Over the course of just 48 hours, she set out to find every business and organization owned or led by people of color in Utah. What she discovered astonished her: a flourishing community of entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders whose contributions were shaping the city in powerful ways. Salt Lake City was evolving — vibrant, diverse communities were thriving — but their stories were rarely told, even among Utahns themselves.
Out of this awakening, Pepper Lake City was born.
Founded on the belief that every life holds value and that humanity’s strength lies in its diversity, Pepper Lake City exists to celebrate culture, elevate underrepresented voices, and build bridges of understanding across communities.
As Onyxx beautifully expresses:
“Humans are like peppers — we come in many different hues, with unique flavors, shapes, and sizes. Some of us are spicy, some are sweet, some are bitter, and some might even be unbearable — but we should all be valued and enjoyed. You may not prefer every pepper, but there’s one for everyone to love.”
Through this vision, Pepper Lake City stands as a living celebration of inclusion and community — a reminder that diversity is not something to be tolerated, but something to be tasted, shared, and cherished.
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