Celia Brito is known by many as a personable woman who loves fashion and owns Celia’s Boutique in downtown New Bedford. What many don’t realize is how accomplished of an entrepreneur she really is. Did you know her store is the longest-operating small business in downtown New Bedford? That doesn’t happen by accident.

She was born in Cape Verde and moved to New Bedford at the age of six. Growing up in New Bedford she always loved fashion, yet she moved to Boston and used her intelligence to climb the corporate ladder working high up in the rankings of Polaroid. Corporate America can be rough, and when Polaroid hit rough times, she was laid off from her position.

Sick of the corporate Boston rat race, Celia decided to move back to the city she loves and pursue her true passion as a fashion entrepreneur. She immediately noticed a hole in the market of New Bedford. There was a boom of successful working women in the city, yet no place locally for them to shop for high-end business attire.

She acted on her instincts and in 2003, Celia’s Boutique was born.

20 years later, her business has expanded and she is now a staple in downtown, New Bedford. I asked her what advice she would give to a teenager in New Bedford who has dreams of one day starting a successful business. To be honest, I was expecting a fluff answer along the lines of “follow your dreams” or “do what you love”.

But without hesitation, Celia began to step by step layout a strategic business plan that could get a young aspiring entrepreneur in the game and ready to open a business. She began discussing the importance of finding mentors, avoiding loans and debt, understanding culture, building a brand. It was at that moment I realized why Celia is successful.

It’s no surprise that Celia raised a daughter who is also very intelligent and plays a major role in the culture of downtown, New Bedford. Meet Tanya Alves, co-owner of Celias Boutique and the daughter of Celia Brito.

Tanya is a mother of two kids herself, so when she isn’t working at the boutique you can probably find her out spending time with her family. She is a graduate of New Bedford High School and has been assisting her mother in running the business since 2018.

Speaking with Tanya it was clear she believes community is the heartbeat of running a successful business. I’ve spoke with her twice this past month and both times I left that conversation with information on multiple new local events that I had no idea were happening, and multiple names of local artists and entrepreneurs that I should be in contact with.

If something positive is happening in New Bedford, chances are Tanya is involved or is at the very least close friends with the person in charge. Celia and Tanya are without a doubt two influential members of our community and their story will inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs in New Bedford.

Check out our other Faces of New Bedford here.

Meet Manny Hernandez, the 29-year-old executive chef, and part-owner of Barrels & Boards in Raynham, MA.

Manny was born in Puerto Rico and grew up as a child there until the age of eleven. His mother unfortunately had come down with a health condition and her best outlook had her moving to the United States with a family member until she got better. Manny was eleven years old and spoke no English. He would follow his mother to the United States, moving with his sisters, arriving in New Bedford in June 2004.

Manny attended school in New Bedford and got his first job when he was 16 as a dishwasher at Nephews in Freetown. After working hard, Ron saw his work ethic and desire to learn and gave him a shot as a line cook where he’d stay for another year and a half.

Manny’s next job would be under Chef Kevin Gibbons at UMass Dartmouth. During the first year, Chef Gibbons observed Manny working with him and told him he could see his potential for being an excellent cook and that could go far if he got serious about learning. With a passion for the kitchen, he seized this opportunity, learning everything he could.

Umass being a school meant Manny would find himself jobless during the summer, so he picked up a job at the Waterfront Grille, where he began learning from new chefs. He bounced between Umass during the school year and the Waterfront Grille for a few years, until taking a full-time sous chef position. He worked hard and paid attention to food costs and how to manage a successful kitchen for two years until his own opportunity came up where he took over as head chef for the Waterfront Grille.

He took on the new role as head chef and ran with it, his continued success found him an opportunity to open a new restaurant with his own designed menu, at a new place being opened called the Charred Oak Tavern where he spent 2 1/2 years making it a huge success. This got him noticed again, and he was approached with an opportunity that he couldn’t pass on opening yet another new restaurant called Barrels & Boards.

Manny continued on his path to success at the new restaurant, working hard as he always had, showing he was invaluable. This time, the new opportunity was to become a business partner at Barrels & Boards. His passion and dedication in the kitchen have continuously paid off and now his future also includes building a brand to a point where it can continue to expand.

Manny acknowledges the hard work he put in with different jobs and under different chefs has really helped his career get to where it’s at today, but more so his strength comes from his family who supports him and has made the long hours work, and the people who work with him in the kitchen. At least a dozen staff members put their faith and careers in his hands and have followed him from one kitchen to another because they see his dedication to not only doing a good job but making sure they’re learning and on a successful path to make a similar journey that he’s had.

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.

Meet Taylor DeLoach, principal of the Frederick Douglass Campus of the Alma del Mar charter schools in New Bedford.

Taylor grew up in Maryland before moving to Middletown, Connecticut, where she studied at Wesleyan University. She continued her education at the Charles Sposato Graduate School of Education in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. While in graduate school, Taylor was sent to several Greater Boston area charter schools, which brought her to Alma del Mar in New Bedford. The team and culture at Alma impressed her, but she believed she wanted to stay in the Boston area. Taylor returned to Alma del Mar again for an interview. She fell in love with the school and started her career at the Sarah D. Ottiwell Campus.

Taylor spent two years as a first-grade teacher, moved to a third-grade class, and began mentoring other teachers. She was then promoted to the school’s Dean of Culture for the next two years. During that time, Alma del Mar decided to expand to a second campus. After consideration, Taylor applied and was hired to be the principal of the second campus in 2019.

For Taylor, her experiences over the last eight years working for Alma at every level in New Bedford had been an amazing experience, exceeding her childhood dream of becoming a teacher. Now in her third year as principal, and the first year of the newly built school, named after Frederick Douglass, who also had a connection to Maryland like herself, she describes the experience as serendipitous.

She hopes to use the words, stories, and legacy of the school’s namesake to provide the knowledge, skill, and confidence to Alma’s students so they can make an impact in the community as he did.

“My personal mission in life was always to do right by my kids in my classroom because I always wanted to be a teacher. Now, getting to be a principal, I feel the weight of responsibility of making sure we’re getting strong academic, social, and emotional outcomes for all the kids. Unlike being a teacher which can feel isolating at times, because you’re the one adult in a classroom alone with the kids. Being at the principal level has really shown me how our community works together to get those outcomes and it has really been one of the great joys of my life to have had this experience here.”

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.

Meet Clyde, the peace-sign waving local that anyone from New Bedford can recognize. A known staple to the city’s north end, Clyde is always greeting cars and foot traffic as they pass by the corner of Acushnet and Coffin Avenues.

In a brief conversation with Clyde you can tell that he is interested in one thing, love. Although people may be immediately opposed to talking to stranger on the street, Clyde is willing to talk with anyone. He constantly talks about his care for his friends and all people. In his own words, he just wants to show people how it’s like to ‘live like the big man upstairs.’

“To me, it’s all about One love.”

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Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com

Follow Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton

Meet Adam Katz, the 44-year-old owner of Mass Axes and downtown New Bedford’s newest spot Play Arcade.

Adam graduated high school from Fairhaven High in 1993 then earned a degree at Umass Dartmouth for Fine Art Sculptures before taking off for Los Angels, California, where he became a stunt man and a set builder. One of his more prominent roles was on the movie Men of Honor, where he doubled Robert De Niro wearing the Mark V Dive Suit and as one of the sailors on the boat. He worked on many 90’s shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sliders, and even played a cop on an episode of The X-Files.

Moving on from California, he made his way to Vancouver, working with a glass sculpture company before heading home to Fairhaven, MA. His return was short-lived as he made his way back out to California and began his construction company In-House Custom and brought that business back home working locally with his brother. Missing the action of doing stunts, Adam became an on-call firefighter in Mattapoisett for four years and sixteen years in Fairhaven, where he is still on-call.

Having recently had a health scare, he decided along with his wife Lauren that a change of pace in life was necessary, and he got out of the construction business. His next venture was bringing throwing axes to parties and events, which became a hit, and co-founded Haul N Axe that has been at events locally like Oktoberfest.

Adam had complained to his wife about there not being enough fun things in the area for him to go with his wife and daughter, so she sugged he “do something about it” so he thought back to some of the fun places he had been to an Arcade bar came to mind. Earlier this year, an opportunity opened up to take over the location of the former Slainte Irish Pub, and he jumped on it, leasing the site and creating Play Arcade.

Work on the site began two weeks before COVID came into the news, but with most of their life’s savings put into this project, they continued with their excellent staff to get their place open. Working with Bit Bar from Salem, MA, they’ve got 25 retro arcade games and will have around 45 in the future. Adam believes New Bedford is an up and coming city where young professionals will flock too, so he designed Play Arcade to meet the demand that’s already here to have a fun, hip place, much like you’d find in cities like Providence and Boston.

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.

Meet Joaquin Santos, a musician, professional drummer, and music educator.

Joaquin, born into a musical family, was destined to be a drummer picking up the sticks as early as three years old. He spent his childhood learning how to play drums from his father, extended family, and several other musicians he spent time around while growing up. He took a break from playing the drums and focused on playing baseball, football, and basketball.

He got back behind a drum set when he was 23 and got a big break with Devin Lima of LFO. He performed on tour traveling the East Coast, was covered in magazines, and even did a TV performance. Devin started a new project and brought Joaquin in as a member of Devin Lima & The Cadbury Diesel, making one album together.

With his career kicked off, Joaquin continued to new ventures that have brought him all over the world, such as playing with Tavares in Santiago, Chile, at the Movie Star Arena in front of 12,000 people. He’s taught a class at Berklee College of Music and is endorsed by Zildjian, the largest cymbal manufacturer in the world. They used him as the face of their last major campaign, promoting him worldwide in music stores and all over social media.

His achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. In 2019 he received the Cape Verdean Recognition Award in New Bedford. Joaquin’s new band, The Dope Lotus, recently released a new album that can be found on all the major platforms like iTunes and Spotify. With most of the big plans for 2020 on hold because of the pandemic, he’s had time to focus on teaching his students, practicing music, strengthening his character as a human being, and trying to stay positive by knowing God is in control so to be ready for next year.

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.

Meet 58-year-old lawyer and musician from New Bedford, Rick Bennett.

Rick was born in Dorchester, MA, and furthered his education at North Eastern University, followed by Suffolk University Law School. While a lawyer by day, his passion for music has persisted throughout his entire life.

His story in New Bedford began about 30 years ago after he left Boston, taking a job with the city when John Bullard was Mayor while finishing up law school. A year later Rick took a job working for Lang, Straus, Xifaras & Bullard. He now works out of his downtown office independently, specializing in civil litigation representing local small businesses, especially in the construction industry.

When starting his career in law, playing music had cast aside. He found himself missing music, so he got involved again after he was more established in his career. His primary instrument being the bass guitar, but he also plays the banjo, mandolin, and rhythm guitar.

Rick was recently reminiscing his long musical career, and he’s played in some bands here that did reasonably well. Some of his most successful groups were The X-ToNeS, Urban Burn, The O’Tooles, as well as the current bands The NB Rude Boys and his probably best-known band, The Pourmen where most know him by his alter ego “Richie O’Toole.”

Surrounded by the deep history of New Bedford, Rick remains inspired and passionate thanks to the many cultures, art, and music this city has to offer. A family man first, he plans to continue staying busy with his two active bands making music and representing the city he adopted as his home.

“As a solo practitioner lawyer, I’ve had the flexibility to be there for my family, maintain my lifestyle, and my happiness. So I made a decision a long time ago that I would rather pursue the things that I enjoy, even if I make less money, it’s irrelevant. Money isn’t everything life is about enjoying your friends, family, and doing something you have a passion for.”

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.

Meet 59-year-old entertainer and singer from New Bedford, Chops Turner.

From his earliest memory Chops was surrounded by music. He would attend church with his grandmother who always sang during the service, and spent time in his grandparent’s home where he was introduced to great artists such as BB King, Frank Sinatra, and The Jackson 5. In his teenage years, Chops continued being inspired this time by local artists like Tavares and Jeffrey Osborne so after graduating high school Chops attended CCRI in Lincon, RI to study Foundation of Music.

Chops worked some jobs along the way to support his dream such as stuffing in mailers into newspapers for the Providence Journal but he always had his eye on becoming an independent singer. Using all available opportunities to get a chance to have his voice heard and network, he spent lots of time traveling, sometimes not knowing if he’d have the means to return him to perform at variety shows, competitions, and events he could network at.

With his raw skill he caught a break by singing in a big talent show called Hollywood Talent Night with Maurice Star, he ended up making acquaintance with a jazz guitarist and pianist named Robert Green who taught Chops a lot while working with him in recording studios in Lawrence and Boston.

Chops always worked hard on his craft and knew networking was key. He’s performed at the famous Apollo Theater, sang the National Anthem at Fenway before a Yankees rivalry match, performed in New York alongside all sorts of big names like The Manhattans and The Temptations all while remaining humble with his larger than life laugh.

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.

Meet 8-month-old black labrador retriever Kona, a service K9 trained in detecting biological weapons, chemical weapons, and pharmaceutical-based agents.

Travis Rebello, a New Bedford Fire Fighter and member of the Massachusetts Hazardous Materials Response Division heard about a dog the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department had on their team and after lots of research thought a trained k9 with those skills would be a great tool to have in this area.

Kona comes from a line of service dogs out of Buxton, Maine. Her mother was a cadaver dog and her father was trained in search and rescue. She joined her partner Travis Rebello, and his family in December soon after beginning her training in January with the K9 training unit with the Bristol County Sherrif’s Department.

Travis, while he’s had other dogs in his life had never really had experience training, the Sherrif department worked hard with both of them for many weeks until he was able to handle his dog and Kona passed her certifications.

Now that Kona has been trained and certified she’ll be utilized during big events in the area such as the New Bedford Half Marathon, Day of Portugal, the Portuguese feast and at Gillette Stadium. Her ability to smell and detect these hazardous materials is far more advanced than the machines available and Travis hopes she becomes a model for future K9s to be added to other teams.

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.

Meet Robyn Miranda, 36-year-old artist and owner of Salty Lips Studio in New Bedford.

Robyn graduated from Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech in 2001 specializing in Architectural Drafting. She attended Boston Architectural College where the rigid structure left her wanting to explore other creative outlets so she decided to take up something new and tried out modeling. Immediately, she found herself enjoying the creative freedom and having her photos make their way to printed publications. This pushed her to want to play a bigger role in the local modeling community.

Robyn’s experiences with modeling at other studios left her desiring a space that was female-owned and more inviting than places she had previously done work at. With the help of her husband Luke, her high school sweetheart and local fisherman, she sought out a location where she could open a studio space of her own. After checking out many locations with no luck they found a spot in the South End of New Bedford in an old mill that was transformed for studio space and in April 2019, Salty Lips Studio was created.

The studio space has given her the freedom to explore different creative outlets such as painting, building eye-catching sets for photoshoots and even picking up a camera herself and shooting boudoir photos. The studio has also allowed her to build a large group of artists, models, hairstylists, makeup and special effects artists who utilize her space to work on projects, network and hang out without worrying about their safety.

Robyn hopes to keep building on the successes she’s had in her first year at Salty Lips Studio, continuing with the wide variety of group photoshoots and renting out her studio for other creatives who need a large, well lit safe space to create their artistic visions.

“When I was looking for space, I only searched in New Bedford knowing I’d find the look I had visioned here. The New Bedford creative community is all very supportive, and want each other to thrive. As much as we all want to be popular, rich and famous, it’s really about being happy and creating what you want and I think New Bedford is a good place where you can live that.”

You can follow her work at https://www.facebook.com/RobynScreams/ and her studio at https://www.facebook.com/SaltyLipsStudio/.

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.