By Rachel Schreiber

Minda Hart, owner of Earth Wisdom® Music and Clothing, has retail in her soul. Retail runs in every generation of her family, beginning with her European grandmother who sold pots and pans. Her uncle had a retail store and her father sold household goods.

Minda, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, came to Ann Arbor in the mid 1970s to earn her master’s degree at UM. “I was a social worker for seven years, three in Ann Arbor, and four in Cincinnati. It wasn’t for me. I became a massage therapist. One day, this woman mentioned she bought a business, I never thought about it. After that, I had my eyes opened to buying a business.”

Earth Wisdom® Music began when Minda’s friend Cheryl Stereff heard new age music. “She shared it with me right away, I asked where she got it. Dennis Marchese (who was in California) sent it to her. Dennis and Sheryl started Earth Wisdom®, a mail order and conference company. We had a great catalog. Kay Gardner, one of the top music and healing people in the country asked permission to use my music catalog when she wrote a book about music and healing,” Minda says.

In June 1983 Minda bought Earth Wisdom® Music from a Sheryl and Dennis. Minda says, “I opened a store, it was small store in Seva Restaurant.”

She says, “I was one of five companies selling new age music in the country. Earth Wisdom® Music in Ann Arbor was the first new age music in the country.” When the store closed in 1995, she opened another one, at the current Earthen Jug location. Her last brick and mortar location was next to Seva. When the building was sold Minda took her store on the road. She added clothing and added that to the name. “I travel all over the country and mainly what I sell are beaded jackets, magic dresses, which is a dress that becomes six different dresses, and t-shirts. One customer told me I have the best t-shirts in the known universe. They are very unique. People always say they’ve never seen anything like them,” Minda says. Her clothes have national recognition. “I sold magic dresses to Alice Walker, jackets to Ayana Vanzant and t-shirts to James van Prague. Alice Walker’s friend bought a jacket from me and wore it to the opening of the Color Purple,” she states.

She relates this story, “At the Midwest Conference, one fellow told me I make people so happy by picking out exactly the right things for them. That comment has come up repeatedly. I have a knack of picking out the exact right thing. It’s intuitive. I can tell what they’re going to like. I had a woman who came into my store whose husband had brain cancer. I insisted she buy Love’s Awakening, a video, for him. She came back a month later and said what I had done for her was a mitzvah (a good deed). I use a lot of my social work skills in my business.”

Minda also speaks on music and healing to nurses who use holistic healing in Ann Arbor and Detroit area hospitals. Products can also be ordered from her web site.

Earth Wisdom® Music and Clothing
Minda Hart
Phone: 734-769-0969
Email: earthwisdom80@hotmail.com
Website: www.earthwisdommusicandclothing.com