Asiah Janai James was feeling spontaneous in August 2014 when she invited her co-worker, Gerald Leon Cannon II, to meet up with her at the Afropunk Festival in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Ms. James had been in a series of serious relationships, but when Mr. Cannon called, she was learning to “go with the flow,” she said. She wanted to prioritize building a connection with someone she thought was “cool” over trying to define the relationship early on.
She thought Mr. Cannon was cool. The two had first been introduced that May by a mutual friend and colleague at Top Shop in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. Ms. James worked in personal shopping; Mr. Cannon was a stock associate.
Ms. James was attending the music festival with her roommates, and Mr. Cannon happened to be in the area with his best friend for the social scene. Weaving through the massive crowd outside Commodore Barry Park, where the festival took place, they eventually found each other in the fray.
As their group headed back to Harlem, where they all lived, Mr. Cannon and Ms. James drifted into conversation. Neither consider it a first date, but a good “icebreaker to get to know each other outside of work,” Mr. Cannon said.
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
They continued to hang out: a stroll along the Harlem River; an impromptu visit to the now-closed Dallas BBQ on St. Marks in the East Village; and a Sunday service at Mr. Cannon’s church, Harlem Church of Christ.
With these “many little moments,” Ms. James said, their easy dynamic “just started to make sense.” Mr. Cannon, who is a multidisciplinary artist, gifted her several small pieces of his work — notably a painting of her and another in her favorite color, purple.
Two months later, in October, they had their first official date at Smalls, a jazz club in the West Village, to see Mr. Cannon’s father, Gerald Cannon Sr., a jazz musician, play.
Mr. Cannon, 37, said he knew early on that Ms. James, 30, “was someone I could see myself with.” On Nov. 7, which they consider their anniversary, he sent Ms. James a text asking her to be his girlfriend after leaving her apartment. She didn’t answer.
“I let him sweat a little,” said Ms. James, who wanted him to ask in person. “I felt a little weird about it,” said Mr. Cannon with a laugh. He was nervous but was confident in their connection. They became official — in person — later that day.
In 2017, they moved in together on the Lower East Side. Each Sunday, they took long walks or bike rides, explored art galleries, or tried a new restaurant, a tradition they would maintain in the years following.
In 2016, Ms. James’s workload increased as a newly hired advertising sales associate at Condé Nast. By 2018, she was promoted to marketing manager. Mr. Cannon continued to focus on his art while working in retail. Over the next few years, the couple said their professional ambitions created some distance. “We weren’t the same as we were the previous years,” Mr. Cannon said, so they relied “on those Sundays to stay connected.”
Ms. James, who grew up in Washington, D.C., is the corporate strategy and strategic partnerships director at Condé Nast. She has a bachelor’s degree in advertising and marketing communications from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Mr. Cannon, who is from Racine, Wis., moved to New York in 2009 to pursue art.
When the pandemic halted work at his retail job, Mr. Cannon began exploring more opportunities in the art world. At night, he turned the living room in their cramped apartment into his art studio. That work became part of a group exhibition called “A Gathering,” held in April 2021 at the now-closed Housing gallery on the Lower East Side.
The couple moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in 2020, and started talking seriously about the “logistics of marriage,” Ms. James said.
Mr. Cannon proposed on Nov. 4, 2022, on a trip to see Ms. James’s family in Washington. After a daylong visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Ms. James began to doze off in their hotel room. As she woke up, Mr. Cannon knelt by the side of the bed and slipped a ring on her finger, asking, “Do you love me? Do you feel protected by me?”
The couple were legally married on Feb. 14 at the New York City Clerk’s office by Madeline Plasencia, a city clerk. On April 14, they exchanged vows during a ceremony at General Prim 30, a venue in Mexico City, before 160 guests, led by Shay Myrick, a friend of the couple. During the ceremony, they jumped the broom, followed by a few of their friends and family who, overcome with excitement, joined in spontaneously.
The post Their Sunday Ritual Kept Them Connected appeared first on New York Times.