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"When I think about what is happening or what needs to happen between Africans and African-Americans, I always see a bridge," says Luretia "Dany" Craig, realtor, tour curator, and founder of Yan-D Destination Travel.
It's not a metaphor she's reaching for. It's the image that emerges naturally when she reflects on her body of work. Once she names it, twenty years of seemingly disconnected career moves suddenly form a single throughline. From coordinating radio traffic to selling commercial and residential real estate, from advocating for legacy residents in Atlanta's Ashview Heights to connecting investors with opportunities abroad, Dany has always been in the business of connection.
The Seed Planted Before the Journey
In 2005, Dany lost her mother unexpectedly. An educator who taught Montessori principles before they were trendy, her mother had always dreamed of visiting Africa. "She was so far beyond her years, like in front of everything," Dany remembers. "She was an educator and educated us on global awareness early."
That seed lay dormant for over a decade. Dany bounced between careers: radio, television traffic coordination, managing music groups (until she learned you can’t care about someone’s career more than they do), personal training, massage therapy. In 2014, a friend convinced her to try real estate, and she soon began selling homes in Atlanta's residential market.
Then, in 2017, with some money saved and momentum building in her real estate career, Dany booked a nine-day tour to Ghana, Togo, and Benin. She told no one. "I just set it all up. I went, got my shots, did all the research, got on the calls that they had, and I tailed it."
What she experienced there would change the rest of her life.
Bearing Witness to What's Been Lost and Found
The tour itself wasn’t executed well: overcrowded itineraries, substandard hotels, six-hour bus rides on unpaved roads with no planned bathroom stops. "I just felt like they needed a woman on the team," Dany says candidly. But beyond logistics, she experienced the ‘door of no return’ at Cape Coast Castle, where enslaved Africans passed through to ships bound for the Americas.
She later discovered doors of no return exist everywhere along Africa's coastline. This became a foundational insight for her: African-Americans and Africans often don't understand each other's histories—the trauma of those stolen, and the trauma of those who remained.
"They don't understand what happened to our ancestors when they got here," she says of Africans viewing African-American life through rap videos. "Jim Crow, segregation, all the things that took place for us to be here."
The gap goes both ways. "Conversely, African Americans don't understand what Africans had to deal with. Their forefathers were taken. They were stripped of leaders." She pauses. "Leadership was here being bruised and battered while they're still learning what to do under someone else’s control."
In that moment, Dany saw a bridge towards genuine understanding for both sides.
The Pattern: Always Connecting, Always Advocating
Look closely at Dany's career trajectory and a clear pattern emerges. Radio and television? Connecting information to audiences. Real estate? Connecting buyers to properties. City council? Advocating for legacy residents in Ashview Heights, where she built her house in 2005 when friends questioned her for leaving Midtown.
And now, this advocacy extends internationally. In Ghana, she saw homes built incrementally and recognized how American dollars could accelerate development. Beyond transactions, she thinks about families with tangled property titles and about training centers where American investors create jobs that transform lives.
"I want to change generations with American dollars. One business at a time,” she says confidently.
Curated Exploration, Not Investment Advice
By 2021, Dany had launched Yan-D Destination Travel, vetting hotels and meeting with government officials for two years before leading her first tour. She specifically targets investors seeking social impact alongside modest returns. "These are the people who were looking for a second home anyway," she explains. "Their investment has to be more social impact with the extra bonus of fulfilling something that is some sort of personal desire."
And she's adamant about what she's not: "I am not an investment strategist. Not a fiduciary at all." Instead, she creates curated exploration experiences for people who are curious about international investment but intimidated by the research and relationship-building required. “I want to expose them to the market they think they want to be in,” she explains. “Culture requirements, government requirements, all those things."
By 2030, she wants to run quarterly tours to five different regions: Senegal, Kenya, Guyana, Colombia, Aruba, rotating destinations that offer emerging opportunities. She's already identifying the next wave: Guyana, where Exxon is establishing its South American headquarters following major oil discoveries. "That's a no-brainer, but nobody's talking about Guyana," she says. "What's getting ready to transpire in that country in the next 10 years?"
What Bridge-Building Actually Requires
Dany's work reveals what happens when you stop forcing your experiences into predetermined shapes and instead look for the thread. For her, every role—radio traffic, real estate, city council, tour operator—has been about connecting people to what they need.
But seeing the pattern isn't enough. The bridge requires unsexy groundwork: two years vetting hotels before launching, maintaining an overwhelming WhatsApp network from consultants to bar owners, staying involved in neighborhood council meetings, learning that closing the gap between cultures means understanding trauma on both sides.
"The only thing that makes our situation better is that our lineage was stolen and we're here," Dany says, explaining her heart for developing economies. "That's it. It's just opportunity, not intelligence. I know some of the most intelligent people that live in different countries. They just don't have the opportunity we have here."
Twenty years ago, Dany coordinated commercial traffic at a television station. Today, as a real estate broker, she's still connecting people to what they need—but now she's bridging continents, cultures, and generations. The work looks different. The bridge has always been there, waiting for her to step fully onto it and help others cross.
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