Cafe Con Libros — Black-Owned Brooklyn

Mar 1

Mar 1 Cafe Con Libros

Happy Women’s History Month! Start the season strong with a visit to feminist bookstore and coffee shop Cafe Con Libros.

“I wanted to build a space that is completely and unapologetically dedicated to feminist texts, narratives and authors,” says Kalima Desuze, who opened the store with her husband (and barista) Ryan Cameron last December.

Desuze says Black feminism and womanism — including the works of bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde and Zora Neale Hurston — quite literally saved her as she came of age. “They gave me a vision of myself. They gave me roots. They affirmed me. So I’m trying to center stories by women, about women, for women, particularly women across the diaspora and women of color who we don’t typically hear from in the mainstream.

“I also wanted a space where it’s okay to be brilliant and intellectual, and still be from the hood and of the hood. I have that combination, and we do exist. I wanted to create that space for young girls and boys in the upcoming generation.”

No doubt, Cafe Con Libros has an important mission. The space is also gorgeous, with well-considered design: a glossy coffee bar, minimalist white shelves displaying a rainbow of books, cozy window seats for losing yourself in the featured titles (we spotted new releases Freshwater by boundary-breaking Nigerian novelist Akwaeke Emezi, and the essay collection This Will Be My Undoing by critic Morgan Jerkins), a pastel Post-It note-covered cork board for visitors’ suggestions.

Even the name Cafe Con Libros is a sweet nod to Desuze’s Panamanian heritage. “I’m first-generation American, born and raised in Crown Heights, and my parents are from Panama. Half my family still lives there,” she says. “Café con leche is something we do in our country. The name is a spin to pay homage to my Afro-Latina roots.”

In addition to running Cafe Con Libros with husband Ryan Cameron, Desuze is a social worker, a professor of social work and a dedicated anti-racist community organizer. It’s a multi-hyphenate identity that can yield nuanced, complicated feelings.

“A café is the number-one marker of gentrification in most communities of color, and I’ve had to wrestle with that and how people view me,” she says. “Sometimes people will walk right past because they don’t believe the space is for them, and that is so incredibly painful.” Desuze wants people of color to know, to quote the timeless Solange axiom: This sh*t is for us.

To more deeply connect with the community, Cafe Con Libros hosts regular public discussions around the ideas in its texts.