Brewing Culture: Coffee Houses as Vibrant Hubs for Black Art and Dialogue

Amanda Harth and Felton Kizer, founders of Monday Coffee Company, pose for a picture at Retreat at Currency Exchange Café, located at 305 E. Garfield Blvd. in the Washington Park neighborhood, Thursday morning, Aug. 19, 2021. Monday Coffee Company received a residency at Retreat at Currency Exchange Café through Rebuild Foundation. | Pat Nabong/Sun-TimesPat Nabong/Sun-Times

Before there were black museums, coffee houses were a way to learn, support, and speak about black art and culture.

Children's folk musician Ella Jenkins recalls on the beginning of her singing career in coffee houses: “It is during the time that you were not supposed to whistle--the girls weren't supposed to be whistling, but I, and so, that just--but, but, but in San Francisco--because I had been singing a little bit, folk music in little coffee houses, back even in Chicago. So, out on the West Coast--”Were you doing the same thing in Chicago, singing in coffee houses? Mmm-hmm.”” [1]

Medical professor Kenneth Carlton Edelin (1939-2013) fondly remembers spending time in coffee houses: “And, so, I spent most of the first part of my first year at Columbia in Greenwich Village, sitting in Washington Square in the fountain there; going to coffee houses, listening to people recite poetry, and [Allen] Ginsberg, and [Jack] Kerouac, and, and, and reading James Baldwin…” [2]

Speechwriter and presidential appointee J. Terry Edmonds reflects on his early poetry performance days in coffee houses: “So you used to deliver poetry live in coffee houses with your group?” (simultaneous)--Yes, yes, I used to do some public readings. That was really a lot of fun; it was kinda scary 'cause the first time I did it I was petrified, but after a while, you know, I got really used to it and I really liked to read poetry.” [3]

Ayanna Florence. Source unknown.

Law professor Larry Gibson speaks on listening to poetry in coffee houses: “So the, the faculty members I was closest with were Professor Sterling Brown who is a famous poet. I read his poetry. I mean and and Carl Anderson. I read--this was the beatnik period where coffeehouses and that sort of thing, and hootenannies and I, I for a couple of years read black poets, but particularly Sterling Brown's poetry at a coffee house in Washington [D.C.]. That was called Bohemian Cavern[s, Washington, D.C.] I think it was called. And there was another one called, it was called Coffee 'n' Confusion [Washington, D.C.], yeah it was a coffeehouse.” [4]

Community activist, africana studies professor, and author Maulana Karenga remembers going to coffee houses for open dialogue: "And our coffee house was named Pogo Swamp, and the brother who was over it named Levi Kingston. And Levi used to pull us all together, you know, all-we're all nations. We'd go there, and we'd talk about how the world should be, and how we should be. And we would work in these, these causes; the civil rights cause, the peace cause, the anti-capital punishment cause. And we had radicals, Marxists, Socialists, Democratic Socialists, Fabian Social--we had different kind of radicals in, in this group.” [5]

Television producer Stan Lathan speaks about how coffee houses inspired the creation of “Def Poetry Jam”: Yeah, but it's--you know, I like to say when people say, "Wow, where did you get the idea?" I said, you know, we didn't, you know, I--poetry has been around since man started talking. As soon as he was, you know, able to put a few words together, poetry, you know, somehow came about. And poetry readings have been going on. Every since I can remember they were, you could go somewhere and hear poetry. I remember going to coffee houses, quote, unquote in Rittenhouse Square in, in Philadelphia [Pennsylvania] in the, in the, in the '60's [1960s] to hear poets and folk singers, but poets for sure. So, and I've been aware of poetry throughout the '80s [1980s], '90s [1990s].” [6]

Coffee house in Rittenhouse Square. Photo by Cody Aldric.

Works Cited:

1. Ella Jenkins (The HistoryMakers A2002.133), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 5, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 7, Ella Jenkins recalls starting to sing in coffee houses

2. Kenneth Carlton Edelin (The HistoryMakers A2005.104), interviewed by Robert Hayden, April 21, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 5, Kenneth Carlton Edelin recalls his time at Columbia University in New York City

3. J. Terry Edmonds (The HistoryMakers A2013.266), interviewed by Larry Crowe, October 26, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 10, J. Terry Edmonds discusses the poetry scene at Morgan State University

4. Larry Gibson (The HistoryMakers A2004.093), interviewed by Racine Tucker Hamilton, October 19, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 3, tape 3, story 5, Larry Gibson recalls his influences at Howard

5. Maulana Karenga (The HistoryMakers A2002.207), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 18, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 4, Maulana Karenga remembers his college years

6. Stan Lathan (The HistoryMakers A2003.139), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, April 23, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 8, story 3, Stan Lathan details the creation of 'Def Poetry Jam'