How this Black-owned café in Washington supports youth-led activism.
BY MARK VAN STREEFKERK
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Cover photo courtesy of DarNesha Weary
Black Coffee Northwest is a youth-focused nonprofit café in Shoreline, Wash., with social justice at its heart. Although the café recently opened on October 17 despite an arson attempt on September 30, Black Coffee Northwest is a vital community hub for BIack and Brown people in a city that’s overwhelmingly white.
“We saw it as more than a coffee shop from day one,” says DarNesha Weary, Black Coffee NW’s operations director. “I’ve been doing this community organizing with youth in this area for about 20 years. We’ve been doing this grassroots, showing up at their schools and building relationships with Black and Brown youth in this area because there’s no representation. We only have, like, three Black teachers in the school district, and no representation with our city officials.”
DarNesha is a racial equity consultant with a background in nonprofit work, who founded the award-winning Northside Drill Team and Step Team in 2000. She and her husband, Black Coffee NW CEO Erwin Weary Sr., raised their family in Shoreline. Every time they had a community meeting or personal or professional hangout, it usually revolved around coffee. “We just know what our community needs, and since we live here in this area and our kids grew up here and went to school here, we were just tired of waiting for someone else to do it. We love coffee. … We thought, let’s just do it. Let’s open this space and respond to the community in whatever way that looks like.”
Over the summer they met with middle and high school youth from the Drill and Step teams twice a week to brainstorm a vision for the café. In fact, youth have been part of the leadership team since the beginning, holding positions in the company such as president, assistant creative director, environmental specialist, and social media manager. Black Coffee NW supports local Black-owned businesses through their popups, offering coffee from Boon Boona Coffee and donuts from Zuri’s Donutz.
Before Washington state’s second COVID-19-related lockdown, Black Coffee NW was only open on the weekends; students could meet in small, socially distanced pods on Wednesday and Friday, with local educators available to help tutor if the students needed help. Since the second lockdown began in mid-November, study groups are now online for the foreseeable future.
Black Coffee NW also hosts Coffee Chats, an online “commitment to keeping our ear to the ground in the Shoreline area,” DarNesha says. The chats focus on creating greater civic understanding and activism at the local level. Recently, Black Coffee NW youth attended an online city council meeting. “When things were being said that did not sit well with them and should have been called out, the kids were quick to raise their hand and make a public comment. That’s huge for a middle schooler,” DarNesha points out.
Another resource for youth is the barista internship program. Designed by fourth-grade teacher and coffee educator Ranice Innocent, the program trains youth in all things behind the bar. When they finish the internship, they’re either hired by Black Coffee NW or recommended to a partner café. The idea for the internship came when the company tried to find Black baristas to hire. “We couldn’t find very many,” DarNesha says. “We searched high and low. We decided we’re going to start creating baristas then.”
Black Coffee NW also held a coat drive for Thanksgiving. They collected over 400 coats to distribute, along with tents, sleeping bags, rain gear, and 300 hot Thanksgiving meals.
For cafés committed to social justice, DarNesha advises to incorporate youth in management, especially in decision-making processes, and challenges adults to have done the work themselves. “Always include the youth voice,” she says. “It’s critical to every social justice movement. … As an adult, my husband and I struggle sometimes with the things they wanted to do. We talked with the kids, ‘Let’s look at the risk, let’s evaluate this,’ and we’ve learned to just let them go. Let them run, let them lead.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Van Streefkerk is Barista Magazine’s social media content developer and a frequent contributor. He is also a freelance writer, social media manager, and novelist based out of Seattle. If Mark isn’t writing, he’s probably biking to his favorite vegan restaurant. Find out more on his website.