For over a yr, Cafe Resistance Bookstore and Espresso Store has been an invigorating drive of resistance in Northwest Jacksonville. State Consultant Angie Nixon opened the Cafe in 2024 to offer a secure place for youngsters and teenagers to fall in love with studying whereas bettering literacy charges within the space. This coincided with the peak of the state’s offensive towards books masking the historical past of race and racism.
Consequently, some might know Cafe Resistance for platforming banned books and different African American literature, however a yr later, the area has grow to be a lot extra. Cafe Resistance stands as a 3rd area, offering providers and programming that instantly tackle the well being, training, and financial equality failures which have plagued the Northside. The area is greatest described in Nixon’s personal phrases:
“We’re not only a bookstore. We’re a neighborhood hub that’s working to deal with multifaceted points…I wish to diminish and eradicate a number of the disparities throughout the board, however we’re addressing meals insecurity, we’re addressing decrease literacy charges, we’re addressing psychological well being, we’re addressing the shortage of healthcare entry by bringing in companions who work in healthcare… We’re a spot of neighborhood the place folks can come to only hand around in a enjoyable, secure, family-friendly surroundings.”
Do you might have a spot to flourish? Someplace to seize a wholesome meal? A spot to calm down and really feel secure with household? If you happen to do, take into account your self fortunate. For a very long time, Northwest Jacksonville residents couldn’t say the identical. It doesn’t take a lot analysis to know that Jacksonville is a metropolis plagued with inequality, the place the zip code an individual lives in is usually a key indicator of potential well being dangers, entry to high quality training, and family earnings.
In a world the place information equals energy, Cafe Resistance is leveling the taking part in discipline that so usually leaves low-income communities feeling helpless. However when higher, you do higher, and there’s no scarcity of data being shared.
Some of the highly effective methods this occurs is thru workshops centered on the problems which have undermined progress up to now. Wealth Watchers has usually hosted workshops on heirs’ property, a authorized entanglement that happens when a house owner dies with no formally designated inheritor, creating an unclear title to their house. This highlights the unlucky actuality that may happen if low-income households aren’t taught easy methods to prioritize property planning when their family members are nonetheless alive, one thing even my circle of relatives would have benefited from when my great-grandmother handed in April. Whereas she owned the house she constructed and owed no taxes on the property, it didn’t mechanically switch to her youngsters, regardless of having a will outlining these needs. Subsequently, we are actually within the probate course of, costing us 1000’s of {dollars}. That’s not an expense the typical Northwest Jacksonville household can afford.
In lots of circumstances, a developer or actual property group both pays homestead and property taxes to town, or purchases the property underneath market worth from the household. Because of this, regardless of many residents having longstanding roots within the metropolis, most Northwest Jax residents are renters, not owners. Workshops like these change that.
Agape Household Well being and Empowerment Sources Inc. has additionally collaborated within the area to offer parenting workshops. Without charge, dad and mom can learn to construct self-worth of their youngsters, handle stress, and navigate battle. Mother and father have better entry to the instruments wanted to construct stronger households. And the educational doesn’t simply cease at life abilities. Kids obtain free guitar classes. Males study yoga. Grandmothers learn to line dance. It might not be all issues to all folks, nevertheless it actually is many issues for many individuals.
As such, Cafe Resistance has tailored to the altering desires and desires of the neighborhood, one thing Nixon hopes guests take delight in. “I inform folks this isn’t my bookstore, that is our bookstore. That is the neighborhood bookstore,” Nixon says.
Once I requested her what she was most pleased with after the primary yr, she shared a narrative of a younger boy who would go to the shop each day after college, begging for Takis to be stocked on the cabinets. Now, when he is available in, he will get a salad. The publicity to new and wholesome options is already altering lives for the higher.
This elementary facet is what transforms Cafe Resistance from a bookstore right into a third area, bettering the standard of life for 1000’s of residents. A 3rd area is anyplace exterior of the house and work the place residents are invited to calm down, meet new folks, and luxuriate in life. They’ve restricted boundaries to entry, and all are welcome. These areas operate as “nice equalizers” in keeping with Ray Oldenburg, who coined the time period in his 1989 e-book The Nice Good Place. “Nice equalizers” are locations the place folks from numerous backgrounds can collect, really feel snug, and don’t must spend a lot cash.
Whereas the time period is comparatively new, areas of the kind have been acknowledged pillars of society for hundreds of years. Libraries, pubs, church buildings, and rec facilities are all third areas the place folks can casually collect and construct connections.
Third areas have large optimistic well being advantages for the people who frequent them and the neighborhood at massive. Analysis has proven these areas have optimistic impacts on psychological well being, present sources that scale back bodily well being disparities, and are key to combating isolation among the many youth and the aged, in keeping with Science Direct.
Whereas strong in concept, third areas in apply have gotten extinct. Sure, there are public libraries and public parks, however in Jacksonville, they’re underfunded, understaffed, and under-programmed. That is very true in Northwest Jacksonville, the place the legacy of racist redlining continues. The struggle for dignity and respect on the Northwest aspect is robust, and for a yr now, Cafe Resistance has been its house base.
If it’s not clear by now, Cafe Resistance’s success is Jacksonville’s success, and fortunately, they’re simply getting began. Cafe Resistance’s packages imply extra owners boosting Jacksonville’s economic system; extra college students pushing the Duval County literacy charge above 46%; and extra knowledgeable residents participating with the stakeholders that make Jacksonville nice. The area is open to everybody, even if you happen to don’t stay close by.
To maintain Cafe Resistance thriving, grow to be a month-to-month sustainer, volunteer as a tutor (they’re in excessive demand), donate to assist programming, and share their occasions on-line. This not solely retains the programming going, nevertheless it additionally pays honest wages for the teenagers and younger adults who work there. However if you happen to ask Nixon, one of the simplest ways to assist Cafe Resistance is to be a part of it. Searching for a spot to flourish? The door is open.
5007 Soutel Dr, Jacksonville, FL 32208
(904) 374-2823
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caferesistance
Fb: https://www.fb.com/CafeResistanceBookstore/
Jalicia Lewis is a contract author, poet, and neighborhood organizer born and raised in Jacksonville. She additionally owns Actual You Consulting, specializing in speechwriting and public talking. You may attain her at jlewis@realyouconsulting.com or on X (Twitter) at @jalicia_lewis.