‘Fierceness Served!’ Documentary Ensures Story of Black D.C. LGBTQ Coffeehouse Lives On
Sandwiched in an alleyway on the northeast side of Washington D.C., Black queer, gay, and lesbian artists like Wayson Jones cultivated fertile ground in a coffeehouse. What they did in the cramped space is the stuff of legends, yet the coffeehouse is long gone—much like the city of old. A documentary recently released online captures what the coffeehouse meant—and continues to mean—to Washington, D.C. as well as to Black and queer histories.
"Fierceness Served! The ENIKAlley Coffeehouse" has been making its rounds at select screenings. The ENIKAlley Coffeehouse was a performance and rehearsal space for a cohort of artists, a gathering spot; plus a meeting place for political organizations. This was almost hallowed ground for Black artists to share and workshop their craft. Jones, Essex Hemphill, Cheryl Clarke, Audre Lorde, Blackberri, Casselberry-Dupree, and Pomo Afro Homos all stepped foot into the former carriage house-turned-coffeehouse between 8th, 9th, I, and K Streets, NE. The space at 816 I Street, NE was brick, the size of a large walk-in closet, but had great acoustics.
"The intimacy lent itself to that feeling of being part of the family," Jones said.
“The great thing for me about the Coffeehouse was finding a Black gay community. I didn’t really have that. But it was that aspect of being out, especially for me and Essex, and Larry Duckette, the innovative quality of what we were doing artistically with the choral poetry. And that was something that was new in the way we did it.”
The film "Fierceness Served! The ENIKAlley Coffeehouse," celebrates this time.
"We packed a lot into that 35 minutes," Jones recounts. "How comprehensive and how widespread the Black gay and lesbian community was during that period, of which the Coffeehouse was one expression. It was a world we built. I sort of knew that, but it's seeing it all together and really seeing it was the most I'd ever seen about Sapphire Sapphos, the lesbian support group. And again, just how comprehensive their programming was. Not just around sexuality, but around housing issues or Black community issues that they put forth through a Black lesbian lens. But just seeing how progressive and how Black-centered all of that was, was a revelation for me. Not just for me. Chris [Prince] and I talk about this as well. To see it all together was really like, wow. Look at all the stuff that we were a part of."
Finding A Black Gay Community
Jones and Christopher Prince serve as producers for the documentary but were also active members of the Coffeehouse. When they discussed putting together the film, they knew the best person for the job: Michelle Parkerson. Parkerson is an award-winning filmmaker behind "A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde" and "But Then She's Betty Carter," but she was also there at the Coffeehouse, herself.
"I would accentuate and emphasize what a leader she was, not just in terms of arts and her poetry and performance. Politically, Michelle is like a driving force," Jones said. "She is a dynamic, inspired leader. And just what she's done in terms of her films to tell Black lesbian stories."
Gregory Adams and Pamela A. Jafari joined the three to push the film to completion.
The coffeehouse was a refuge in a city deep in the throes of AIDS, hate crimes toward gays, and the influx of crack. Poets and artists are often tied into the ENIKAlley Coffeehouse, yet political activism was rampant too. People such as Dr. Ron Simmons, Phil Pannell, and Melvin Boozer frequented the space.
By the time Jones found his way to the alleyway coffeehouse, he had been out for six years. While he was in college at the University of Maryland, he was roommates with Essex Hemphill. First semester freshman year, Hemphill was in the closet but "he was peeking in, opening it a crack," Jones said. Things changed quickly. They joined a gay student alliance on campus. The closet door blew open. Venturing into the coffeehouse was something different from the UMD campus. Jones recalls his earliest memory of feeling fierce was on stage with Hemphill in 1986.
"The great thing for me about the Coffeehouse was finding a Black gay community. I didn't really have that. But it was that aspect of being out, especially for me and Essex, and Larry Duckette, the innovative quality of what we were doing artistically with the choral poetry. And that was something that was new in the way we did it."
They were influenced by The Last Poets, Sonia Sanchez, and Haki R. Madhubuti. Poetry was probably 60 percent of what went on in the Coffeehouse, Jones said. Music was ever-present. Dwight Talley was a ballad-era songwriter and singer. He played the keyboard and sang with a barreling baritone voice. Talley would bring a trio: him on the keyboard, maybe bass and drums, even three background vocalists. Jones said they'd blow the roof off. Talley had his sights on mainstream success; however, Jones recalls Talley being one of the first of their friends to die from AIDS-related complications.
"Then we barely knew what was going on in terms of HIV," he said.
Ray Melrose, the coffeehouse founder, shaped the coffeehouse into a hub. Melrose was a beloved leader who connected the dots between politics and art, amplifying Black gay, and queer voices in whatever way possible. Melrose was the most self-possessed person Jones has ever met. Self-doubt was not a part of Melrose's repertoire. He died in 1994.
"We all hung out in this larger arts scene, Black gay lesbian arts scene. And it was fierce in the way it was co-gen. We were really like a family, like brothers and sisters," Jones said. "We collaborated. Men and women did projects together. Essex and Michelle, and I did projects three times. We did collaborative projects. So, all of that, I would say, adds up to something pretty fierce.
“The coffeehouse is probably one of the most Black and queerly significant garages in existence.”
Delan Ellington, a graduate candidate in Public History at Howard University, has conducted extensive research on ENIKAlley Coffeehouse, as well as other Black queer gathering spaces in D.C.
“The coffeehouse is probably one of the most Black and queerly significant garages in existence. And I’m only slightly joking,” “Brother To Brother” and “In the Life” can be directly related to the bonds and connections made at the site.”
This, Ellington describes, is where Black queer culture begins to be documented and expressed — not just one or the other.
“The conversations held there, and the art created and performed there with themes of representation and speaking one’s voice into existence as evidence that one existed once they died early are crucial to the conversations we have today,” they said. “[They] created avenues of expression and helped enlighten every generation of Black queer people thereafter.”
COVID-19 posed a huge challenge for the film's production. They started before March 2020, but quickly adjusted. In-person interviews went to Zoom, but they trudged along.
"Absent COVID, we might have been able to get an hour-length documentary,” Jones said. “Even an hour would've been insufficient.”
More screenings of "Fierceness Served: The ENIKAlley Coffeehouse" are being scheduled. For more info, visit: https://www.thecoffeehousedc.com/
Cover Photo: Voicescapes, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, 1986
Left to Right: (not pictured) Brenda Files, Larry Duckette, Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson, Christopher Prince, Michelle Parkerson, Wayson Jones, Essex Hemphill
Photo: Courtesy of High Performance Magazine
stephen is a writer, filmmaker, and public health advocate. He was the 2021-2022 Narrative Justice Fellow at CNP and is based in Washington, D.C. (Twitter: @stephenhicks)