Cafe con Libros Serves Up Coffee and Community in Crown Heights

Since Cafe con Libros opened its doors in 2017, there have been certain books that the store can’t keep on its shelves long enough. “bell hooks’ ‘All About Love’ continues to be our top seller,” owner Kalima DeSuze tells Brownstoner. “Along with [Audre Lorde’s] ‘Sister Outsider’ and ‘Women, Race & Class’ by Angela Davis.” That Brooklyn book lovers know where to go for literature that informs and educates as much as it captivates is testament to what Cafe con Libros has established over the past three years.

Named in tribute to the café con leche drink enjoyed in her parents’ home country of Panama and to her Afro-Latina roots, DeSuze opened Cafe con Libros as a space for voices of women from the global diaspora to take center stage. The store, in Crown Heights, is close to where DeSuze grew up. Serving Irving Farm coffee and locally made pastries, it’s become a hub for casual passersby and deliberate visitors who seek out its socially conscious literary offerings.

Cafe con Libros hosts regular book-club meet-ups that have, since the pandemic, been moved online, and will continue to be held virtually until 2022. Subjects like oppressive systems, economic justice, and equality are discussed at these events, and people from around the world have been able to tune in, expanding the warm neighborhood vibe Cafe con Libros exudes beyond its Prospect Place address.

A social worker and teacher by day, DeSuze credits books for her social education, and so every decision she makes about the store is rooted in her degrees in social work and social policy. “It really shows up in how I decide to run the business, who I give a platform to, what books I choose,” she says. She wants to continue building the community Cafe con Libros has created by using Slack to continue conversations started at book-club meet-ups. Down the line, she sees a second store too.

Still, running a business and being an Afro-Latina entrepreneur brings its challenges. Receiving an advance copy of Argentinian young adult author Romina Garber’s new release ‘Cazadora’ was a recent reminder of why DeSuze started in the first place. “To be able to read stories like this, to uplift stories like this, to create communities around stories of this magnitude, it makes all the crying, the late nights, the waking up at 3 a.m. to make sure the social media calendar is all planned out, worth it,” she says.

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the Fall/Holiday 2021 issue of Brownstoner magazine.

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