[gentle music]
- Everything in here, there is great intention.
From the ground up, from the inside out,
black people contributing
to the making of this entire space.
- [Ileana] I really like
the way that they represent everybody
and it's really nice to see that.
- What I'm always trying to do is to put the books together
in ways that suggest conversations,
ways that may be surprising.
I hope that when somebody comes out of Rofhiwa,
they feel like they've just been immersed in something.
And that is an all encompassing experience
and communing with black art and black literature
in all its forms.
And I'm talking visual art,
I'm talking about the kind of music
that we have on our playlists,
I'm talking about the art, the books on our shelves.
So, it really is an attempt
to create an immersive experience
across the various forms of black art and literature.
- Welcome to Rofhiwa Book Cafe.
We are located at the corner
of Driver and Angier,
the bustling Driver-Angier corridor.
Lots of sounds, lots of music,
lots of other interesting neighborhood sonic experiences.
A significant thing happened, my grandmother died in 2017
and that kind of threw me into a certain kind of spiral.
I thought, okay, well,
I may not have the entirety of my life
to collect these books
and be able to put together this reference library.
So I started to think then about
what it would look like to put it together.
That's where the idea of a bookstore came along.
It just made sense because we're in Durham,
it's a historic city.
It's just got so much happening
in the way of black life and black history.
- I'm a mixed media, painter, sculptor, and musician.
My work is here at Rofhiwa.
I call it Afro expressionism.
It's centered on the humanity and experiences
of black people in America and throughout the diaspora.
I hear people say sometimes within our community,
like, "I don't wanna see no more trauma."
The way I address it is,
can't heal nothing you don't reveal.
- Shambo brought this in for Black History Month.
So I put together that shelf,
which is again about questioning what is history,
and this, the idea is that Shambo brings in a piece
that then answers elements of the question that I am asking.
- I always say that in my work
I'm painting a redemption song.
'Cause I feel the stories don't get told
in a way that that really honor
the fullness of who we are
and what we've meant to the whole world.
- What I noticed when I first came up to this,
it was like an eye, and it's crying, I think,
and it explains a lot.
There was like them all over,
and this is a really magnificent piece, really creative.
- There's so much about this space that I love,
and some of it came together very intentionally,
and some of it came together very haphazardly,
and maybe that's the part that I love the most,
that some of it was quite haphazard.
One of the things that I'm also very excited about
in this space is our tables.
So we worked with a young queer black artist out of New York
who custom built these tables for us.
On the tables, you'll see imposed the map of Hat Yai.
This is our cafe space.
So we just walked out of the bookstore.
We're in the cafe now, this is
a whole different vibe. - [woman] And get
to this vibe.
- This is a coffee program like I said,
lattes, Americanos, cappuccinos.
- [Woman] Keeping it simple.
- [Beverley] keeping it simple.
- [Woman] Keeping it basic.
- No frills, got some candles from Bright Black
and some of the art that you see here are prints
from again, Shambo Medina.
This is also our informal-formal cookbook section.
So I mentioned earlier,
we've been exploring and putting together
books for our youngest readers.
So this is where they're displayed.
And the idea is that
if you've got a little one who's of walking age,
they may not necessarily be able to browse over there,
but when the parents are buying, you know, a coffee, a tea,
they might wander over here.
And you know, when you're imagining that,
when we built it out, that's what we thought.
But to actually watch kids waddle over here and grab a book
and that's what they want that day, it feels really nice.
- I love Rofhiwa, I'm a neighbor, I live down the street,
and also I'm a teacher at Maureen Joy Charter School
which is just a couple of blocks away.
We walk down here most weekends
and come in for a snack, and some coffee, and reading books.
So it's just a wonderful addition to the community.
It's nice to be able to come to a place
where they can browse through books
and choose one that they wanna read back in class.
- So this, of obviously lots of great children's books,
so colorful, and bright, and fun.
I think it matters so much
just for kids to see themselves reflected back.
- We've had parents come in here on a weekend
and say, "I didn't know this many black authors
"wrote this many children's books,
"I didn't, I just had no idea."
- It's fun to read different books because in school,
there are only sometimes only certain types of books
you can read.
- Beyond being a bookstore and a coffee shop,
we also host various community events.
We host book talks, we have an ongoing speaker series.
- There at what felt like the edge of the world,
Erzulie and I met the storm.
Puddles of muted like puncture the dark.
- [Naledi] We are a live music venue,
we host film showcases, we have arts exhibits.
So there's always something going on at Rofhiwa.
- Excuse me, I just wanna say
that I really like your art
and it's really beautiful and pretty.
- Thank you, thank you very much.
- [Shambo] Y'all artists too?
- Yeah,
I draw on a sketchbook. - Kinda.
I kind of draw, but I do a lot of writing.
- [Shambo] A lot of writing, okay, nice.
I really appreciate y'all saying that.
- You're welcome. - You're welcome.
- I'm always trying to demonstrate the depth
of black literature.
And sometimes that's just collecting an author's work
and showing you
just how expansively that person has written.
Percival Everett who is from this particular place,
is American, Zakes Mda is South African,
Marlon James is Jamaican, Tochi Onyebuchi is Nigeria.
- She did a good job.
She did books for adults and for kids,
so everybody, when they come in here
they will have an option to choose from.
- You're not here to be educated and beaten over the head,
you really are here to commune with people
in all of their complexity, in all of their humanity.
- It was kind of wild
that there was not a black bookstore in Durham.
Didn't make any sense.
Suddenly this thing that I'd been nurturing,
this thing that I'd been dreaming
was maybe also going to fulfill a need.
I had this idea in my mind,
I didn't know where I was gonna do it,
I didn't know I was gonna put it,
and here I am in Durham, and there's nothing like it.
- [Announcer] Rofhiwa Book Cafe
is at 406 South Driver Street in Durham,
and they're open daily.
For more information, give them a call at [919] 391-8945
or visit them online @rofhiwabooks.com.