Reclaiming Space: Black-Led Third Places Are Restoring Community, Culture and Connection

In a time when Black identity is under attack, organizers are turning public and private spaces into powerful centers of belonging and liberation.

(Courtesy of Cafe Resistance)

As Black people, our grounding in community and collective spaces has always been our saving grace. Generally defined as other spaces outside of home, work or school where people can gather in community and build connections with others, third spaces have been in decline for many years. Barriers to sites of belonging and systemic disinvestment in Black communities have always been a feature, not a bug, of a system built on Black dispossession and exclusion. But community organizers are finding creative ways to provide safe third spaces.

As she fought back against book bans and efforts to undermine the teaching of Black history, Angie Nixon, a Black organizer and mompreneur-turned-Florida-state-legislator, wanted to do more for the Jacksonville community she represented. Reflecting on her experience raising children who struggled with reading and recognizing the low literacy rates in her community, she opened Cafe Resistance Bookstore & Coffee Shop.

Beyond improving literacy, Nixon recognized the potential for a bookstore as a space where people could share their skills and talents.

“I am a community organizer, and I know the importance of being in community with folks and educating folks on how to realize their power and to exert their power to get the things that they need," she said. "We use the place as a hub.”

In the year since it opened, Cafe of Resistance has become more than just a place to get books, coffee and smoothies. From teaching about property rights and estate planning to providing connections with nonprofit health care clinics, Cafe of Resistance offers the surrounding community a glimpse of what is possible when people come together. Social media posts for the cafe showcase a range of activities, including free yoga, tutoring and other youth programming, as well as space for organizing. The monthly Solidarity Sundays provide an opportunity for people to donate or fulfill their wants and needs.

"This place has been like a beacon of not just hope, but a beacon of like how our neighborhoods used to be," Nixon said. "People are proud to be Northsiders, and so we are seeing that rise in neighborhood pride."

(Courtesy of Cafe Resistance)

Given the resurging attacks on Black existence and opportunity, Nixon also sees places like Cafe of Resistance as a safe space where people can decompress and just be.

“The majority of us are being pushed towards marginalization,” she said. “This space offers a safe space, a place where people can just go and chill and hang out and also learn and grow. And just be who they are without judgment.”

Even where a dedicated Black-owned space isn't available, many people are leveraging publicly owned spaces, such as parks and libraries, to fill the void. Shamichael Hallman, the director of civic health and economic opportunity at the Urban Libraries Council, described libraries as being a place uniquely suited to meet our need and “hunger for connection.”

"They've always been a space, in theory, where people could show up,” he said. “But it was my time in Memphis working with the Memphis Public Library system, where I really got to see the range of people that show up to the public library.”

During his time at the Memphis Public Libraries, which played a crucial role in desegregating the library system in the state, Hallman realized that creating connections and fulfilling people's needs required more than just potential.

“It really provides an opportunity for anybody, regardless of how much money you have, education level, where you slept last night, the ability to go in and to be amongst people,” he said. “And we know that that does an incredible thing for us as individuals, but also for our communities.”

Hallman also focused on the library's role in strengthening civic health and combating the growing loneliness epidemic and feelings of isolation that have become increasingly apparent since the COVID-19 pandemic reached its peak.

A March 2023 study published in SSM-Population Health found that between 2003 and 2020, “Black Americans experienced more social isolation, on average, than all other racial and ethnic categories.”

Similarly, a 2023 KFF Racism, Discrimination, and Health Survey explored the impact of racism and discrimination on health care, as well as other aspects of everyday life, and the overall effect on health and well-being. Overall, Black adults felt more lonely than their white counterparts, with an estimated 35% of young Black adults saying they were always or often lonely.

Hallman pointed to libraries as a form of civic infrastructure that strengthens individual well-being, enhances connections and provides a space for people to discuss public issues and challenges.

“Whether it is being able to get access to information, whether it is being able to talk about issues in a way that you know you can, can move things forward, whether it is just being in conversation with other people,” he said. “All of these things, I think, lead to communities and individuals being much more resilient.”

For Blackspace founder Pierce Freelon, building community and resilience includes making space for our people, particularly Black youth, to dream and tap into African-centered and Afro-futurist frameworks to support building a better future that is inclusive of all aspects of Black life.

“Blackspace was designed to create a breathing space for youth of African descent, to create a place where they can create, make beats, create visual and digital media projects, documentaries, video games, and animations,” he said. “We know that young people are going to be important, not just visionaries, but the people who are working to make this world we know is possible and the world that we deserve to manifest.”

While necessary for the growth and development of Black youth, third spaces are often scarce. Growing out of a beat-making lab hosted in a studio in Chapel Hill, N.C., Blackspace opened its Durham studio in 2016. While the work always centered Black communities, Freelon described the impact of the Movement for Black Lives on the shift to a dedicated Black third space.

“We use the metaphor of a black ‘whole’ — not the one that you get sucked into the gravity of, but a whole Black person is part of a whole Black community where, you know, basic needs are met,” he said. “It made sense to us to build that community, to hold space for that community to allow folks to feel like they can breathe in an all Black space that felt foundational to building the most imaginative, radical, and resilient youth possible.”

From "Wokeshops," informed by the Blackspace Mother Board, to the innovative experiences like the Rowdy Summer Cypher, Blackspace youth have a space “to occupy the heart of our city every week, to speak their truth unapologetically, affirm self-esteem, and help the creative fires inside each of them radiate.”

Renamed in honor of Blackspace's late executive director Kevin “Rowdy” Rowsey, the Summer Cyphers run April through September on the first and third Fridays at CCB Plaza in Durham. What was once a year-round program is now a summer series that balances elements of hip hop with those of mental health, balance, and rest.

“People come up and express themselves, and they rap and sing and cry and do poems,” he shared. “All types of community expressions are welcome. It's become a really important part of downtown Durham and Durham culture.”

For Freelon and Blackspace, convening the community and cultivating third spaces are a part of our heritage as Black people.

"Our ancestors been convening and connecting since they got to this country and way before,” he said. “You don't need permission. You don't need credentials. All you need is some other like-minded folks and some space. And if you don't have space, you can create it.”

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Anoa Changa is a southern-based movement journalist, narrative strategist, podcast producer and retired attorney. She has bylines in NewsOne, Truthout, Harper’s Bazaar, DAME Magazine, Scalawag, Rewire News Group and Essence.