Who says that coffee can’t fuel a movement?
Certainly not Zenat Begum. When her father decided to close his Bed-Stuy hardware store in 2015, she began dreaming up what could take its place—and landed on a coffee shop. But not just any coffee shop; instead, she wanted to create the sort of community space she always wished existed when she was growing up in Brooklyn. A space that supported its neighbors, elevated its marginalized members, and celebrated both activism and art.
Enter Playground Coffee Shop, which for the past five years has served up so much more than just lattes; it’s also (in no particular order) a nonprofit that hosts workshops, a bookstore that prioritizes works by BIPOCQ writers, a radio station that organizes festivals, and a network of community fridges that will soon be filled with produce grown in their very own greenhouse.
And through it all, Zenat has focused on addressing the needs of Playground’s Bed-Stuy community—from the Trump administration’s Muslim ban to Covid’s impact on, well, everything.
As she gears up for a busy summer (think: a veggie harvest, a block party, and ways to address the pandemic-induced mental health crisis), Zenat chatted with Rally+Rise about building community where you are, tapping the skills you already have, and avoiding burnout.
Let’s talk about the A word: activism. Do you consider yourself an activist?
I believe in my heart that I've always been one. The work that I had been doing in high school, as well as in the beginning of college too, there was a lot of rallying and protesting. In college I went to Occupy [Wall Street], and it was such a profound moment where my professor at the time made fighting for things we deserve such a big part of our identity.
“I’ve been in a lot of positions where I’ve had no options, and it felt like my whole entire life was on the line; I want things to be different for people around me.”
What about Playground—is it an activist space?
Playground’s existence is resistance. We’re giving people the tools and resources they need. I’ve been in a lot of positions where I’ve had no options, and it felt like my whole entire life was on the line; I want things to be different for people around me. Being able to see the lack of care and lack of resources and lack of attention for people like myself from immigrant families whose parents didn’t know a lot about opportunities—that was really exhausting as a child, that’s a lot of ownership over your identity.
The take-one, leave-one library outside of Playground Coffee Shop.
How would you describe the work you do through Playground?
There’s so much that we do that’s important—it’s kind of like a museum, but also a gallery, but also a headquarters. But first and foremost, we’re a community organization that will pivot towards helping the community. I’ve lived around New York my whole life and [my family’s] hardware store was everything, so I wanted to create a place of compassion in a place that felt like home to me.
Was there a lightbulb moment where you realized you could use a coffee shop to create a space that also provided resources to your community?
There wasn’t any tangible thing that made me turn Playground into a community space; I always wanted to do that. So much happens in a coffee shop—our first shows, our first hangouts, our first poetry readings. I love coffee and I love to be able to gather around food. We have global food systems where we don’t care for each other and don’t feed each other with intention. We learned so much through the Black Panthers’ free food program, where every kid was given breakfast and lunch for free. It’s insane that it took a civil rights movement to have us think about food.
“We have global food systems where we don’t care for each other and don’t feed each other with intention.”
I’ve never been to a coffee shop in my life that looks like Playground. People might now label it as a place of activism, but I just created what I wanted to see. I’m not a white person; being able to question things, being able to understand and articulate your concerns about something is really important, and in so many things I’ve never felt comfortable doing that. So I was like, fuck it, I’m doing it on my own.
Playground opened a few days before Trump got elected, so we held a community town hall and asked: “What do you need? Because this is about to get bad.” And that’s when the Muslim ban happened. So I was training 12 people a month on how to be a barista, and then also doing book readings, art fairs, podcasts, facilitating community dinners, doing a CSA, chess clubs for children…. We were trying to use the space for the best reasons possible for the people around us. It’s unreal for Playground to do everything under the sun and also be a coffee shop, but it works.
The produce grown in Playground’s greenhouse will fill the community fridges they’ve set up throughout Brooklyn.
How have your own interests or skills separate from the world of activism helped to make you a better organizer?
My dad is an entrepreneur, and I’ve learned so much from him. I can always see the gap, and I can always bridge the gap. I started the business at 22, and now I’m 27 and have had the business open for half a decade, and this ability to see where the puzzle pieces go has served me well. For example, I’ve been trying to promote literature for the last three years, and our sales were so bad because no one cared about reading…but then, as soon as the race stuff popped up, people started reading. And white people would order books and then not pick them up; I’d email them, they wouldn’t email back, whatever. So I was like, wow, if people are paying for things and not picking them up, I should just leave them for other people. So I found a bookshelf on the street, flipped it with my friend, and the next thing I knew I had a take-one-leave-one library.
“We lose a lot of time by faking what we’re good at. That’s the level of imposter syndrome where you have to act like you know everything. It’s more effective to do something you’re good at and true at, and maybe along the way you learn a new skill, but you don’t need to make up a new skill set.”
But you don’t need to know any new skills to be an organizer! That’s the thing: People need to stop thinking that they have to be this nuance of activism. If you’re good at graphic design, design a flyer. If you’re good at bringing people into a room, send the text. If you’re good at feeding people, do meals to-go. Easy. That’s what we have to start doing. We lose a lot of time by faking what we’re good at. That’s the level of imposter syndrome where you have to act like you know everything. It’s more effective to do something you’re good at and true at, and maybe along the way you learn a new skill, but you don’t need to make up a new skill set. Let’s utilize what you have! You’re good enough.
If we want a world that has no prison system or police or judicial sabotage of people’s lives, I think the one thing we need to be doing is tapping into the things we’re good at to support the people around us. Starting small and having an impact in your community is so important.
What’s your advice to people who want to do something similar to Playground and use their business—a cafe, a restaurant, a bookstore, whatever—to help support their community?
As long as there is a community around your business, you’re all set. If there’s a demand—and if there’s a will—there’s a way. You either have a community or you don’t. But it’s not impossible to grow community if you don’t have one: Look up, say “hi” to your neighbors, and invite people into your space. It’s like with anything, I would love to get invited to something, and once you get invited you can invite other people. That’s how kinship and stewardship works.
“We need to take care of our caretakers.”
You also have to be able to have a great crew around you, and people who will protect you and keep you in check. We need to take care of our caretakers. Because we don't always know what we need, so we need other people to be like, “Hey, slow down. You’re burning out. What can I do with you?”
How have you protected yourself from activist burnout?
I can’t answer that question, because I had my bag and car stolen through community work. I had to wait for a tragedy and incur huge personal loss before I realized that you can’t save everyone. Having that amount of weight and burden on your back—when you think you have to save everyone—is immense. We have to work around guilt. Guilt is how we feel politics; we as one person cannot change the world, but our strength comes in numbers. Then we’ll have a better understanding of this. If I was not good, then none of this would be good.
After I lost all of my belongings, I had a very huge breakdown. I was exhausted, I didn’t talk, and I was very upset. That’s what felt the most right for me: I needed to go inward. So I had to hide for a minute. This year was really, really hard for my friends and family and everyone else in the universe, and I'm very lucky to be here. So while I'm in a position to fight, I have to preserve myself. If I'm not right, I can't help my future.
Zenat with the Playground team.
Who are the activists inspiring you right now?
The people who run the Underground Museum, they're so sick. Salome Asega. Everybody over at Public Assistants—they’re some of the greatest people i’ve ever met and they’re at risk of losing their space and I hope all the good they put out into the world comes back to them. Mil Mundos, a bilingual bookstore in Ridgewood—they’ve been doing a lot of mutual aid work and also Spanish literacy.
If people took one activist action—and “Activist” could mean anything—what would you recommend they do?
I recommend getting grounded first. The moment you realize that you're part of this earth and able to align yourself with that, you can develop the most intention for whatever you want to do.
What's next for Playground in 2021?
I’m an artist, first. I’ve been a musician for almost 10 years. So I launched a Playground radio platform to give people a place to play music and share their craft with the world. Through that project I was able to learn that we’re able to do small miniature festivals and pay artists—which we’ve always done. We need moments to sit still. We’re also doing another farmers’ market with free and fresh produce and launching a CSA, and we built a greenhouse outside of Playground that we’re going to start harvesting in June. It will be a direct pipeline for our fridges. And then we’re hoping to have another block party again that’s socially distanced.
“As the vaccine rolls out and people get tested regularly, I hope that we can build optimism, because this pandemic is going to build heavy mental health issues in our community.”
Being able to find moments of happiness is what I want to go after this year. It’s like: We’ll keep doing the mutual aid work, but is everyone okay? That’s what we’re after. I want to make sure we're good, but I'm really stoked on getting this done because we haven’t had a moment of happiness and clarity in a long time. As the vaccine rolls out and people get tested regularly, I hope that we can build optimism, because this pandemic is going to build heavy mental health issues in our community. Yes, we can give people things they need, but people need to hear that we’ll care for them, too. And that’s what Playground stands for. We’ll give you the resources you need. We’re here to make the world a little bit of an easier place—along with the bullshit.
Visit playgroundcoffeeshop.com to learn more. To support Playground Youth, consider making a donation through GoFundMe.