Fierceness Served! The ENIKAlley Coffeehouse

This documentary chronicles a vital chapter in Washington, DC's cultural history: the ENIKAlley Coffeehouse, a Black LGBTQ+/SGL performance venue, rehearsal space, and political gathering place that flourished from the 1980s through the mid-1990s.

Filmmaker Michelle Parkerson's 35-minute documentary Fierceness Served captures how this northeast DC carriage house, in an alley, became the heart of a cultural renaissance rivaling the Harlem Renaissance. The film reveals the coffeehouse's profound influence on literature, music, and performing arts, inspiring artists like Essex Hemphill, Maxine Clair, Audre Lorde, and many others. It also highlights how the coffeehouse helped foster indispensable community connections and identity for its patrons during an era of intense political and social transformation. This powerful work stands as essential viewing for LGBTQ+/SGL communities in the D.C. and far beyond.

We will gather online at 12:30 p.m. and have our general check-in. The film will follow (35 mins), and then a discussion led by Pamela Jafari, one of the documentary's Steering Committee Members.

.