Are you looking for coffee, vegetarian food, books and movies about the African diaspora? Look no further! Turns out, there's a quaint little bookshop in central Washington, DC, called the Sankofa Cafe, here to meet your artistic needs.
Sankofa Cafe is more Red Emma's than Barnes & Noble; the tiny cafe-bookshop hybrid opens with a food counter towards your left and a retail counter towards your right. It's nestled in Howard University's campus corridor on Georgia Ave, two blocks from Benjamin Banneker Sr. High School. Its location was bought in 1997 after Haile and his sister/coworker Salome moved their filmic operations from a basement. It's owned by the Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima, whose oeuvre includes Teza (2008), Bush Mama (1979), and the famous Sankofa (1993) about a model who's transplanted back in time and becomes a slave. [gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="2691,2690"]
The cafe's menu boasts an array of breakfast foods, salads, sandwich wraps, and paninis, with two choices for pizza at the bottom. Breakfast, which is served all day, consists mostly of sandwiches made from fresh organic ingredients and produce: For example, the Smoked Salmon Melt includes wild Alaskan smoked salmon, organic spinach, dill, pesto, capers, onions, tomatoes, pepper jack cheese, and Sankofa dressing on a croissant.
The space leading towards the back are lined with books by famous black authors and intellectuals, ranging from Alice Walker to Zora Neale Hurston. It features sections for fiction, critical theory, history, children's books and others. They also sell various Afrocentric paraphernilia, such as natural cosmetics, mugs, bookmarks, and journals designed by indie artists. This writer managed to buy Derek Walcott's The Odyssey, Arundhati Roy's acclaimed The God of Small Things, a mug and a small journal with a beautiful black dancer on the cover.
The store also sells Haile and Salome's films. Among their diverse array include Sankofa, Ashes and Embers (1982) and the documentary Adwa (1999).
Have you been to Sankofa Video Books & Cafe? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments!
