This Café and Bookstore is Creating Alternative Ways for QTPOC to Build Community in Dallas

By Yvonne Marquez

Oftentimes, queer community is forged at gay bars, nightclubs, or other social gatherings centered around alcohol. And if you’re a queer person of color seeking community, it can be even more challenging to find a place or event to meet others like yourself. Niecee X, a 29-year-old community organizer and artist, is trying to change the scene in Dallas by organizing QTPOC-centered open mics, intentional conversations, and dinner parties with the hope of one day opening Revolution Café and Bookstore to offer new ways of forming community.

A physical location of Revolution Café and Bookstore does not exist just yet. Niecee and a collective of QTPOC artists and organizers are currently in the process of securing funding to buy a building that will become their future dream business space. Picture it: a two-story home in the heart of Oak Cliff, the predominantly Black and brown neighborhood in which Niecee grew up. The first floor will be part plant-based restaurant, part bookstore and community center, and the top floor will be a “living co-opt” for the collective and community members. The home will have a big patio and a backyard with access to a neighborhood garden. Niecee’s vision is to create something that her communities can both benefit from and be a part of creating. “We have such a dependence on our systems of so-called ‘government’ that we forget how much power we have within our own hands and our own might as a community,” Niecee says. “I really want to facilitate the reimagining of what that looks like and bring it back. I believe in people power.”

Since June 2018, Niecee and the RCB collective have been intentionally creating fun, social events every month to build a following and get people interested in Revolution Café and Bookstore’s mission. Some of these events have included: “Queer AF” open mic nights featuring queer poets and musicians of color at Deep Vellum bookstore and “The Kiki,” a conversation series featuring community panelists speaking on self-love and self-actualization, chosen family, and sex and love. They hope to bring these same types of events to their future brick-and-mortar location. “People didn’t know they needed this space until they were in the space—where they didn’t have to negotiate how to be or how to exist,” Niecee says. “It just felt natural and felt like family. That’s what I wanted from it.”

And of course, at all of their events, you can find their flavorful vegan creations to purchase. They’ve also hosted brunch day parties featuring vegan comfort food like chicken and waffles, sautéed cajun veggies, cheesy southern grits, sweet potato home fries, and watermelon fruit salad.

Niecee, who has been a vegetarian/vegan since she was 10 years old—after her brother showed her a PETA video—is the mastermind behind the vegan menus. She draws inspiration from soul food and fusion cuisines. “Vegan food doesn’t have to be wheatgrass and oats on top,” she says. “It can be really flavorful, really delicious, and fun.”

It’s important for Niecee to create an accessible and affordable vegan eatery in Oak Cliff because the area is a food dessert with very limited grocery stores. One of Revolution Café and Bookstore’s goals is to eventually have a “pay what you can” kitchen model, which would allow patrons to pay what they can, whether it be $5 or $50, for a delicious meal. “Our purpose is to create alternatives to the non-profit industrial complex, which oftentimes picks and chooses which causes are necessary based on the opinions of people who don’t have any direct experience with those issues,” Niecee says. “The goal is to create revenue that then goes back out into the community and deals with tangible issues.”

Ultimately, what Revolution Café and Bookstore needs to make their ideas come to life is money. The collective has been working on finding different funding sources, like grants and pitch competitions, so that they can secure the building. In the meantime, they’ll continue hosting events around Dallas, and plan to open and operate a virtual kitchen space out of Da Munchies, another Black-owned vegan eatery in Dallas. Their food will be available through Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash. “I think when you see yourself in other spaces—and you see what other people have been able to do, or what other people are doing—that it increases your esteem of what you can do.”

Keep up with Revolution Café and Bookstore’s progress by visiting their website and following on Instagram.