Kate Khatib has a number of multifaceted vocations: academic, community organizer, writer and co-founder/worker/owner of Red Emma’s, a collectively-owned and operated radical bookstore and fair-trade cafe in Baltimore —just to name a few.
Khatib was born in Florida but spent a majority of her adolescent years in a small town in Kentucky. Towards the end of her teenage years, Khatib jumped at the opportunity to move to a big city, and hence relocated to Philadelphia to study English and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, Khatib found a strong community of radical thinkers comprised of students and activists. This community organized not only around the Mumia struggle and the Gulf War, but also focused intensively on all aspects of community rights issues. They fervently sought to form strong political and social networks, as well as build better communities.
After graduating from UPenn with her Bachelors Degree, Khatib moved to Amsterdam in 2000. Here she continued her studies as a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam. In addition to earning her M.A. in Philosophy and Cultural Analysis and her M.Phil in Cultural Analysis, Khatib spent her three years in the Netherlands programming a series of avant-garde films and running an Info Café, where she gave out free food and offered squatting advisory services.
Khatib returned to the United States in 2003 to begin her PhD in Intellectual History at Johns Hopkins University. Her dissertation topic would go on to be “Surrealism’s America: The Chicago Surrealist Group and the Historical Imagination.” Once in Baltimore, Khatib helped found Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffehouse, a collectively-owned, radical café which remains at the center of her life and political development.
We had the great pleasure of interviewing Khatib about how she came to found Red Emma’s, its mission and what makes it so unique, how Baltimore allows it to thrive and what its future plans are as it continues to grow.
1. To start, could you talk a little bit about how you made your way to Red Emma’s? Does it fill a niche void? If so, how would you describe this void?
Red Emma’s was founded in 2003, and we opened our first location in 2004. All of the founding collective members were active in organizing of one sort or another - I’d been active in the anti-globalization movement, traveling from city to city, and from country to country to set up media infrastructure for mass mobilizations around ministerial meetings of organizations like the WTO and the IMF and World Bank. That kind of organizing had its limits - we were building strong international networks, but when push came to shove, we weren’t really doing much to build lasting, long-term infrastructure. In the early 2000s, there was a shift in activism - a kind of turn towards the local, the reinvigoration of a place-based model for organizing. Red Emma’s grew out of that shift. We wanted to use our skills to build a space that was deeply rooted in communities, and that provided ways for people to think about making long-term commitments to the city. Worker-ownership was a big part of that rootedness, as was a very long process of networking, of doing community organizing, and of building strong, personal, lasting relationships with individuals and organizations doing important work around the region. At that particular moment - in 2003 & 2004 - Baltimore needed a space to do that work, and we happened to be in the right place at the right time.
2. Being called “Red Emma’s,” have you ever felt inhibited by the political and ideological baggage (so to speak) that comes with such an overt association?
Not really. The ideals that stand behind our project - democratic self-management, racial & gender equality, freedom of speech, and beyond - are ones that I see as non-negotiable for a truly free and egalitarian society. We didn’t choose to name ourselves after Emma Goldman because we were in full agreement with every single thing she ever wrote or said; rather, we chose to name our project after Emma because we were inspired by the example she set by living her life in the way she thought best, and speaking her mind at any cost. There are certainly people who prefer not to patronize our store because of our overt radicalism, but more and more we find that the ideas we are putting out into the world are ones that folks sorely need and want, and for me, that’s truly wonderful to see. One of the reasons we chose to couple our bookstore - which is really where the project started - with a cafe was because we wanted to take away some of the barriers to entry. Not everyone will be comfortable walking through the doors of a self-identified left political bookstore, but most people can get behind a good cup of coffee. The fact that the cafe exists makes folks feel more comfortable taking that first step into the world we’re trying to create - and we make sure that world is reflected in everything we do, including each and every cup of transparently-traded, cooperatively-roasted coffee we serve.
3. How would you describe Red Emma’s relationship to the Baltimore community? Do you think Red Emma’s would thrive in a less diverse city?
I think it’s a fallacy to talk about “the Baltimore community.” Baltimore is a multi-faceted city with scores of different communities within it. It’s a city of neighborhoods, each and every one of which has its own specific character, its own leaders, and its own particular needs and wants. We try to provide a place where people can come together, across geographic, social, economic, and political boundaries. We have a very strong relationship with the folks in our neighborhood, which includes art students from MICA, working artists, seniors living in the public housing building next door to us, folks coming to the methadone clinics, and many, many more. We try to treat each and every one of those people with care, and provide a space where they can talk to and build relationships with each other, in addition to providing a place where they can gather with their own.
b. Is there something specific to Baltimore that has allowed you to thrive?
I think Baltimore is a truly hopeful, resilient city. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Red Emma’s has absolutely thrived in Baltimore because of Baltimore. Would a project like this work in other cities? Certainly. But projects like this one need to adapt to where they are. I’ve lived in Baltimore for over a decade at this point; some of the other worker-owners at Red Emma’s grew up in this city. We’ve been shaped by the city, at the same time that we’re working collaboratively to make the city better. That’s not something you can uproot and move somewhere else, even if the ideas behind the project are universal in some way.
4. What are your thoughts on radicalism as a catalyst for change? Is something to be supported, or is there a better way to address societal issues?
If we are truly working in the service of building a better world, we have to be prepared to attack on all fronts. That means working on policy issues as well as direct democratic action, infrastructural development, and mass mobilization. It’s not enough to simply try to reform the system we have - the roots of institutionalized racism, sexism, and oppression run too deep within capitalism’s core. But, for me personally, it’s equally problematic to refuse to engage in conversations around reforms, because if we’re going to have a government, it should at least be working for us - providing the kinds of support that people need right now. Red Emma’s is a kind of big tent radical project - we don’t all agree on everything, including radical strategy, within our collective, and our customer base is even broader. Mostly what we try to do is provide a space for folks to dialogue and find ways to build together.
5. You’ve been working on 2640, a church that’s becoming a radical events and arts venue. How important is it for Red Emma’s to expand its efforts and influence outside the walls of the cafe?
It’s wrong to think that Red Emma’s wants to expand, or even have, a sphere of influence. We exist to provide a resource - a space that folks need to come together, but we’re not pushing a party line. We decided to start the 2640 Space because we needed and wanted a larger space to expand on that mission, to be able to reach out into different communities that we weren’t able to connect with from our original basement storefront in Mount Vernon, and say “Hey, we’re here. Let us know what we can do to support the work you’re doing."
b. Do you feel that Red Emma’s has outgrown its current space?
We expanded into a significantly larger space in 2013, 5 times the size of our original location, with a full commercial kitchen, a dedicated classroom space for the Baltimore Free School (our third collective project), and space for our transparent-trade roasting project, Thread Coffee. So, we have a lot going on in our main location now, but it will be a while before we outgrow it.
6. Red Emma’s is overflowing with various art mediums —not just literature. Is there a particular art form you hope to focus on in the future?
As a bookstore, we prioritize making print literature available as broadly as possible, but we’re generally excited about any tools and mediums folks are using to get their word out to the world at large.
7. Can you explain what makes a collectively-owned project unique in the world of small businesses?
Let’s say you have a business that’s owned by one person, and has twenty employees. That’s great - that’s twenty-one people with jobs, hopefully ones that are paid at a living wage, with health insurance. But those jobs don’t necessarily have stability - even with pathways towards management, the workers are always going to be at the mercy of someone higher up, who can change the course of their lives with a single decision to fire them. That model doesn’t encourage folks to make longterm commitments, to really put down roots. Now imagine the same business, but with twenty-one equal owners - twenty-one people who are working together to make decisions that affect their futures, twenty-one people who are now business owners in the community, who have a longterm stake in what happens in that community. That’s an appealing scenario, because broad-based democratic ownership is a way of building resilient, caring communities. That’s what we’re trying to do as a worker-owned business.
Khatib was born in Florida but spent a majority of her adolescent years in a small town in Kentucky. Towards the end of her teenage years, Khatib jumped at the opportunity to move to a big city, and hence relocated to Philadelphia to study English and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, Khatib found a strong community of radical thinkers comprised of students and activists. This community organized not only around the Mumia struggle and the Gulf War, but also focused intensively on all aspects of community rights issues. They fervently sought to form strong political and social networks, as well as build better communities.
After graduating from UPenn with her Bachelors Degree, Khatib moved to Amsterdam in 2000. Here she continued her studies as a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam. In addition to earning her M.A. in Philosophy and Cultural Analysis and her M.Phil in Cultural Analysis, Khatib spent her three years in the Netherlands programming a series of avant-garde films and running an Info Café, where she gave out free food and offered squatting advisory services.
Khatib returned to the United States in 2003 to begin her PhD in Intellectual History at Johns Hopkins University. Her dissertation topic would go on to be “Surrealism’s America: The Chicago Surrealist Group and the Historical Imagination.” Once in Baltimore, Khatib helped found Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffehouse, a collectively-owned, radical café which remains at the center of her life and political development.
We had the great pleasure of interviewing Khatib about how she came to found Red Emma’s, its mission and what makes it so unique, how Baltimore allows it to thrive and what its future plans are as it continues to grow.
1. To start, could you talk a little bit about how you made your way to Red Emma’s? Does it fill a niche void? If so, how would you describe this void?
Red Emma’s was founded in 2003, and we opened our first location in 2004. All of the founding collective members were active in organizing of one sort or another - I’d been active in the anti-globalization movement, traveling from city to city, and from country to country to set up media infrastructure for mass mobilizations around ministerial meetings of organizations like the WTO and the IMF and World Bank. That kind of organizing had its limits - we were building strong international networks, but when push came to shove, we weren’t really doing much to build lasting, long-term infrastructure. In the early 2000s, there was a shift in activism - a kind of turn towards the local, the reinvigoration of a place-based model for organizing. Red Emma’s grew out of that shift. We wanted to use our skills to build a space that was deeply rooted in communities, and that provided ways for people to think about making long-term commitments to the city. Worker-ownership was a big part of that rootedness, as was a very long process of networking, of doing community organizing, and of building strong, personal, lasting relationships with individuals and organizations doing important work around the region. At that particular moment - in 2003 & 2004 - Baltimore needed a space to do that work, and we happened to be in the right place at the right time.
2. Being called “Red Emma’s,” have you ever felt inhibited by the political and ideological baggage (so to speak) that comes with such an overt association?
Not really. The ideals that stand behind our project - democratic self-management, racial & gender equality, freedom of speech, and beyond - are ones that I see as non-negotiable for a truly free and egalitarian society. We didn’t choose to name ourselves after Emma Goldman because we were in full agreement with every single thing she ever wrote or said; rather, we chose to name our project after Emma because we were inspired by the example she set by living her life in the way she thought best, and speaking her mind at any cost. There are certainly people who prefer not to patronize our store because of our overt radicalism, but more and more we find that the ideas we are putting out into the world are ones that folks sorely need and want, and for me, that’s truly wonderful to see. One of the reasons we chose to couple our bookstore - which is really where the project started - with a cafe was because we wanted to take away some of the barriers to entry. Not everyone will be comfortable walking through the doors of a self-identified left political bookstore, but most people can get behind a good cup of coffee. The fact that the cafe exists makes folks feel more comfortable taking that first step into the world we’re trying to create - and we make sure that world is reflected in everything we do, including each and every cup of transparently-traded, cooperatively-roasted coffee we serve.
3. How would you describe Red Emma’s relationship to the Baltimore community? Do you think Red Emma’s would thrive in a less diverse city?
I think it’s a fallacy to talk about “the Baltimore community.” Baltimore is a multi-faceted city with scores of different communities within it. It’s a city of neighborhoods, each and every one of which has its own specific character, its own leaders, and its own particular needs and wants. We try to provide a place where people can come together, across geographic, social, economic, and political boundaries. We have a very strong relationship with the folks in our neighborhood, which includes art students from MICA, working artists, seniors living in the public housing building next door to us, folks coming to the methadone clinics, and many, many more. We try to treat each and every one of those people with care, and provide a space where they can talk to and build relationships with each other, in addition to providing a place where they can gather with their own.
b. Is there something specific to Baltimore that has allowed you to thrive?
I think Baltimore is a truly hopeful, resilient city. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Red Emma’s has absolutely thrived in Baltimore because of Baltimore. Would a project like this work in other cities? Certainly. But projects like this one need to adapt to where they are. I’ve lived in Baltimore for over a decade at this point; some of the other worker-owners at Red Emma’s grew up in this city. We’ve been shaped by the city, at the same time that we’re working collaboratively to make the city better. That’s not something you can uproot and move somewhere else, even if the ideas behind the project are universal in some way.
4. What are your thoughts on radicalism as a catalyst for change? Is something to be supported, or is there a better way to address societal issues?
If we are truly working in the service of building a better world, we have to be prepared to attack on all fronts. That means working on policy issues as well as direct democratic action, infrastructural development, and mass mobilization. It’s not enough to simply try to reform the system we have - the roots of institutionalized racism, sexism, and oppression run too deep within capitalism’s core. But, for me personally, it’s equally problematic to refuse to engage in conversations around reforms, because if we’re going to have a government, it should at least be working for us - providing the kinds of support that people need right now. Red Emma’s is a kind of big tent radical project - we don’t all agree on everything, including radical strategy, within our collective, and our customer base is even broader. Mostly what we try to do is provide a space for folks to dialogue and find ways to build together.
5. You’ve been working on 2640, a church that’s becoming a radical events and arts venue. How important is it for Red Emma’s to expand its efforts and influence outside the walls of the cafe?
It’s wrong to think that Red Emma’s wants to expand, or even have, a sphere of influence. We exist to provide a resource - a space that folks need to come together, but we’re not pushing a party line. We decided to start the 2640 Space because we needed and wanted a larger space to expand on that mission, to be able to reach out into different communities that we weren’t able to connect with from our original basement storefront in Mount Vernon, and say “Hey, we’re here. Let us know what we can do to support the work you’re doing."
b. Do you feel that Red Emma’s has outgrown its current space?
We expanded into a significantly larger space in 2013, 5 times the size of our original location, with a full commercial kitchen, a dedicated classroom space for the Baltimore Free School (our third collective project), and space for our transparent-trade roasting project, Thread Coffee. So, we have a lot going on in our main location now, but it will be a while before we outgrow it.
6. Red Emma’s is overflowing with various art mediums —not just literature. Is there a particular art form you hope to focus on in the future?
As a bookstore, we prioritize making print literature available as broadly as possible, but we’re generally excited about any tools and mediums folks are using to get their word out to the world at large.
7. Can you explain what makes a collectively-owned project unique in the world of small businesses?
Let’s say you have a business that’s owned by one person, and has twenty employees. That’s great - that’s twenty-one people with jobs, hopefully ones that are paid at a living wage, with health insurance. But those jobs don’t necessarily have stability - even with pathways towards management, the workers are always going to be at the mercy of someone higher up, who can change the course of their lives with a single decision to fire them. That model doesn’t encourage folks to make longterm commitments, to really put down roots. Now imagine the same business, but with twenty-one equal owners - twenty-one people who are working together to make decisions that affect their futures, twenty-one people who are now business owners in the community, who have a longterm stake in what happens in that community. That’s an appealing scenario, because broad-based democratic ownership is a way of building resilient, caring communities. That’s what we’re trying to do as a worker-owned business.
Bret Lunder is a sophomore at Baltimore City College interested in pursuing language and psychology at university. She is an active member of the Public Forum Debate Team and plans to continue participating for the duration of her academic career.
A.A. is a freelance writer covering arts and culture.
A.A. is a freelance writer covering arts and culture.
