Harun Coffee has returned to Los Angeles’ historic Leimert Park Village after Community Labs stepped in to help stem the wave of closures among minority-owned businesses in the traditionally Black neighborhood.
On Jan. 9, Harun Coffee celebrated its grand reopening, drawing a long line of locals nearly three years after its 2023 closure, the Los Angeles Times reports. Led by Community Labs, founded by Prophet Walker and Cheron Hall, the firm has been working to support and preserve the legacy of underrepresented communities.
“We are one part of a really powerful movement to pour into this community to create commercial revitalization and beautiful spaces where we can identify ourselves,” Hall said.
Opened in 2019 by veteran entertainment executive Chace Johnson, Harun quickly became a hub for artists, entrepreneurs, and tastemakers before closing in 2023 due to operational challenges.
Now, through a partnership with Community Labs, the coffee shop has been completely reimagined to blend speakeasy vibes with functional art, including a bi-level table and spool stools by designer Shin Okuda.
Guests enter by pulling open a canary-yellow wall disguised as a merch display. By day, it’s a spot for casual conversation; by night (6–11 p.m., it transforms into a hub for Black social justice, poetry, politics, and performance, honoring the historic role of coffeehouses in Black culture.
“The idea for us to stay open until 11 o’clock at night really came from studying coffee movements in Black communities and what it meant to us in the civil rights era,” Johnson said “A lot of our coffee shops flourished at night, where people had a chance to gather together and talk about whether they were going to be protesting and exchanging ideas.”
The reopening of Harun Coffee is part of Community Labs’ revitalization work in Leimert Park. The firm has funded and advised on other projects the upscale Lore bookstore next door to Harun Coffee, and the spacious Ora Cafe across the street on Degnan Boulevard. Hall calls the area a “gold mine of culture, community, and creativity,” noting that the roughly $300,000 invested in the coffee shop is small compared with its potential impact.
“When we look at commercial assets and small businesses, all of these things revolve around and are anchored by that cultural vibrancy,” Hall said. “Mandate number one is how do we preserve and protect that as we grow.”
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