1114 Bedford Ave Brooklyn, NY 11216
tel. (718) 484-4833
instagram / mixcloud / contact / hours
Playground was founded in 2016 as a coffee
shop and community space in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
The locale on Bedford Avenue and Quincy Street has been in the
Begum family for over 20 years, previously operating as her father’s
hardware store. As the family business began to struggle to survive in
the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, Zenat’s yearning of a more
equitable space for women and minority-owned businesses as a first-generation Bangladeshi-American sparked a new vision.
The space reopened as Playground and created a pipeline of
employment opportunities for herself and like-minded young, BIPOC
New Yorkers. Beyond just a coffee shop, it houses a bookstore named
Playground Annex founded in 2018 as a marketplace of DIY, radical
alternative literature and art.
In the same year, Playground Youth was
incorporated as a 501(C)3 non-profit to solidify and expand programming to
operate as a resource for the neighborhood. The founding pillars of our organization are rooted in providing
our neighborhood with a safe space to exchange art, cultural
knowledge and strategies to build positive lasting social change.
We tackle community needs including literacy, food equity, arts
and culture through a range of
open-access programs and
events for all.
Press:
Time
Pioneer Works
The Cut
Mold
Food52
The New School
Nike