Stepping off the Metro escalator in Columbia Heights, your eyes are drawn to the big-box retailers’ mega signs glowing in the moonlight. But the Target/Best Buy shopping oasis is not what you came for, so you spin on your heels and head due east on Irving Street. Two blocks down, you turn left, heading north on 11th Street, NW, and just as you pass Wonderland Ballroom, you see a few folding chairs sitting on the sidewalk in front of large warehouse-style doors opened onto the street. Walk a little closer and you start to hear music — guitars, drums — or voices singing, reading poetry, or conversing and laughing inside. You’re close enough now to peer around the giant doors, and what you see is a dark, warm and cozy room with a high ceiling, a few rows of folding chairs filled with people, and a small stage at the far end where a musician is playing or a poet is reciting or a film is playing. You cross the threshold where you are warmly greeted and invited to take a seat. You have just found BloomBars.

Not a typical bar, in that it does not serve food or alcohol and is open to all ages, what BloomBars lacks in libations it makes up for in — well, everything. It serves its customers documentary films, Capoeira lessons, meditation, open mics, nationally recognized artists such as The Make Peace Brothers (toured with Jason Mraz), art exhibits, and much more.
“Who said a bar just had to serve one thing? It can serve many different things,” said founder John R. Chambers. “A bar that’s open to everyone, that really brings together a diversity of people whether it’s race, whether it’s gender, particularly different generations — to be able to see an eight-year-old next to his grandmother, a couple on a date, and it’s still a cool place to be...it’s still really organic.” May seem like a tall order, but BloomBars is getting it done.

Chambers opened those big doors for the first time in June 2008 after leaving a successful career in marketing, advertising, and communications for social justice issues. “I had this career that was great, but it wasn’t fulfilling something that I yearned for…something that was bigger than me. I think there are a lot of people that are hearing this calling.”

Those people are out there, and they’re quickly finding BloomBars. The word is spreading that there is a space in town that is a platform for artists to share their work with the community, and it’s attracting a diverse audience. Jabari Exum, host of a well-known open mic that was held at Bar Nun, now hosts the Monday night open mic at BloomBars, called “The Garden.” Exum is a BloomBars Resident Fellow, and an excellent drummer, so he also teaches djembe drum lessons there. Kimberley Williams, a professor of film and media arts at American University, decided to sing for the open mic after finally finding out what BloomBars was. “I have walked past that place many times wondering what it was, thinking it was a plant shop that was never open. So glad to finally find out! I was blown away! I am very inspired by BloomBars and what it is trying to do.”

What it is trying to do is to “establish a space for artists and community members to learn and practice social activism and entrepreneurship”; BloomBars is trying to effect a much different kind of change than the commercial explosion happening a few blocks over on 14th Street.

Gary Prince, another BloomBars resident fellow, is a professional guitar instructor on the faculty of the Levine School. “There are many reasons to check out BloomBars if you haven’t yet: for one, the music is of incredible quality, spontaneous, informal, honest and inexpensive,” he said. “To add to that, the environment is incredible; people come to BloomBars to actually experience art and support artists.”

There are weekly events, including “Seed The Sound Sunday,” which features live music starting at 8 p.m. Many Wednesday nights there are independent film screenings. And, back by popular demand, is a late night event called “Sunrise Cinema.” During this after-hours event, you can come to BloomBars on Saturday night after the other bars have closed down to crash and watch movies until the sun comes up (around 7 a.m.), an alternative to driving or crashing at a friend’s place. The best way to find out what BloomBars is offering each week is to sign up for their email blasts by joining them on Facebook or visiting their website.

Will we see more BloomBars in the future? “After we get on solid ground here we’d like there to be more BloomBars, that’s why it’s plural,” said Chambers. “We’d like this to be a new philanthropic model for grass roots organizations that are doing this, [identifying] artists in communities that are committed to their communities.”

 
Chambers has gotten calls from Tampa, Berkley, Newark and even Zimbabwe, from people interested in starting a BloomBars in their neighborhood. Chambers reply is, “Great, it’s comin’! We’re workin’ on it!”  Events at BloomBars are free, but if you like what you see, a donation of $5 or $10 is suggested and welcome.

BloomBars: 3222 11th St. NW, DC; www.bloombars.com; info@bloombars.com