Help Us Open a Collective Bookstore and Cafe

GoFundMe

Title: Help Us Open a Co-operative Cafe and Bookstore!

Cauldron Collective, Kansas City’s only worker-owned, democratically run vegan food business, has teamed up with Turnsol, a bookselling collective, to open a co-operative, community led cafe and bookstore, in the heart of the city, next door to Stray Cat Film Center! The space, which has been a host to music and art for years, will reach its full potential as a hub for communal creative expression, a source for popular and radical literature, healthy-ish comfort food and coffee, and a welcoming space for everyone, especially people of marginalized genders and cultures and economic status. We will be able to host more music and artistic and community events in this highly collaborative space, and will be open daily serving up food from Cauldron Collective and locally roasted coffee and espresso drinks. And for the night owls, we plan on being open late as KC’s only vegan, non-bar space to hang out at night!

Who we are:

Cauldron Collective was founded in 2021 by a group of friends who had worked in the service industry their whole lives and believed in a better way to be in the business of feeding people. We started doing pop-ups with the goal of eventually opening Kansas City’s first worker-owned restaurant. We wanted to start the whole concept of a restaurant from scratch and create something where everyone working in the business has a say and sees the benefits from their work. This idea is practiced in other worker-owned models around the country, and we were surprised to find how uncommon this was in Kansas City and the Midwest in general. We started with almost no money on our end, a couple hundred dollars to buy ingredients and supplies for our first pop-up. It sold out as soon as it was announced. Since then, everything we have done has been from the income we've made, with no investors other than the people who directly support us by buying our food. We now have an opportunity to take the next step, opening a permanent space where we can serve food daily and create space for our community. We have gotten some startup capital invested by friends who believe in our mission, but opening a restaurant takes a lot of money and we need to match that funding to be able to fully finish and open the space. It usually takes deep pockets to open a restaurant, but with your help, we can create the space of our dreams and share it with you all!

Initially started as a publisher of poetry, visual art, music scores, & prose, Turnsol morphed into an idea for a bookstore when the former employees of a local book & record shop became burnt out with the standard small business ownership model. Wanting to create a work place where all employees are equal & their love of good books can be their focus, the concept of Turnsol Books was born. Our focus is to be a community center of discovery which fosters reading, learning, & curiosity. We are already working hard to curate a book collection that is diverse & far reaching, united only by quality. We will strive to be the place you can come to find what you didn’t know you were looking for & trust, because we selected it for our store, that it’s going to be great. Looking to get in to classic queer lit from Morocco? We’ve got you covered. Native American renaissance? Done. Private press poetry? Religious mysticism? International sci-fi? A vegan cookbook? A book on the making of your favorite movie? We’re your place. Whether obscure or classic, Turnsol Books will have what you need.

Additionally, we plan to host a variety of community events such as writers meet ups, poetry readings, book clubs, concerts, children’s story hours, free schools, lectures, craft nights, & more to help engage with our community. We also plan to continue our small press, releasing books by artists & writers from Kansas City & beyond.

Books open us up to new worlds, to new perspectives, new ideas, new skills, & new adventures. This is what we want to share with our city.

The Space:

1664 Broadway has been a place for music and events for years in various iterations, most recently Big House. It’s next door to Stray Cat Film Center, a non-profit, volunteer run micro cinema that shows cult, indie, queer and homemade films. It’s at the border of the Crossroads and the west side neighborhoods, an area that has long been a home to creativity and culture. The space has large windows that look out over the city. The main area will be utilized for most of our books, the espresso machine, space for publishing, tables with seating and our shop cat. Along a muraled wall will be a door that leads to Cauldron Collective, complete with a kitchen, seating and more books. This colorful space will be worked on by the Turnsol team as well as the Kansas City community. Turnsol, Cauldron Collective and Stray Cat Film Center will all benefit each other in this space and will coordinate events. Turnsol will carry literature pertaining to different Stray Cat showings, so patrons could come to Turnsol and Cauldron Collective before or after their film for a coffee, food and books, and we can partner for larger events such as concerts, art nights, pop-ups and readings. Our do-it-yourself cooperative approach makes us unique in that over time, we will help facilitate a collective of community members from many different backgrounds and with diverse skill sets to put their personality and artistry into a space that they care about.

Your donation will help us:

✨ Build out the kitchen

Starting a restaurant can be expensive, so it's usually only something rich people can do, but we can change that!

✨ Build bookshelves

We will work with local craftspeople to build custom shelves out of upcycled materials when possible, so all the books have a nice comfy place to hang out!

✨ Purchase comfortable, eclectic used seating

Buying used reduces waste and helps the environment, reduces our costs, and is just more fun!

✨ Pay rent during build-out

We found the space of our dreams, and it will just take a little investment to keep it while we make the space of our dreams. Plus, our rent helps Stray Cat, a volunteer-run non-profit.

As worker-owners, we are all investing our time and whatever money we have, as well as working part or full time jobs to pay our expenses. We are looking for more investment, but we believe we can build this space with help from you, our community!