Samira from Beirut
Barzakh Bookshop Beirut
Reclaiming Hamra's Identity
Barzakh Bookshop is the ultimate definition of a hidden gem, with its location right above the late Horseshoe Cafe where poets, authors, philosophers, and politicians used to sit out there on its sidewalk. Nowadays, the building that hosts Barzakh is not to be missed - it's the same one that has the huge famous drawing of Eternal Sabah on Hamra Street.
Barzakh Bookshop started as a space that hosts film screenings, music salons, poetry readings, and much more events. Not to mention that they have thousands of books that are archived and the staff are working carefully to select a lot of books for sale at affordable prices, when all other bookshops are selling books for much higher prices with the current economic crisis happening in Lebanon.
Barzakh opened as a coffeeshop in late 2021 and their space screams for advocating literacy and as a safe space for the ones that used to walk on Hamra street from thinkers, poets, authors, cinematographers, and artists of all kinds...
As the owner Abdullah puts it, Barzakh's trying to reclaim that identity. Personally speaking, its absence was felt. Now it's the melting pot of those who knew Hamra as the space that embraces Arabs and Non-Arabs, Iraqi authors and others, and people considered opponents of the state and rebels in their own countries. Barzakh is there to welcome their ideologies.
I personally love their ambiance full of plants, books, antique furniture, and a welcoming literary community!
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