“I drink champagne early in the morning, instead of leaving my house with an M16 and nowhere to go.”

- ESSEX HEMPHILL | CORDON NEGRO, FROM EARTH LIFE

“This masterpiece by local filmmaker Michelle Parkerson should be required viewing for all LGBTQ people living in the District — and beyond. A powerful, deeply felt 35-minute documentary, Fierceness Served charts the history of the Enikalley Coffeehouse, a carriage house in northeast D.C. that served as a cultural and activism touchstone for the Black LGBTQ community in the ’80s and ’90s. Illuminating and enriching, the film overflows with rich grace notes, such as a stroll taken through the space as it exists today by two former patrons. As though working a cinematic loom, Parkerson expertly weaves talking head recollections — bright, funny, poignant — with archival photographs and rare footage of Coffeehouse performances, including a stunner from the swanky singing group, The Four of Us. The most arresting moments in Fierceness Served, however, are its stylized poetry breaks, in which performers recite works by esteemed Enikalley alumni, including Essex Hemphill. (The poem “Brass Rail” is a highlight.) The film’s most affecting moment arrives unexpectedly, during the final credits, in which Parkerson includes a massive list of Coffeehouse patrons lost to HIV/AIDS. The sense of cultural loss makes for a heartbreaking and profound coda.” —RS / Metro Weekly / Oct 22, 2022