Makwa Coffee: A safe place to gather
Creating local community around coffee, books, and shared values
When it opened in 2022, Makwa Coffee was the only independent coffee shop in Roseville you could walk into and stay awhile. Owner Jamie Becker Finn saw a need for more spaces for community to organically gather and decided to carve out a third place of her own.
Makwa—pronounced Muh-kwuh—is an Objibwe word for bear. Owner Jamie Becker Finn is Leech Lake Ojibwe and grew up on the reservation. She runs her business guided by her cultural values, her experience as a queer woman, and her convictions about how people ought to be treated.
“To my knowledge, I’m the only openly queer-owned business in Roseville that is unapologetic about it, that’s a business that’s open to the public,” Becker Finn said. “I know that certain things are going to turn off certain people . . . We want to be welcoming and respectful to everyone, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to be everyone’s place. And that’s okay.”
There used to be a sign on Makwa’s front door that said, “Everyone is welcome." But that sign has been replaced with one that reads, “No fascists allowed.”
“You want to make enough money to stay alive, but I’m not going to do that at the expense of selling out trans folks. We’re a place where young, queer folks will know they will be respected on the job,” she said. “I know when I look at the people who come here and come back, I know what it means that we are this safe space that isn’t afraid to say we’re a safe space.”
Besides being a small business owner, Becker Finn is an attorney and a former DFL member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. She served four two-year terms between 2017 and 2024, representing parts of Roseville and Shoreview in House District 42B and (after redistricting) District 40B.
After eight years in elected office, Becker Finn chose not to run again in the 2024 election. Now that seat is held by Representative David Gottfried, also DFL. When she first started thinking about opening a coffee shop, she didn’t foresee herself leaving elected office. She saw Makwa as an extension of her community service.
Emerging from the isolation of the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2021, Becker Finn was longing for community, the kind of community she used to have at her favorite bar in Saint Paul—the Black Hart.
“I missed the community aspect. I missed being able to walk in there at any time of day and at least know the bartender and probably one other person there. Having that organic connection to people,” Becker Finn said.
At first, a lot of people didn’t understand how her dream to own a coffee shop fit with her political career.
“To me, it’s very much grounded in the same values around community building, connection, and what makes us human with each other. There’s a service aspect to carefully handmaking a thing for another person and handing it to them. It’s more than just a transaction,” she said.
Now, Makwa Coffee is a bustling coffee shop with a steady stream of new customers and regulars who stop by on a weekly or daily basis for handcrafted beverages and baked goods, much of which is sourced from other Minnesota businesses.
“One of my favorites is when two different regulars overhear something and find out they have something in common and end up becoming friends,” Becker Finn said.
As part of Becker Finn’s vision to create a community gathering space, Makwa hosts craft nights, adoptable puppy days with Safe Hands Rescue, running group meet-ups, and artist pop-up events. She knows of a group of regulars who started an invasive plant clean-up initiative at Cottontail Park.
Native Author Book Club
The first regular event she launched was the Native Author Book Club, run by two volunteers Becker Finn met through the Makwa Instagram account. Becker Finn loves to read and she knows there are lots of other people who like to read too. This was an opportunity to bring people together around a shared interest and expose people to books and authors they may have never heard of before.
At least half of the people who come to book club are not Native. The group has had some hard conversations. She’s witnessed white folks recognizing when it’s time to be quiet and listen and let others speak. In May, the book club read A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power.
“In this time when we’re trying to erase DEI and ban books and everything, openly reading books and talking about it together and thinking as humans without AI or posting it online—and not thinking about how people are going to react online—has value,” Becker Finn said.
For a list of Makwa Coffee’s book recommendations, check out their page on Bookshop.org. Buying from Bookshop.org supports local, independent bookstores.
Stepping down—but not away—from politics
Becker Finn decided not to run for reelection, because she realized her heart wasn’t in it anymore. She did not feel enthusiastic about door knocking or the idea of going back into the toxic environment that was the Minnesota Legislature. She said the culture of politics has gotten worse over the past decade. She needed to step back and take care of her mental health and be more present for her two kids who are now ten and fourteen.
“The thing is, I could have totally phoned it in and with my name on the ballot with a D after it, I could have won. But if I couldn’t do it well, I didn’t want to do it anymore,” she said.
“It’s an extremely traumatic job. I think people know that politics is toxic, but I don’t think they know the degree. Even people who work in the Capitol don’t understand what it’s like to be a queer, native woman legislator,” Becker Finn said.
The death threats started after the first time she gave a speech on the house floor. There were also threats against her kids. She now has complex PTSD as a result.
“To be exposed to that continually for years was a lot,” she said.
Owning and operating a coffee shop is high stakes in that it’s her family’s savings and well-being in the balance, but the stress of needing to troubleshoot broken machinery or responding to a customer who is unhappy about a mistake with their drink, is not at the same level.
This spring she's thankful not to be part of a contentious legislative session. Instead, she has capacity to attend her kids’ soccer games, start her garden from seed, and drive up to Knife River to celebrate her cousin’s birthday.
“There’s parts of it I miss, but I don’t regret it at all,” Becker Finn said.
While she misses working alongside her friends in the POCI Caucus, Becker Finn feels a lot of freedom in not being accountable to voters and not worrying about explaining things in future campaigns. She also feels very proud of what she was able to accomplish while in the legislature. Some highlights for her include funding public defenders, changing the way the corrections system works, winning sick and safe time for workers like her own employees, and paid family leave which starts next year.
“I find a lot of peace with the fact that even if I didn’t do anything else impactful with the rest of my career, I still did those things. The world is a better place and people are still seeing benefits from things that I spearheaded. There’s no pressure to do anything else,” Becker Finn said.
Even though she’s no longer an elected official, her politics infuse everything she does. She doesn’t believe politics and business shouldn’t mix and puts a lot of value on authenticity and standing up for what is right.
“I can’t stay out of protecting the humanity of my customers and my employees. We have employees who rely on state programs and people we care about. There’s not enough that can be said about that in this moment,” Becker Finn said.
Even the act of making a coffee for someone else and showing a small bit of kindness has value. That five-minute interaction could be the only kindness a person experiences that day.
“How do you measure that? That’s a huge part of our role here. We’re not just cogs in a machine,” she said.
Makwa Coffee is located at 2805 Hamline Ave. N and is open 7 days a week until 5 or 6 p.m., depending on the day.
Thanks for reading! Help us spread the word by sharing this article with your friends and neighbors. Just copy the URL or click on the Share button on the bottom left of your screen.
Want more stories like this? Sign up for free to receive news and stories that matter to Roseville residents directly in your inbox.
