Head Hi is a coffee/bookshop and arts space located in Fort Greene near our studio. We chatted with founders, Alexandra Hodkowski and Mösco Alocer, about the books they stock and the beans they brew.
GETTING COFFEE WITH HEAD Hi | GETTING COFFEE WITH HEAD Hi | GETTING COFFEE WITH HEAD Hi | GETTING COFFEE WITH HEAD Hi | GETTING COFFEE WITH HEAD Hi
Corridor: Tell us about yourselves?
Head Hi: We are the co-founders of Head Hi. Mösco is from Cuernavaca, Mexico (been living in New York for 21 years!) and Alexandra is from the mountains of Colorado (been in New York for 11 years). We left Manhattan for Brooklyn several years ago and absolutely love it.
We both have been immersed in the arts and in creative environments for a long time. Mösco is an artist and Alexandra studied art history and has worked for artists, in museums and non-profits. Books are essential to us and searching for special titles is our passion. Alexandra has a refined sense for finding incredible books, she’s extremely organized and has degrees in art history AND business/administration, which helps running our business. Mösco does most of the visuals and creative direction - he drew our logo and is an excellent barista!
What's the history of Head Hi? How long have you been around and how did the idea come about?
We’ve been open for 3 years now. We have both dedicated our lives to the arts. We have always loved the spontaneous dialogue, ideas and inspiration that is found at independent, off-the-beaten path book, record and coffee shops. We thought, “why not create that next in our neighborhood, a place that is home to many makers in the Navy Yard and surrounding area?” We also wanted to create a place to enjoy excellent specialty coffee, which was hard to find in our neighborhood before we opened.
Our focus is featuring mostly independent and self-published books on art, design and photography.
What can we expect in the future from Head Hi?
Now that we have gotten through our first year and then COVID-19 in our second year - the sky is the limit! We are constantly dropping new books into our webshop. We were just invited by our friends Love Injection to participate in an amazing weekender event located in upstate New York, put on by our favorite electronic music venue GoodRoom. Join us where we will be selling books poolside July 30-August 1 for Summer of Joy! In the Fall, we will be launching an amazing collaboration involving records (more details coming soon!) and we will have the Head Hi Book Kiosk at the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival.
Lastly, what have you been listening to/watching/reading these days?
We just watched an incredible movie 499. It is made in a style called magical realism combining real documentary footage of the harsh reality of modern-day Mexico with a fictional 16th century conquistador character. The scenes are so beautifully filmed by one of our favorite cinematographers Alejandro Mejia (who won an award for it at the Tribeca Film Festival).
At the shop every Saturday we listen to Love Injection’s show on The Lot Radio. We also love DJ Prince Klassen’s show Shared Time on Soho Radio.
We have different kinds of reading time, some are more visual or studious and others are more fun. For visual, we are loving all the New York findings of artist Yuji Agematsu in the book Four Seasons published by Sequence Press. For the more studious times, we are reading The Last Man Takes LSD and for more relaxed reading we are loving the latest magazines coming out such as balcony.
Thanks very much to Alex and Mösco for taking the time to chat with us. Head Hi is located in Ft Greene:
14 Clermont Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
This upcoming weekend, join Corridor and Head Hi for a special pop up event in the Corridor Backyard. Coffee, tea and books will be available.
Corridor 2021
