The Creative Café Manager

I’m probing into the Creative Café idea a little further. Some of the cafés in the project always were “creative”.  Why is that so? Did the managers / owners proactively seek that or did it just happen? Does it take a certain sort of manager / owner to hold that sort of vision?

I’ve put together a set of questions I’d like to ask some Creative Café facilitators. If you are such a person, do send me your answers at g.james1 at salford.ac.uk, along with a link to your café and a photo and if you wish also a photo of yourself. Miss out any questions you’re not comfortable with and add in some of your own if you feel so inclined. Do also feel free to reorder them if you think it appropriate. If you’re not an owner manager, but know of a café that ought to be in the project, then do pass this on to them.

Which “creative” activities does your café promote?

How did this come about?

Which activities are the most successful?    

Are there any other activities you’d like to try?

Tell us something about the people who visit the café.

Have you held a particularly successful event?

How do the food and creative activities interact?

Which benefits, if any, do you gain by being a creative café?

Is there any help you would like from the project?      

Do you have a funny, interesting or moving story to tell us?

I look forward to your responses.            

Writers in Cafés 1 Judy Kendall

I often write in cafes - places where I can be anonymous, invisible, busy. I like to remain silent, apart and yet coast on the conversation and buzz of everyone and everything around. Music, good music, extraordinary and unexpected music, really really helps. I like the serendipity, what goes on outside the little pool of quiet framed between my cup of coffee and my plate of cake. It takes me back to my childhood, where I was one of six close siblings, immersed in a world of books to a background of family noise. Even now I am very skilled at concentrating in the middle of conversations, and that includes conversations in which I am supposed to be taking part. Sometimes I am a bit too good at tuning out. And, bolstered by the noise, I feel at home. This is where I most readily lose myself.

I tend to write by hand in cafes. I proofread there. I write lists, ideas, first drafts of short pieces - whole haiku. More often I redraft. I like to take printouts of computer work and eye them with my special cafe eye. It's a good place to rejig visual pieces, look over short stories as if it wasn't me that wrote them, pick apart poems.

My most regular haunt is in Todmorden, where I live. I visit this cafe mainly in late afternoon - not too many people, lower noise levels, mellow music. It is when the cafe staff are winding down, when a table by the window might be free.

I could be totally anonymous here. The staff might recognise me and have a word as I buy my coffee but no one knows my name. Well no one did. That's not the case any more. Now I am Judy Poet. Incredible Edible Poet. Todmorden Poet Laureate. And it's nice. And I do still have the space to settle down to write. But I am no longer invisible. The anonymity is gone. 

My family think it's great I've got to know more people. I like it too. But if I want to reclaim that precious anonymity I might have go further afield, perhaps as far as Hebden Bridge....

 

http://judykendall.blogspot.co.uk     

amazon.com/author/judykendall     

http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/blogs/incredible-edible-poet-laureate

Writers in cafés

I’ve started an occasional series on writers in cafés and I’m inviting people to take part. Your answers, a picture of you – writing in a café if you wish –, any links you’d like me to provide and a short bio will be included on the blog post.

These are the questions:

What sort of writing do you do in cafés?

Why do you think writers like to work in cafés?  

Tell us something about a café where you like working (it’s okay not to name it if you would like to keep your venue secret – but if you are happy to name it we can add it to the list of cafés in the project.)

Has anything funny or interesting happened to you whilst you’ve been working in a café?  

Anything else you would like to add? (You can make up your own question if you like)

If you would like to be involved either DM me via Twitter or leave your contact details in the comments box here. (Note: these will not be published as I have to moderate comments  and I’ll delete the comment once I’ve noted your contact details.)  Then we can work out when I’m going to include your post and make sure we have all the material needed.        

Why a café and not a pub?

The difference between the two

Perhaps it’s just a matter of tradition. Licensing hours used to be much more restricted. You used to go to the pub to drink alcohol. Bars used to be full of cigarette smoke. All of that has changed now. Pubs and other licensed premises now open for longer, serve a lot more than just alcohol and have a smoking ban. Many cafés are licensed. Yet we go to the pub for recreation, to relax at the end of a busy day and maybe to share comments after seeing a play or a film. At the café we are more awake and perhaps seeking to become even more alert.   

Is it just the caffeine?

Coffee used to be a wicked pleasure.  Just think of Bach’s coffee cantata.  The Viennese coffee houses were a little decadent. Caffeine of course wakes us up and makes us strong.  We feel clear. There is more, though. We are also close to our audience in the café. Often there is more light than in a pub. Young people are more welcome. Not everyone drinks coffee anyway.  So no, it isn’t just about the caffeine.

There is something about cake

Cake has featured highly in my career. I like baking anyway. There is something very rewarding about mixing the ingredients and the wonderful smell in the kitchen as the cake bakes. It’s extremely satisfying serving guests. When I used to be a language teacher my boss always provided chocolate cake for our meetings. My team of creative practitioners always appreciate a slice of something delicious as we problem-shoot. In fact, they’ll do almost anything for cake. Even a choir I belong to offers gigs entitled Acappella and Cake. And in that former existence as a language teacher I used to organise massive “Kaffee und Kuchen”   for my learners of German. The Dutch have the Koffiekonzert  – a musical concert by up and coming musicians for the price of and including a cup of coffee and a slice of cake.        

Rent a table     

This is perhaps a crucial element. Coffee cups are big now – even the small ones. So, spending a long time in a café is permitted. In fact, it is almost expected. It’s only polite of course for visitors to make sure they have a beverage in front of them or at least that they don’t sit behind an empty cup for more than half an hour. Even so, unless the place gets very crowded you’ll not be asked to move on. Chances are you might buy something else if you stay long enough.

Recently I arrived early for a meeting. There was a café over the road from the venue. I ordered a coffee and read The Times on my iPhone whilst I drank. There was a group in the corner discussing lessons for children with learning difficulties. So, two good creative café activities going on. The teachers were obviously off-site. Did the coffee and the café atmosphere help them to get better answers? I expect so, because I saw the news in The Times as part of a bigger picture and not just as something irritating.                     

How to recognise and how to create a Creative Café

Recognising it

A creative café is above all else a café. It isn’t a pub and it isn’t an arts centre, though it may be licensed and it may be within an arts centre. It must sell good coffee and other good things that go with a good coffee. If you can answer yes to any of the following questions, the café is a Creative Café.

Are people reading literature there?

Is literature available in the café?

Is there a sense that you can sit here for as long as you like over you cup of coffee?

Are people creating new worlds as they sit and chat?

Does the café organise book readings, book launches and creative workshops?

Is there artwork on the walls that is either for sale or celebrates local artists?

Does book-crossing happen?

Does the café promote arts events? 

Is there ever any live music?

How to turn your local café into a creative café

Sit in there to read or write.

Drop off a few of your books – whether to give away for free or to be sold by the café, sale or return, at a small profit.

Hold your arts meetings there.

Negotiate with the owner that you’d like to use this as a work space though promise you will make a certain number of purchases in a certain amount of time.

If the venue is suitable, organise a book event there.

Talk to the owner/ manager about using the walls as gallery space. 

Just book-cross.

Take in leaflets about your own events and others you find interesting.

Ask if the cafe has an entertainments license and hook up with musicians you know to perform there.

See also posts on this blog about Writers in Residence, speed-dating and Literary Salons.

Write a review for this site

Where the café is and what does it serve?

Which creative café activities does it offer?

What is its most striking feature? 

Describe your event there.

Can you supply a photo?  

Send your review here.            

Expansion of the Creative Café Project

We’re forcing a period of growth right now – well someone has to. We have a few plans afoot.

New web site 

We’ve taken the old Creative Café Project web site down and we’re going to be putting up a brand new one soon. We hope to make this searchable. In the meantime we’re using this blog as the main form of communication.  We’re aiming for:

Getting more cafés involved

We want to find more and more cafés worldwide who will take part in the project. This will mean more administration but we will allow cafés to self-register or other people to register for them. We’d still keep some control in vetting registrations before they went live.

Increasing income

We want to do this without charging cafés, creative practitioners and the public a fee except for when we provide a service other than what is just part of the Creative Café Project’s ethos.  For example, we might charge a fee for a speed-dating session. This would not aim to make a profit but if it did, that could be donated to the Project. It would normally just cover costs.

We want to raise further income:

·         Through donations

·         Sales of the Best of CafeLit

·         Fund raising events

·         Ethical, appropriate advertising

Employ more people

We want to get enough people working on the Project so that it works properly. These people shouldn’t be working for no return. The return could be in kind but we’d like to put this on a proper business footing. Except: we’re not really a business. We don’t want to make a profit. We’re in effect a social enterprise. Any surplus to expenditure would go into creating something new within the Café.

This is about building up and contrasts with the dumbing down that is going on presently.             

Encouraging involvement of cafés

Many café owners / managers and creative practitioners are doing what they do well and that maintains the spirit of the Creative Café project. We’d like to set up a system where they can share ideas more with each other and mentor those newer to the project.    

And coming soon

Free competition to find the first Creative Café Project artist in residence. Watch this space.