Queer Lit & Social Refuge

 

Queer Lit, 27 Great Ancoats St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5AJ, UK. 

The Nexus Art Cafe, Manchester

2 Dale St,
Manchester M1 1JW
Tel. 0161 236 0100
Email. info@nexusartcafe.com

The Nexus Art cafe does the following creative cafe projects: 

• provides a space where creative practitioners may interact with their audiences and network with each other.
• hosts book launches
• hosts musical evenings
• hosts plays
• hosts craft groups 
• holds art exhibitions

The Nexus Art Cafe  

The Spark Cafe Bar

19 Tamworth St
Lichfield
WS13 6JP

01543 898 252

The Spark Café Bar offers the following Creative Cafe activities  

• craft events
• poetry
• live music
• book launches

 The Spark Café Bar 

Urmston Book Shop

I visited this delightful bookshop on a warm Thursday afternoon a couple of weeks before the schools broke up for the summer. It was deliciously quiet in there. A backdoor was open and a refreshing breeze made both the shop and the café bearable.

I first met owners Frances and Peter Hopkins when they supplied the books for the Prestwich Bookfest. It’s clear that they work very hard, and that owning an independent bookshop is very demanding and is about more than selling books.

The bookshop hosts several reading groups, holds book launches and photographic exhibitions and occasional film nights. There is a back room and this is sometimes hired out for meetings and workshops.

The café is tiny but a real treat. There are just a few what I would call proper bistort tables and attractive olive-green folding chairs.  The cakes are pretty but delicious, too. They are supplied by local independent enterprises - The Bear Who Bakes, Elaine’s Creative Cakes and Urmston cakes. I settled for the lemon drizzle and one of the best cups of tea I ever drunk.

My purpose was two-fold in visiting the shop that day. I wanted to buy some books for a course I’m teaching next year. I also wanted to check out the café and see if it passed muster. I’m pleased to say the café is joining the project.  It’s good also to support an independent bookshop Sure, I buy books and sell my own via Amazon – and don’t have a guilty conscience about that. But it’s good to go into a bookshop and browse – especially when you’re looking for picture books.

I hope the Hopkins will be able to carry on for many more years.             

Urmston Bookshop

The Urmston Bookshop, Urmston 

72 Flixton Road
Urmston
M41 5AB

0161 747 7442

Urmston Bookshop provides the following Creative Cafe Project activities:

• book launches
• film nights
• book clubs
• reading groups 
• story times
• photographic exhbitions
• creative meetings 
• literary newsletter  

Urmston Bookshop  
Read reviews here: 
Urmston Bookshop revisited 

Delicious for All

Delicious offers the following Creative Cafe projects:

• provides information about the arts.
• hosts book readings / launches
• hosts Writers in Residence 
•  

Delicious for All
13 George Street, Western Court, LE17 4EG.
01455 559151

What makes a Creative Café creative?

Just a few reminders here.  The general principle is that the café offers creative practitioners the opportunity to engage with each other and their audiences and offers the general public the opportunity to interact closely with creative practitioners.  

Book-crossing

Customers deposit books they have read and take away ones that others have deposited.

Newspapers and arts publications

The café keeps a supply of these for customers to read.

Book launches and readings

These are held regularly at the venue.

Reading and writing groups

These are also held regularly at the venue.

Arts workshops

These might include creative writing workshops, costume-making, crafts, cooking, art – even life-drawing if you have the right sort of events room.

Talks and lectures

Why here and not a lecture room? The café provides a more relaxed atmosphere at either end of the event.

Writer in residence

A writer in residence can provide advice about writing, celebrate the café in writing, devise writing projects for café customers and subtly promote their own work.

 Café as gallery

The café displays artists’ work and sells the pictures, taking a small commission.

Live music

This could be a formal performance, background music or a group busking.

Just networking

This happens almost without any effort. The café becomes a space where creative practitioners choose to meet. The Creative Café Project supports the small guys but just look at what the big guys do too. Just go to the Media City UK Costa and rub shoulders with the BBC.