The Ginger Pig, Hoxton

Hoxton, anyway, is a delight. Bohemian, multicultural and good old London town all at once. Not to forget that is also the home of the Ministry of Stories and therefore the place where I tend to take lunch on a day when I’ve volunteered as a mentor.

It looks like a greasy spoon. And indeed, they do serve excellent breakfasts, though as they are so gourmet and they serve them all day they call them brunch. Even the sausages and slices of bacon are not at all greasy. There is a supplementary lunch time menu.

The people who run The Pig would probably be surprised to learn that the café should belong to the Creative Café Project.  In some ways it is the Creative Café at its best.  It is totally unselfconscious.  The free Wi-Fi helps. Creative practitioners, including me, sit and work there as they wait for food to arrive. I’ve observed artists meeting to discuss projects. I overheard an author talking to his agent one day. There is a rack of newspapers. Some sit there reading their Kindles.

You have to pay cash at The Ginger Pig. There is nothing fancy here. But it excels in other ways. The service is quick. The food is excellent. The whole establishment, including the toilets, is so clean it squeaks.    

Read another review here. Better still, make a visit. You could even also volunteer for the Ministry of Stories whilst you’re in Hoxton.              

Nerja –One Big Creative Café?

We’ve been coming to Nerja now for 24 years. When we called at the bar just now to use the Wi Fi we met someone who started coming here 25 years ago and now lives here.  He’s never met anyone who doesn’t like the place. I’ve met just one such person. We know lots of other people who keep on coming back.

But in all the years I’ve been here I haven’t really found what I would call a Creative Café? Is it that it’s too hot to look? There is one bar near the Burriana Beach that encourages book crossing and one or two bars display local art for sale. That’s about it.

Except, maybe not quite. There are those old men who used to sit in the shade of the lemon trees outside the market place, when it was a market place. They now put the world to rights a little further down the road outside a small local café, purchasing an occasional coffee.

You can actually count all of the sunbed areas on the beach as cafés. The managers act also as waiters and fetch drinks and snacks from the merenderos behind. The sunbeds’ occupants read a variety of literature some far more literary and intellectual than one would imagine.  Not to mention the conversations that go on amongst friends and between strangers. And there’s the odd strolling busker that these days are much better than they used to be 20 years ago.  Yes, it’s all about sand, sea and sun. Yet it’s actually about more than just sun-bathing. 

There’s culture aplenty, anyway. Concerts in the caves. Exhibitions. Stage plays. Decent cinema. Much history. But not necessarily inside a café.

I wouldn’t be a writer if I hadn’t come to Nerja 24 years ago. I’ve published a short story set here, written by someone else. I know of another children’s writer who spends each winter here. And yet another enthuses about it too. So, the creative practitioners abound. Maybe because of the microclimate here – cooler in summer and warmer in winter - they don’t need to hide within a café to connect with others in the way that the Creative Café permits. Or could it just be that Nerja is one big Creative Café?   

The Creative Café Project New Web Site

I’ve now migrated the Creative Café Project web site and am starting to build it up again. This was harder than it should have been, considering I’m going from Microsoft to Microsoft, and frankly, I’m not all that happy with the new platform, so once the trial period is over, I may well move again. A couple of my other sites I have with a different provider and I like that better – at the moment. Who knows, though? Things may change. I’ll most likely get used to it.

So, there’s only a skeleton as yet, but I’m gradually putting back the content that was there before and adding new pages. I actually find this quite creative. It’s forcing me to review the site thoroughly.

One of the biggest differences is that CaféLit now has its own dedicated site.           

As always, I’m on the lookout for new cafes and new ideas all the time. So, if you have any suggestions, do contact me via the contact form on the site.   

Literary Salon at Time for Tea, Prestwich

This was hugely successful and I’m going to do it again in the autumn. Time for Tea did us proud – the £7.00 a head is really good value. Endless cups of tea / coffee. A choice of quiches, sandwiches and open rolls, scones with butter and jam and really scrumptious  cakes. And all out of and off proper china.

The tables were set out in such a way that we could all see each other and this aided the general conversation, the book swap, the readings and the Q & A sessions.

We had two readings: one from Jo Langton, one of my MA students who also did her BA at Salford University. She read from her recently published chap book fill the silence, published by Erbacce Press. Jo has done well to be published whilst still at university. She talked to us about her work. She also brought along one of her MA projects – a set of beautifully crafted “tea-bags” that contained words so that readers can create their own texts. Most appropriate in a tea-shop!

We also had readings by members of the Phoenix Writers Group who meet in Horwich. They read extracts from their recently published book, Fleeting Moments.

Both reading were delightful and led to some lively discussions.

The book exchange was exciting too. People had the chance to say why they liked the book they were offering and it was good to receive books from the readers.

Naturally, as there were two of my students present, the conversation turned from time to time to Salford University and the whole idea of studying creative writing at university. Another participant, who has an MA in Creative Writing but from another university, astounded us all by reporting that in his day – some time ago now – there was a cap of seven on the MA course! Useful information indeed.        

One disappointment was that four people who said they would come did not show up. Naturally we had to pay for their food anyway. We couldn’t expect the café to cover those sorts of costs.  But if they had come, I’m not sure we would have got through everything. And would the informality be the same?

So, there are lessons to be learnt.

I’m intending to make the next event free as well, but I will make clear to people that we have to pay even if they don’t turn up.  I will, however, ask for donations towards the Creative Café Project at the end of the evening.   

Having two sets of readings is about right. It would however take quite a lot of time for readers all to talk about the books they have brought along. We need to limit this to a couple of sentences each.

The informal discussion is great and we really want to keep that.                            

Putting the Creative into the Creative Café

I was at a conference yesterday and we talked a little about what is being creative. One suggestion is that it is about using what is there, reordering it and bringing forth something different and perhaps surprising. Finding solutions to problems is as much a creative act as writing a poem, painting a picture or composing a piece of music.  Baking glorious cakes, providing an appropriate atmosphere for creative practitioner networking, and offering a comfortable space where audiences can enjoy the arts are perhaps surprising – and delightful  - solutions  to some of the problems that the arts are currently facing: the Arts Council can award fewer  grants, the universities are having to cut back on humanities provision and as we go into austerity measures, fewer can afford to support the arts directly by going to the theatre and to concerts or by buying books and music.

Somehow, though, we still manage to eat and drink and occasionally that might be in a café.  Can we reorder that and make it an opportunity also for enjoying the arts?

We’ve reordered thus so far by creating in cafés:

Writers in residence

Book launches

Gallery spaces

Literary salons

Book swaps

Open mic

Jazz evenings

Poetry readings

CaféLit  

Reading groups

Writers’ critique groups

What else could we do? Can you help us to reorder yet again?

The First Literary Salon is underway

So, I’ve now done it. I have booked my first Literary Salon with Time for Tea in Prestwich ,  Greater Manchester. This will take place 16^th May, 6.30 – 8.30, all vegetarian.

Tea – scrumptious, I can vouch for this. Readings from three writers.  Everyone is invited to bring a book to swap – either one of your own, if you’re a writer, or perhaps one you’ve enjoyed. You might also bring a second book to donate to the café’s library. I suggest writers include a short bio and contact details if these aren’t already in the book.    

This event it by invite only as places are limited. However, if you’d like an invite, please contact me here.  Even if all places are full, I can put you on the reserve list.

For this first event, the Creative Café will foot the whole bill so this time it’s free. Thereafter, there will be a charge that will cover the cost of food plus a little to cover writers’ expenses.  I’m hoping  for lots of feedback and ideas about how we can make the Salon even better. See you in Prestwich on 16 May?  By the way, this is also National Flash Fiction Day.  

Expansion of the Creative Café Project

I believe it is time now to see this project expand massively. Although hopefully a full-time manager will be employed eventually, much of the project’s success will depend on the hard work of volunteers. The work will be fun, however.

How can you help?

CaféLit

This is an e-zine and an annual publication that makes some money for the project and pays an editor. We want to improve the circulation. So we need more hits on the sites and more people buying the book – available as a paperback or on Kindle. Anyone like to push that for us?   On one of our sites we have Google ads. On the other we would like to sell appropriate advertising directly. Could you advertise with us? Do you know anyone else who could? See our advertising rates.  

And don’t forget to submit! See submission guidelines.         

Finding more cafés

Oh, dear oh dear. It’s a hard life. That just might mean trying out more cafés in your local area and deciding whether they are already creative cafés (see definition) or have the potential to become them.  Even better if you can email admin@creativecafeproject.co.uk with the copy for the web site.

Review a Creative Café

Write a review about a creative café or about a café that’s about to join the Creative Café Project. We’ll post it on this blog and link it to the café on the Creative Café web site. You can include a by-line and a link to your own site(s).    

Developing creative cafés

This could mean helping a café to become a creative café or help existing creative cafés become better ones.

Be a creative practitioner at a creative café

See my previous blog post on Writers in Residence. Or, if you are an artist could you arrange with the café to display and / or sell your work? If you are a musician and the café has an entertainments license could you busk there for a few hours? Sell your CDs? Give out leaflets?

Run a literary salon there

See details about this in this post on this blog.

Any other bright ideas?

Please share!   Contact admin@creativecafeproject.co.uk