HAPPY NEW YEAR * LISTENING PLACE * JAZZ, SOCA & ELVIS * Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter * Vol. 13, No. 1 * January 1, 2011

LISTENING PLACE: ESPECIALLY FOR YOUTH

ONE OF the important roles of a coffeeshop is to be a listening place. Wild Bill's, Uptown Bill's  and other places like them (i.e., Red Rooster in Aberdeen and Hard Times in Minneapolis) are places where people can go and be heard. All of us need to be heard and affirmed. I think this is especially important from young people, who too often do not have places to be heard.

I think if we really listened to young people, we could hear their wish for a more peaceful, just and tolerant world. Plus, they would tell us they want a hand in creating such a place. And they would tell us that they want to start right where they are -- in our homes, in our schools, in our communities.

Leon was a student in one of my high school classes some years ago. "We all can work together," he told me. "We can keep all the young kids out of jail. We can keep them from joining gangs. We can stop them from doing bad stuff."

This isn't a new idea, of course. Hope for the future has long been associated with youth. Jane Addams, social work's founding mother, described this longing a century ago. "There is a heritage of noble obligation which young people accept and long to perpetuate. The desire for action, the wish to right wrong and alleviate suffering, haunts them daily."

Yet, too often this wish for a better world gets obscured, misplaced or even ignored by the community at large. One reason is that in stories told by young people anger may precede hope. One young man told me of trying to get his mother to listen to some of his music. "I want you to hear this," he said, slipping a CD into the player in the car. But she couldn't get past the rapper's profanity and ejected the CD with an admonition that such music shouldn't be played again around her.

SUCH A response often produces more anger. "Why won't you listen to me," I have heard so many times. Sometimes that is a general plea, other times it has been pointed directly at me.

Add to that the dismissing of young voices with the words that they are simply too young to understand. Or that they are too young to participate. "Wait until you grow up." The result is often more frustration and more anger. 

The stories young people have told me in the coffeeshop and at the street corner cry out for an audience -- and for a response. But too often the response is to say "hush up," or not to believe them or to ignore them. For example when youth talk about feeling unsafe at school, the response is often to make the school like a prison with police officers and metal detectors. "Those don't make us feel more safe," one young man said to me recently. "Those make us feel less safe." 

He is right, of course. The route to safe and peaceful schools is not paved by force and excessive discipline, but by education strategies and community building.

THERE IS something else, too. Too often when young people express their anger and frustration at our society, and their place in it, our response is to suggest they are mentally ill. Rachel is a good example. We were sitting on a park bench and she had just finished an anguished monologue about what a mess the world is in. She paused, then said: "you don't think I'm crazy, do you? You're not going to send me to a shrink, are you?"

How have we come to this? That a young person thinks that her righteous anger will be dismissed with a clinical diagnosis? Or that I would write off her passion as the outburst of an impetuous adolescent?

We so desperately need more ways for young people like Rachel to be able to tell their stories and to have them heard. I think our communities would be better off if we listened to the stories of the young people around us. Coffeeshops are one of the places where we can listen to each other. They have the potential to be small communities where we can test learning and listening. Then we can step out into our communities and do the same thing. 

SOCA, JAZZ & ELVIS OPEN MIC

Wednesday, Jan. 4

7 pm Spoken Word (Readers & Writers Group meet at 6 pm)

Thursday, Jan. 5

6 pm Artvaark (Art Night). 7 pm. Open Mic

Friday, Jan. 6
4 pm. Chess Club
5 pm. Friday Night Jazz.

Saturday, Jan. 7.
4:30 pm. Irish Sessions.
7 pm. Saturday Night Music with Mutiny in the Parlor.

Wednesday, Jan. 11

7 pm Spoken Word (Readers & writers Group meets at 6 pm)

Thursday, Jan. 12

6 pm Artvaark (Art Night)
7 pm Elvis Presley Birthday Open Mic (You're invited to present a song or spoken word performance of an Elvis tune).

Friday, Jan. 13
4 pm Chess Club
5 pm Soca Jukebox Caribbean Steel Island Percussion Party

Saturday, Jan. 14
7 pm. Saturday Night Music with Adam Weinstein and friends.

Wednesday, Jan. 18 

6 pm. Readers & Writers Group. 7 pm. Spoken Word

Thursday, Jan. 19

6 pm. Artvaark (Art Night). 7 pm Open Mic
8 pm. Music with Bethann Gavin

Friday, Jan. 20
4 pm Chess Club.
5 pm. Friday Night Jazz

Saturday, Jan. 21

7 pm. Saturday Night Music

Tuesday, Jan 24

6 pm. Live broadcast of Tom's Guitar Show

Wednesday, Jan. 25

7 pm Spoken Word (Readers & Writers Group meets at 6 pm)

Thursday, Jan. 26

6 pm Artvaark (Art Night). 7 pm. Open Mic.

Friday, Jan. 27

4 pm Chess Club
5 pm. Music with Andy Juhl and the Blue Stem Players.

Saturday, Jan. 28, 7 pm. Saturday Night Music.
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Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter is a virtual extension of Wild Bill's Coffeeshop and Uptown Bill's Coffee House. Published since 2000, the Newsletter is written by Tom Gilsenan, a former manager of Wild Bill's and now director of Uptown Bill's. You can write to him at tomgilsenan@gmail.com

Wild Bill's Coffeeshop is a project of the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. It has been a part of campus life in Iowa City for more than 35 years. Located in North Hall, the coffeeshop is open weekdays from 8 am. For more information, check the Friends of Bill's Coffeeshop page on Facebook. You can call the coffeeshop at (319) 335-1281. Donations to support the work of the coffeeshop may be sent to: Bill's Coffeeshop Fund, University of Iowa Foundation, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52244. Contributions are tax deductible.

Uptown Bill's is the crosstown cousin of Wild Bill's. Now in its 11th year, it includes a bookstore, performance venue and other businesses in addition to a coffeeshop. Located at 730 S. Dubuque, Uptown Bill's is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am. For more information, check the Uptown Bill's website or Facebook page. You can call Uptown Bill's at (319) 339-0804. Donations to support the work of Uptown Bill's may be sent to: Extend the Dream Foundation, Uptown Bill's, 730 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Contributions are tax deductible.

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In the spirit of Bill Sackter, Uptown Bill's strives to nurture and encourage a gathering place where people of all abilities are welcome. Find us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Watch us on You Tube: www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLEE41220297F8D82C

Visit our web page: www.uptownbills.org