The Prairie Landscape

Café Society

What is Café Society?

Café Society is a project designed to foster a more robust civil society, more cohesive and interactive communities, greater media literacy and a more informed and engaged citizenry through weekly coffee shop conversations about contemporary social issues. Current media reports (along with ample doses of caffeine) serve as stimulants for the conversations.

The Café Society project taps the growing coffee culture in Chicago as a vehicle to promote conversations between strangers (a cornerstone of democratic practice) about relevant social issues, with a focus on the theme of citizenship, broadly defined, and critically examined.

One objective of the project is to promote media literacy and encourage citizens to be more than mere consumers of mass media. Toward this end, we focus on mass media publications and programs that explore the background, underlying causes and possible future implications of social issues and problems.

The Café Society conversations offer an opportunity for citizens to engage one another in discussions, dig deeper and obtain more information about a given subject. Additional resources on each topic are provided on-line to supplement and enhance the discussion. Members of our advisory board, community activists, artists and journalists are invited to visit the conversations periodically and offer their insights and expertise.


Café Society meets at:

Monday

  • 7:30-8:30 p.m., Intelligentsia Coffee, 3123 N Broadway St

Wednesday

  • 12:30-1:30 p.m., Chicago Cultural Center's Randolph Street Café, 77 E Randolph St
  • 7-8 p.m., Pause, 1107 W Berwyn Ave (Berwyn and Broadway)

Thursday

  • 7-8 p.m., Caffe De Luca, 1721 N Damen Ave
  • 7-8 p.m., Valois, 1518 E 53rd St
  • 7:30-8:30 p.m., Panera Bread, 1126 E Walnut St, Carbondale, IL *
    * Meets on the first Thursday of the month only

Friday

  • 5-6 p.m., Ron's Barber Shop, 6058 W North Ave,Chicago


Dear Café Society Participants:

We encourage you to check out the articles and links we post prior to the discussion - it often makes for a richer discussion. Of course, we understand that you are all busy and don't always have time to read additional materials. Everyone is always welcome!

Thanks, Alice.