HIT: SEC, Media Center coffee house

[Cheri Anderson <cherianderson@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Here are the SUPER responses I had for info on high school media center
coffee houses!  This will be in 2 parts.

I started having coffee houses last year in our library media center.  I run
one almost every month, (7 per year) and one during the school day in April
to celebrate National Library Week, in which English classes sign up and
come.  the coffee house run from 7-9 p.m.  I decorate with lava lamps,
candle light.  I serve instant cappuccino and treats.  I put magnetic poetry
on a couple of computers, and I put out lots of poetry books.  Our program
is informal.  I start asking for performers via morning announcements
several weeks in advance.  I usually try to get a couple of bands to commit
and advertise that they are coming, in our school the music is the draw.
When we don't have 'name bands' our attendance is low.  Even with low
attendance, I still feel that it's worthwhile.  the kids who come, the
literary magazine crew, have fun.  I get between 10-40 kids, (out of a
school population of 900).  It's also good publicity for the media center.
I put flyers around the school, and I distribute them to teachers to
publicize.  Now, my challenge is to get the kids to take ownership and
responsibility for the event.  One local school's coffee house is organized
by the students Amnesty Int'l as a fundraiser.  they get 100s of kids and
run it in the cafeteria.  Ours hasn't caught on like that.  I don't charge
any money and always follow up with thank you notes to the folks who play,
read original poems, etc...When there is a lull in reading, music, I pass
around poetry books and we all read poems from books.  Hope this helps...
Lisa Teizeira, LMS; Kennett High School, Kennett Square, PA  19348

I have been off LM_NET for a while but a friend of mine emailed your query
to me because we've been doing coffeehouses for 3 years.  We might do
something a little more elaborate than what your are looking for but maybe I
can give your some info.  We do one once a year on a Saturday January when
the doldrums hit.  We get about 100 kids in attendance.  Parents send in
refreshments...we have gourmet coffees, tea, hot chocolate, and soda,
brownies, pretzels, paper products and coffeepots, etc. The local grocery
chain donates the gourmet coffee.  Parents volunteer to man the
coffeemaking, setup, and clean up.  Our music teachers does the sound system
as we get some bands.  We have kids do their poetry or other people's
poetry, improv, monologues, rap, bluegrass, rock, jazz, and so on.  We do
about 14 acts. It goes from 7:00 p.m. til 10:30 and we usually have to cut
off the sound to get them to go home.  We then repeat this in May at our
public library as a public/school library cooperation project which then
includes another high school.  I would be careful not to allow headbanging
music though.  We do screen the acts first.  The kids do want to do this
more often but it takes a lot of organizational time.  We also decorate the
room in a 60-70's tone.  We hang Christmas lights all over, lava lamps,
posters, throw pillows and blankets on the floor, put out board games and
even a ouija board.  Last year we had a student walk around doing magic
tricks, too.  We call ours the Hanna Cafe...Our school is Susquehanna Twp.,
so "hanna" is short for that.  Let me know if your have any questions or
suggestions for ours.  Good luck.  It is so much fun!
Nancy Smith, LMS, Susquehanna Township High School; Harrisburg, PA  l7109

Check your back issues of School Library Journal.  A media specialist
submitted an article about how she set one up in her media center that
started slow but was very successful eventually.  It came out at least a
year ago...sorry I can't be more specific...HTH
Susan Grigsby, LMS, The Epstein School, Atlanta GA
(This was the article I found:  "Cafe Middle School", School Library
Journal, Feb98, Vol. 44, Issue 2, p49, 1p)

Cheri Anderson, Media Specialist
Roncalli High School
3300 Prague Rd.
Indianapolis, IN  46227
cherianderson@hotmail.com

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