The

Beatnik Cafe

March to the beat of a different bongo.

March, baby, march to the beat of the bongo
Wanna go, young go, we all go
To learn, to hear, to speak, to experience
Don’t sit on the fence. Go
Go, baby, don’t fear it
Defeat it, beat it
Go all the way and say what you wanna say
At the Café.
Dig?

When 16-year-old April first began participating in poetry readings, she barely looked at the audience and practically had to be dragged to the microphone. A year later, she comes prepared with several poems and signs up to read without encouragement.

Shirl, 18, rarely wrote anything except her daily diary entries and didn’t plan to read publicly at all until she became angry with a friend. She wrote a poem about how she felt and read it at the first Beatnik Café. Now she wants to write a book.

The Beatnik Cafe is a unique opportunity for teens to read what they've written publicly and express themselves before an audience of their peers. Appalbookworm has been conducting Beatnik Cafe readings since July 2003 at various venues. Beginning in October 2004, the readings were offered once a month for a year at the Harry M. Caudill Memorial Library in Whitesburg, KY, as a result of a Library Services and Technology Grant.

Each Cafe featured a guest author, as well as participation by audience members.

 

"... a very ambitious and innovative project."	"It was a powerful moment for everyone involved as well as incredibly beneficial to the teens in several varying ways."
Kentucky State Librarian James A. Nelson, writing on the grant to hold writing workshops and Beatnik Cafes at the Harry M. Caudill Library.	Jeremy Smith, youth program director for Save the Children, Appalachian Area Office, on the Beatnik Cafe held during the 2004 Appalachian Teen Leaders Conference.

If you would like Appalbookworm to conduct writing workshops and the Beatnik Cafe in your community, please click here to contact us.

Who has appeared at the Beatnik Cafe?

 

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Appalbookworm.com