Center Literary Cafe no more

The “Center Literary Café” a long-standing community group that gathers writers together to share work celebrated their final gathering last month unless they can find a new volunteer to run the program.
The group has been meeting for years, hosted by the Healdsburg Senior Center and run by a volunteer coordinator. Members met at the center for open mic events to share writing and create a literary culture in Healdsburg.
“When I became the volunteer to run it I created a bigger broader event that was a once a month event open to all ages,” said Cynthia Helen Beecher who is stepping down from the coordinator position.
The open mic nights held every month featured local writers along with guest professionals who shared everything from poems, prose, stories and songs with the audience.
“Typically the younger kids didn’t come, but we sometimes got students, we did run an all age community contest…and we held the winners reading at the Literary Café and it just happened that won the first prize was 75 years old and the youngest was 10, and that night we had a great turnout from the whole community,” Beecher said.
On average, the monthly events drew more than 30 people interested in sharing and listening. Beecher said that one of the highlights was watching first time readers conquer their fear of speaking and sharing their work in front of a group.
“We want to hear the voices of peoples experiences as they show that through their poetry and prose and other, and it was a place of welcome and celebration of who we are without any self conscience or judgment,” Beecher said.
The volunteer coordinator is responsible for creating marketing flyers, maintaining the email broadcast list, seeking out featured readers and setting up the monthly events. The coordinator would also be responsible for making arrangements with the senior center to use their facilities.
“It is an event that saw a lot of people come through there over the years, people far and wide and it was my privilege to create this event and host people from across the community because it brings people together and it was always heart felt and expanded our circle of friends,” Beecher said.
“If someone wants to step up and keep it going, that would be great,” she said.
Volunteers interested in the Center Literary Café coordinator position can contact Cynthia Beecher at qu*******************@gm***.com.