if so, tell me about it!
aloha everyone!
its me, eeman all the way from the big island of hawai'i!
for those of you who do know me, WASSSSUP or howzit!?
and aloha to those of you whom i've never met!
i was the "founding" CRE for college ten and café revolución @ uc santa cruz. during the first year of college ten's existence (2002), students in the residence halls begged for a late-night community gathering / hang out spot. after many focus groups and discussion on the topic, we ended the year with a goal to create some sort of a space in the once very sterile and concrete "college ten lounge". i asked students to submit ideas for social justice-themed names/concepts for the lounge. then everyone voted and "café revolución" emerged as the favorite!! i spent that entire summer developing the café, it’s reading material and décor/artwork (a“social-justice-musicians-during-the-civil-rights-movement- theme” in case you were wondering!) etc, and when the RAs arrived in the fall, we all set it up for the café's grand opening! this grand opening/open mic night was HUGE, with over 200 people having come in finding only standing room, and the rest is history!
my vision for café rev was that it become a place where anyone at college ten (and beyond!) could enjoy a chill space to study, express themselves musically, artistically, politically, get together to just talk story, or play a bit of pool or whatever! a fixed TV in the cafe was "banned" as we are constantly bombarded by media and commercialism in every aspect of american society, and there happened to already be one in EVERY lounge of the college ten residence halls! mostly, however, i hoped that the café would evolve into a student run, community driven slice of college (ten) life!
ANYWAY, those of you who have been there from café rev's beginning (class of '07) have been an integral part of shaping what it is today, and those of you who have been there since and now, are a very critical piece of defining its future!
i left uc santa cruz this past summer to work at the university of hawai'i in hilo (which is wonderful) but i miss college ten and the café revolución community immensely! i am currently putting together a workshop to present at a conference about revolutionary, university community building concepts and i will be presenting café revolución as a fine example of that!!
i *heard* that the cafe is still buzzing strong in its 4th year and that's great news! :) cafe rev is quite unique in its evolution and existence- i have yet to see or hear about anything like it at any other campus in the nation!
i also know that it has played a positive role in many of your lives as a college students, and i would love to hear about how so!! hopefully this blog will inspire you to write a bit about it, especially if you have been there since the start, or just been there as a frosh this year, or even if you are from a college other than college ten! hope to hear about your experience...
much peace, love and revolución!
-e$
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When College Ten (C10) first opened in the fall of 2002, I was a Resident Advisor (RA) and part of my job was to build community within our res halls. This was no easy task, as C10 lacked a common space for people to gather. We encouraged to use the C10 lounge as a programming space. Before Café Revolución was created the C10 lounge was just a plain, stale, cold, and depressing room that I would not dare bring my residents for a program. Time passed and our community developed through individual floor programs. Although we had a great community of individuals we lacked a feeling of community.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2003... eeman, myself and several dedicated student leaders worked day and night to TRANSFORM the C10 lounge into the beautiful café it is today! Our opening night in the fall of 2003 left me speechless. We decided to have an "open mic night" to let the new community shape the occasion. Without pressure from the professional or student staff, students brought their various talents to share with their new hall mates and community. Students read poetry, played instruments, sang songs, drank coffee, sat and mingled, and made new connections. I remember standing with my RA staff and being so happy that our new community was blossoming in such a creative, fun, and healthy way.
From then on Café Revolución continued to be a location where students could study, chat with friends, play pool, enjoy hot coffee, and de-stress from the day's worries by just being able to "be". I have many memories from Café Revolución and I imagine others do as well.
¡Viva Café Revolución!
Adam-Jon Aparicio
College Ten community member 2002-2005
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