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Café Society
>> Café Society en Español
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.
Upcoming Topics
Week of July 21 - July 25
Obama and the New Yorker: Has the Left Gone Right, Out of Their Mind?
Obama and the New Yorker: Has the Left Gone Right, Out of Their Mind?
Last week the cover of the left-leaning New Yorker magazine featured a cartoon image of Barack and Michelle Obama. They were dressed exactly as right-wing political operatives have encouraged the electorate to imagine them: the terrorist and the Black Nationalist, defiling the White House. While editor David Remnick and artist Barry Blitt say that the image was their attempt at classic New Yorker satire, there were many voices in the news media that vehemently denounced it. The backlash even extended to John McCain, who rebuked the characterization.
Oddly enough, the image on the front cover was connected to a scathing article on the current nature of political campaigns in the United States. According to commentators, the article lambastes those on the right who dare offer such ludicrous depictions of the presumptive Democratic nominee and his wife. The article even situates the current political moment within a larger trend of Republican political campaigns using fear instead of hope to drive people to the voting booth. The purpose of the image and article was clear to its publishers: to ridicule the images used by the right, thereby stripping them of their political cache.
However, critics argue that by presenting such an image of the Obamas without context or explanation, the New Yorker actually helped perpetuate the misinformation that has been spread in this campaign. If people did not read the accompanying article, they might not get the joke. Others also said that though the New Yorker was aiming for irony, they widely missed the mark, and only succeeded in creating a crude caricature.
Do you find the New Yorker cover offensive? When does satire cross the line into defamation? Is it possible to use satire effectively in the modern age of political correctness? Or are extreme characterizations of political opponents—satirical or not—just part of the modern electoral process?
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