A5

Kevin Steen

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Writers need two things: a venue to observe life, and a vehicle to make their observations known. Throughout history, the coffee house has been the place to do both.

For example, you might see a silver-haired ladies' group convening a meeting of the Red Hat Society; or a few hungry college students tuned into their iPods while surfing the internet; there may be a huge business deal going on, strictly hush-hush while a teenage girl sits and fills out job applications. Sound appallingly tame? The goings-on weren't always so.

Newspapers in 18th century London sourced out details at the sector-specific coffee houses. Correspondents from The Spectator and The Tatler reported on the poetry, current events, and foreign and domestic news they gathered at coffee houses.

The literary giants of the day - Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Samuel Pepys, Dr. Ben Johnson, among others - were also attracted to the fertile setting of the coffee house, where both good and bad reputations were established.

Author Jonathan Swift wrote disparagingly of the people he heard at coffee houses, sharing their self-important plays and prose. He called them "trifling composures."

1950's America saw the rise of the "Beat Generation," a term coined by author Jack Kerouac, whose writings, along with John Clellon Holmes and Allen Ginsberg, depicted this movement.

The beats gathered in the murky coffee houses of large cities like San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, DC to share poetry and philosophize (helped along by copious amounts of marijuana).

Even Jim Morrison, famous lead singer of The Doors, made his first public performance while still a high school junior at a coffee house. The eccentric singer read poetry at Coffee 'n' Confusion, a basement coffee house in Washington, DC.

The 21st century coffee house appeals to the mainstream far more than its sub-cultural predecessors, but we still encourage art, poetry, and inspirational ideas. You're welcome to visit and scribble some of your own.

* Kevin Steen is a true coffee lover and proprietor of Damascus Coffee House in Riverview. Do you have a coffee question for Kevin? Visit him at the shop, or call him at 855-4646.