Dear Editor:
One of the many projects sponsored by the innovative Symposia bookstore (located at 511 Willow Ave., but about to make its move to Washington St.) is a democratic, open conversation salon that takes place every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Going on its second year now, the “little conversation that could” continues to nurture human conversation in the heart of the mile-square city. I remember the early days of the salon, when a tiny band of heroic salonites braved cold winter nights –including a man in his 70’s who showed up week after week on his bicycle. As word spread about our open conversation — where talk of art and politics mixes easily with personal stories and ideas for community repair — the salon began flourishing as winter melted into spring. I still recall how shocked I was when 30 people showed up one night, and we were in serious danger of running out of room.
One thing that draws people to the salon is the need to feel human again, to recover a sense of self amidst the identity-flattening banalities of our media-saturated, consumerist culture. The salon is that rare public space where the hopes, dreams, concerns and stories of ordinary people still matter. It’s a place where people can come to rediscover who they are in the process of speaking –surprising even themselves at times — as they build what John Dewey liked to call “social intelligence” in dialogue with others.
In the novel “The Joy Luck Club” (which I’m reading in preparation for the upcoming book discussion at All Saints Church – another one of Hoboken’s best kept secrets), I found an echo of the salon in Amy Tan’s touching image of a group of four Chinese women who meet once a week over a period of 40 years to share food, play mah jong and tell stories.
“And then we would talk into the night until the morning, saying stories about good times in the past and good times yet to come. Oh, what good stories! Stories spilling out all over the place.”
In our society there are fewer and fewer public spaces — Forrest Gump’s park bench aside — for people to tell their stories. This week in the NY Times reports that even the medical establishment is finally catching on to the healing potential of story: Columbia University now uses humanities classes and imaginative literature to help future doctors become more reflective, and to listen better to the stories of their patients.
Thanks to the progressive vision of Mayor Dave Roberts, Symposia will be moving to Washington Street in November to lease a space in a building he owns next to his restaurant, East L.A. As Symposia continues to grow — spreading the joy, hope and love of community and human connection with it, along with visions of a world that might be — perhaps one day Mayor Roberts will be invited to share the “Symposia project of Hoboken” with other communities eager to duplicate our success.
John F. Bredin
Founder of Conversation Salon at Symposia