The Storefront: Discourse by the Cup

Interview with Blake Daniels: SAIC, Spring 2013, Painting graduate

Worked at Logan Square Intelligentsia from March 2013 – July 2013 (~3-4 months)

Excerpts from Interview.

Mixed Enjoyment; it was a trade job. Intelligentsia did a pretty good job in mixing it up in terms of every day tasks and mundanity.

Enjoyed working at Intelligentsia while he was in school, gave him something else to do outside of an intensely art focused degree. But this did not meant that it was helpful for career development.

Working as a barista helped with immediate bills.

Coffee considered as a process, similar to tobacco & art. The process aspect of it was interesting, but not what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

Bureaucracy of employee & employer in Intelligentsia and how coffee is produced. The model that Intelligentsia provided was great, but it was not what the Logan Square community wanted. Intelligentsia was shaping coffee culture, but it was relying on the name, the brand, too much.

I would drink 1 cup a day.

I purchase coffee from a local roaster when it’s on sale. I don’t actually drink Intelligentsia coffee now that I do not work there anymore.

Hobby Products

Undertones of culture as seen through coffee as opposed to overtones.

I’m interested in coffee as a system and the coffee shop as a location.

SAIC, in collaboration with The Storefront, is hosting a one-day event consuming, discussing, and understanding coffee. The reasons for choosing coffee for our event are many. Coffee consumption fuels conversation and thought. We are interested in the ability coffee has to inspire discourse, both physically and as a subject. Coffee consumption is massive and growing, despite its cost both to the consumer and to the grower as witnessed in the documentary Black Gold directed by Nick and Marc Francis. Coffee consumption can be healing. In the short documentary Yoshi’s Blend directed by Mackenzie Sheppard, coffee becomes the rich and idiosyncratic vehicle for healing in tsunami ravaged Japan. The troubling origins perhaps outweighed by the sincerity and generosity of Yoshi Masuda, who takes his beloved coffee on the road.

At the Storefront on Sunday, the two coffee-centric documentaries – one a sobering revelation, one an inspiring act of humanity – will bracket an “anonymous” local coffee shop tasting.

Please join us Sunday, October 20th from 1-6 pm at The Storefront for a screening of the two documentaries, an opportunity to engage in interviews and discourse on coffee, and a free tasting of coffees from coffee shops in the Logan Square area.

Beyond Sunday, artists are invited to submit creative responses to the event that can be exhibited at SAIC’s Flex Spaces from November 11^th—December 11^th. We look forward to you joining us for an opportunity to discuss and enjoy some coffee.