At work, home and your local coffee shop, a simple cup of coffee brings people of varying worldviews together. This communal idea is what moved Mid City Studio Executive Director William Doran and Creative Director Lynley Farris to create Coffee on the Porch, an event dedicated to furthering community outreach and education through bridging gaps.
The free gathering began in July 2015 as an effort to utilize the simplicity of a cup of coffee and the familiarity of a front porch to connect people across the city through dialogue and stories, Doran said.
“We really try to focus on crossing racial, socioeconomic boundaries in the city,” he said.
Mid City Studio began in 2012 out of the community design work Doran was already doing in his classes as a professional in-residence for the LSU School of Architecture. Doran began working personally with members of the community and other organizations to address the areas Mid City was lacking such as community engagement and education, and in Nov. 2016 Mid City Studio gained its nonprofit status.
Originally hosted in an abandoned firehouse on Laurel Street, Coffee on the Porch began as a panel with prompted discussion, allowing for crowd response. Doran and his team found that people were often having trouble getting through the prompts because they were so invested in talking to one another.
They opted for a more organic program to take over and decided to make the event mobile, choosing a different front porch each month where attendees could gather. This decision not only helped diversify the locations, but allowed for varying populations to engage in the event.
“[We want to] stitch together different parts into a whole,” Doran said.
This year, the studio created a series of maps to accompany their event that has a linking element with whatever organization Mid City Studio has paired with for the month. The maps are a takeaway item that further participants’ involvement and understanding of their city, by showing them places to visit or educating them on aspects and social issues they might not have considered before, Doran said.
For February, the event was held at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Since it was Black History Month, the map for this month showed a timeline and map of all things related to the Civil Rights Movement in
Baton Rouge.
For October, the event was held in the Magnolia Cemetery with the map featuring a historic cemetery bike tour led by historian Mark Martin attendees could follow later in the day.
“The goal is to get people out on the street meeting each
other and talking about Mid City,” Doran said, “[We want] to build community across Mid City area.”
Coffee on the Porch is hosted the last Friday of every month excluding August and November from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. For locations check midcitystudio.org.
LSU School of Architecture Professional in Residence and Executive Director of Mid City Studio William Doran speaks on behalf of Coffee on the Porch monthly event at Magnolia Cemetery on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017.
