{"id":1206,"date":"2019-07-17T18:18:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/coffee-house\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:18:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:18:05","slug":"coffee-house","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/coffee-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Midtown Coffeehouse offers casual, on-campus entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">&#013;<\/p>\n<div id=\"sharingTools\"><!-- #include virtual=\"\/include\/sharingtools.inc\" --><\/div>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<div id=\"breadcrumb\"><!-- #include virtual=\"\/include\/breadcrumb.inc\" --><\/div>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n    &#013;<\/p>\n<p><strong>DANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 The Western Connecticut State University Midtown Coffeehouse  opened its doors for the fall semester on Thursday, Sept. 7.\u00a0 Located in Alumni Hall on the university\u2019s  Midtown campus, this brainchild of Dean of Student Affairs Dr. Walter Cramer  began last year as an artistic outlet for some students to express their  creative talents, and for others to just relax with a variety of free  sandwiches and beverages. But most importantly, the Coffeehouse was created as  a place for students to become more involved with the campus community.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cThe Coffeehouse was  set up because students said there was nothing to do on campus,\u201d Cramer said. <\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 21, upon entering Alumni Hall, host Shelby Davis  welcomed each guest to a cozy setting with soft lighting. The evening began  with an open mic forum where some students recited poetry they wrote themselves.  The audience was very responsive and supportive. Cramer heavily emphasized the  Coffeehouse is a \u201csafe-zone\u201d for students to perform and relax without any fear  of rejection. And that proved to be true, as each performer approached the  stage and performed casually in front of a packed audience.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can only imagine how hard it must be for a person to get  up on stage and perform in front of a group of strangers, so I\u2019m going to be as  supportive to the performers as I can,\u201d said Jessica Harding, a social science  major.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>There was hardly an empty seat available toward the middle  of the evening, and once the night\u2019s featured performer, Derek Waldron,  approached the stage, there wasn\u2019t an empty corner. Waldron, a music major at  WestConn, is working on his first album, which should be completed some time  soon. With his piano and music sheets before him, he performed several songs.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>What began as a quiet evening, culminated in a night full of  high energy, and students left well entertained.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to come at all, but I\u2019m glad I did,\u201d  said English major Tara Belton.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of last year\u2019s successes was that we had a consistent  group of students attend the Coffeehouse.\u201d Cramer said. \u201cThis year, our goal is  to keep students coming, but also to expand on the numbers we already have  attending.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>If the performances on Sept. 21 were any indication, Alumni  Hall will be packed every Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>The Midtown Coffeehouse runs from 8 \u2013 10 p.m. most Thursday evenings  during the fall and spring semesters.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>For more information, call the Office of University  Relations at (203) 837-8486.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<div id=\"facebookShare\"><!-- #include virtual=\"\/include\/facebookshare.inc\" --><\/div>\n<p>&#013;\n        <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#013; &#013; &#013; &#013; DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 The Western Connecticut State University Midtown Coffeehouse opened its doors for the fall semester on Thursday, Sept. 7.\u00a0 Located in Alumni Hall on the university\u2019s Midtown campus, this brainchild of Dean of Student &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1206","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}