by Kirby Lindsay, posted 6 September 2013
On September 12th, 13th, & 14th, we all have another opportunity to experience the entirely unique and fundamentally community building evening provided by the Seattle Blind Café. “Ultimately, our event is about the community coming together,” explained Brian ‘Rosh’ Rosheleau, founder of The Blind Café series.
He seeks to bring the general population – the curious, the open and/or the hungry – together with musicians and the blind. In one evening, the Seattle Blind Café gives attendees a meal, served community style, with live music – in complete darkness.
A Dinner Free From Distractions
“We want to make an amazing meal for people,” Rosheleau explained, served in an environment where diners, “have to relate to one another.” The evening starts in a dark room, with blind servers to lead attendees to their seats. The delicious meal, prepared by a local chef, is enjoyed to the accompaniment of music performed by Rosh & One Eye Glass Broken. With the meal finished, a Q & A session allows attendees to share their impressions, and ask the blind servers about their experiences.
For Rosheleau, the opportunity to hear music in the dark – to be given a “silent listening experience,” as he described it – is rare and unique. “Most people are distracted when they listen,” Rosheleau pointed out. The traditional listening experience includes distractions by the surroundings, the reactions of the rest of the audience, and the barriers of technology. Seattle Blind Café provides a purer forum for both food and music.
“It’s almost like an Outward Bound experience,” Rosheleau acknowledged, “We are actively making people feel uncomfortable.” To eat without light, and to interact with servers and other diners at table without the familiar visual cues, will pose a challenge to most attendees. “It’s really powerful,” he stated, “It makes people re-learn.”
As one past attendee noted: “The Blind Café does not try to perfectly recreate blindness. Instead, it allows people to interact, trust each other, and experience community in an entirely new way. In the dark, there are no uncomfortable glances, no self-consciousness about what you’re wearing or what you weigh, no distinction between the sighted and blind.”
An Evening For Building Community
“We want to engage the community,” Rosheleau explained. His first Blind Café took place in Boulder, Colorado, in 2010, but Rosheleau has now launched similar evenings all over the country in locations including Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; and Burlington, Vermont. In each location organizers attempt to source food from local farms, and hire the waiters and emcee from among the local blind community.
“I don’t direct the Q & A,” Rosheleau explained, “we’re creating this opportunity for [the servers] to share their lives. It’s a window onto someone else’s world.” The Seattle Blind Café raises money, and awareness, for the Greater Seattle Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB.) In an e-mail by Chapter President Marci Carpenter, “The Blind Café’s donation to our Seattle NFB chapter helps tremendously.” The organization gives grants to blind teens to be able to attend science camp, it partners with local teachers, it sends blind people to state and national events to learn more about changing expectations, and is, “providing materials and information to newly blinded adults and seniors losing their vision,” Carpenter wrote.
A Vision Being Realized
This will be the third appearance of Seattle Blind Café here at the Fremont Baptist Church. And while attendees have voiced incredibly positive reactions to the Cafés, Rosh acknowledged that, “we’re still experimenting with it.”
“I’m a songwriter,” Rosheleau observed, “I play and sing.” He has always enjoyed organizing gatherings – camping trips and house concerts – and allowing his music to build community. He also always wanted to play music, “where people would really listen.”
After experiencing something similar while in Iceland, in 2007, he conceived of the idea of The Blind Café but, “I didn’t do it for a few years because I didn’t know any blind people.” So, he met many who wanted to share their stories with those who want to hear – and eat some good food in the dark.
“People are writing me from all over the country, and the world,” Rosheleau reported last year, about requests for Blind Café. Yet, Rosheleau has struggled to find a way to fulfill the requests without bankrupting himself – or wearing himself out.
In Seattle, he’s found one answer – a partnership with City University MBA Candidate Alyona Georgiu through the entrepreneurial program Enactus. Last April, Georgiu volunteered to work with Rosheleau on a business plan, and a marketing plan, and they saw the Seattle Blind Café then sell beyond expectations. At the recent volunteer meeting, for the September 2013 Café, Georgiu presented information in a clear, organized PowerPoint presentation that overwhelmed Rosheleau with its professionalism.
“I need to delegate and empower teams,” Rosheleau recently explained. He’s done nearly every piece of bringing a Blind Café to town, and had to cancel the Seattle Blind Café last November when he ran out of money and momentum. Now he has Georgiu working on marketing, and Candy Lowery as Event Coordinator – plus Carpenter and others ready to serve and share.
“I’m practicing letting go,” Rosheleau observed of the new Blind Café model, “so I can focus on creating the program, so I can do more creative development.” As he explained, “I have worked really, really hard over the last five years. I know how to inspire people. Others can make the wheels turn, after I build the car.”
See ‘The Seattle Blind Café’
Tickets for September 12th, 13th and/or 14th can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets, on a sliding scale cost of $55 – $95. The cost is high, to cover the expenses of putting on this rare, enriching experience. For those unable to pay, “we do need volunteers,” Rosheleau acknowledged, and a few scholarships will be given.
More importantly, The Blind Café often sells out – even with venues like Fremont Baptist Church that can accommodate approximately 100 people. Order tickets now, and make plans to participate – in a sensory experience of community both mind bending and heart opening. It is The Blind Café!
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.