We all know what a great resource Caffe Lena is for our community. Its offerings in folk music speak especially to UUs, and many of us are Caffe Lena members. And soon we’ll all be going to Caffe Lena’s beautifully renovated space on Phila Street for Sunday worship. 

 

When the New Home Task Force announced at a recent service that Caffe Lena would be our new home while our new meetinghouse is under construction, we burst into applause and instantly started imagining the new possibilities our year-long residency there will offer. Kudos to Julie Holmberg for coming up with this great idea.

 

“Caffe Lena wants to be here for our people, for our community,” says Sarah Craig, who has been Caffe Lena’s executive director since 1995. “Everything about folk music is about people in community with each other, telling stories, making music together, and believing in things.”

 

This collaboration is a natural fit, as both Caffe Lena and the UU Saratoga emphasize the importance of community and shared experiences.

 

“We have a meditation group that meets on Sunday mornings, and we’ve hosted various kinds of conversations about civic issues,” Sarah says. “That flexibility and openness makes Caffe Lena an ideal temporary home for UU Saratoga services.”

 

Perhaps a few meditators will stick around for the service. Perhaps some of our members will want to become meditators. Such are the possibilities that this church/caffe synchrony will offer. 

 

We can explore the possibility of spotlighting Caffe Lena artists in the UU Saratoga pulpit as well as on the Caffe Lena stage. And inviting Caffe Lena artists to lead our favorite hymns. 

 

Our Sunday service will be listed in Caffe Lena’s weekly event calendar, which will open additional possibilities for collaboration and promotion. 

 

There will be new possibilities to explore also in Religious Exploration. We’ll have three spaces in which to engage children and youth: the green room, the lobby, and the atrium. 

 

Among all UU Saratoga members, Dan Berggren has the deepest Caffe Lena connection, which goes back to 1985 when he auditioned for the legendary Lena Spencer and got his first gig there. He now performs annually there, and many of us make a special point of going, always enjoying his unique and highly personal style of Adirondack music. 

 

The connection deepened further at the outset of the pandemic, when Sarah had the brilliant idea of creating Folk Club Kids, an entertaining and educational Zoom show for preschool kids. She asked Dan (whose wife Nancy is also a UU Saratoga member) to co-host it along with Oona Grady and James Gascoyne, who perform as the duo Drank the Gold. 

 

They held Zoom meetings to plan half-hour programs for preschoolers, incorporating recommendations for good picture books from Dan’s daughter Jenny, a school librarian. Since most publishers were reluctant to have their copyrighted works thrust for free into the public domain, they focused on classics where the copyright had expired. “Winnie the Pooh,” for example. 

 

One popular feature that emerged from their brainstorming is “What’s in the Box?” where a mystery item is revealed during the show, which could be a musical instrument or a musical scale made from knives and forks. Another popular feature spotlights a globe the singers use to introduce  tunes from various far-off places, helping children understand geography through music.

 

Dan’s contributions include the theme song that begins and ends each program and a segment called “Ask Questions,” encouraging children to submit questions that are answered in the next session. The live sessions typically attract 12 to 30 children, each accompanied by a caretaker. 

 

Dan finds inspiration for his song-writing in these sessions. 

 

“One Sunday back in 2018, I was a guest with the RE kids downstairs,” he recalls. “I sang some songs, told them how I wrote songs, and asked if they’d like to help me write one based on our UU principles.”

 

Here are the lyrics they collaboratively wrote for “Finding My Voice”: 

 

Each person is important 

Be kind in all you do

We’re free to learn together

And search for what is true 

(chorus)

I’m finding my voice through music
I’m finding my voice through art
I’m finding out who I am
I’m finding voices of head & heart

All people need a voice 

For the earth we care 

Build a world full of peace 

Build a world that is fair 

 

Here’s the recording.

 

Support from Polyset, the Charles R. Wood Foundation, and Kevin and Claudia Bright has enabled Folk Club Kids to continue beyond the pandemic. It’s now a hybrid show that’s attended by kids both on Zoom and in Caffe Lena’s theater. You’ll find these sessions archived on Caffe Lena’s YouTube channel.

 

You also may enjoy the two CDs that have been compiled from the show’s “greatest hits.” Order them here. 

 

The program runs from fall to winter, takes a break around the holidays and in February, then resumes in the spring. Since Dan is performing all over the Adirondacks and beyond this summer, James and Oona have continued the sessions, which will continue through August 28. The program runs each Wednesday from 10 to 10:30 a.m. 

 

Dan sees great possibilities in our expanded alliance with America’s oldest coffeehouse. 

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“Caffe Lena and UU Saratoga have similar missions,” he says. “One is secular and one is religious, but they both do the same thing: bring people together and foster a variety of viewpoints. The essence of folk music aligns very nicely with the message of Unitarian Universalism.”