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Dear Editor:
For over a year now folks have been gathering on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m at the cozy Symposia bookstore located at 511 Willow Ave. in Hoboken for an open-ended conversation. There is no preset topic. We begin by going around the circle. Each person is invited to say their name, a little something about who they are, and what they might like to talk about. This leads into an open, democratic exchange of ideas and stories. Guided by the particular concerns of the people present, the dialogue takes on a life of its own as we discover in the moment -- in a socially connected environment -- what it is we think and feel.
The meeting satisfies a variety of different needs. First and foremost it seeks to revive the ancient but lost art of human conversation. By pulling people away from their TV or computer screens for one evening a week, the salon provides a space to re-learn the joys of face-to-face encounters. Something powerful and even magic happens when diverse strangers begin to tell their stories, sharing their concerns and hopes in a supportive environment where the "eye meets the eye."
The success of the salon over the past year has helped fuel the remarkable growth of the Symposia Project, a community renewal effort that's flourishing in the heart of the mile square city. Simply by bringing people together to talk about what matters to them, the Symposia Project has spawned an amazing array of mini-projects, such as a support group for unemployed people, workshops for artists, film and poetry nights, cultural evenings, a meditation hour, Thursday night theme-based discussions, a food drive to help the poor and the latest exciting offering, a film club for amateur filmmakers. Since it's only been around for one year, I'd say that's not a bad beginning.
We attract a diverse mix of people -- born and raised Hobokenites, people from other places who've been here awhile, newcomers trying to find their way in the community, artists, writers, etc. The variety of perspectives makes for interesting conversation. One person's political comment or idea to improve the community could spark another to mention a relevant film or novel, or someone else to share a personal story. By naming our world from our unique vantage points -- saying "this is who I am and what I think" -- we help to re-weave our tattered social fabric so that a more vital public sphere may be possible.
Salons have been around since ancient Egypt, were big in France in the 18th century and in artistic cirlces in Paris and New York in the 1920's. (At the Christoper Street 1/9 subway stop there's a wonderful mural, designed by NYC school kids, of Mabel Dodge's famed Greenwich Village salon.) Spurred by a 1990's cover story in the UTNE Reader magazine, (which also published a wonderful book about the history of salons), salons have slowly been making a comeback. They tend to thrive in more enlightened and progressive places like Seattle, or in Sweden where the government sponsors thousands of salons across the country to get feedback and ideas from its citizens. And in Hoboken, where the sponsors of the Symposia Project chose to locate because of its diversity, community feeling and sense of possibility.
John Bredin
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