For Congress Coffee Company proprietor Johanna Schwartz, community means everything. A place for people to connect over shared interests and a good cup of coffee is at the heart of what she does.
Schwartz had a 20-year career in nonprofit communications in the arts, working with Calgary Folk Fest, One Yellow Rabbit, Springboard Performance, and more. She took on the role of an arts facilitator, not making the art herself, but helping other creatives find a home.
Schwartz continues this mission with Congress Coffee, where in the past year she has helped put over $25,000 into the pockets of the musicians and performers who perform on the Congress Coffee stage.
- “Noodle King on 32 Ave. N.E. is my go-to for peanut satay soup. Their peanut satay is my happy space. You go there twice, and they know your order. They’re so friendly and familiar. Calgary has a great Vietnamese community, something you realize when you go to other places. You’re like, ‘Oh… there isn’t Vietnamese on every corner?’”
- “One of the things I think is great about the city is The Sprawl, the slow journalism project. Jeremy [Klaszus] does such a good job inviting people in to understand how the news is made, and how our stories matter.”
- “I think an underrated neighbourhood is Greenview Industrial. I’m here operating this quirky little cafe because I couldn’t afford to do so in Kensington or Inglewood. Five years from now, it’s going to be a very different space. I’m really happy that we’re here on the ground floor. The artists move in first, and then the others follow.”
- “The city has incredible puppet work. I think it’s something people don’t necessarily know. Between the Festival of Animated Objects and Old Trout and the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry, it’s bonkers how much good stuff is going on.”
- “Dickens shows what really good, robust programming can look like. That is a space that is for so many different kinds of people. They all feel at home there. I think that’s a testament for them to be able to make a drag show or a thrash metal show, or whatever else they’re doing there, feel good.” —CB
