Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
November 24, 1996

Author: Yolanda Rodriguez STAFF WRITER

Edition: Sarasota
Section: LOCAL/STATE
Page: 7B

Article Text:

Central Perk's shelves are stuffed from floor to ceiling with hardcover books. The wooden floors are mostly bare, with small rugs placed here and there. Frames with no pictures hang on the cement walls.

The coffee shop at 616 Central Ave. looks and feels as if it has been there for decades.

Residents of McCown Towers, the senior citizen housing project a block away, come in to sip coffee and catch up on the day's happenings. Young women giggle, smoke cigarettes and write poetry in notebooks. Two puppies - pit bull terrier and chow mixes - run in and out. They drink water from a bowl that has been set out for them.

Thursday is poetry night.

Conversations subside as people move inside to hear. The poet's place is a chair in the window.

``Only Palestinians, with their great gold cards can pass,'' Britt Vanderschouw reads.

``And who would want to, fool? This land is damaged . . . ''

When she finishes, there is ! applause and finger snaps of approval.

``It's a place where all of my friends and young people that have similar interests can get together and inspire each other,'' Vanderschouw, 20, said after her reading. ``Creativity Resides Here.''






Memo:
(See related story, page 1B.)

Copyright (c) 1996 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Record Number: 9611240335