Traditionally coffeehouses are social communities, places people go to get internet access, learn the latest news, actively engage with each other in gossip, animated discussion, and fierce debate. 

Renaissance Café is the Renaissance Society’s (RS) take on café culture –a virtual space to share our passion for learning, engage in deeper conversations about the ideas and issues that matter to us, meet new people and hook up with old friends, as well as link to resources that connect us to the world. 

Although it doesn’t take the place of our beloved home at Sacramento State it does offer a way to communicate our love of life-long learning to other older adults who want to learn, grow, engage and serve the university. 

Curated by RS members, it offers a space to post stories, essays, opinion pieces, original art and photography, short films or videos, gardening, cooking and coping strategies, and other ways to navigate the weird world we are now required to live in. 

Contributing Editors:

Maryellen Burns • Janice Kelley • Jennifer Kerr • Kelsey Maher

Other Contributors:

Cynthia Nicholson • Gregory Nicholson • Donald Saterlee

Our Partners:

Friendship Force International is a non-profit cultural organization focused on promoting understanding, cultural education and citizen diplomacy through home stay Journeys and personal friendships. We are based in more than 60 countries and in six continents, with 15,000 active members and over 300 Journeys taking place each year.

Friendship Force of Sacramento is the local club dedicated to cross-cultural understanding whose members travel and host others in the name of global friendship and peace.  Our membership includes the greater Sacramento area including Davis, Roseville, El Dorado Hills, Elk Grove and beyond! 

Joining the conversation

Renaissance Café launched in September 2020.  If you would like to serve on a committee to produce it, have ideas, images, or a story you’d like to share, or can guide us to virtual art museums, theaters, dance and music venues, or any other ideas that will help alleviate the challenge of yet another physically isolated day —  please contact editor, Maryellen Burns, at renaissancecafesacramento@gmail.com.