Sober Salon

This quarterly event gives people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction the opportunity to share their creative work in a happy, drug-and-alcohol-free setting with the support of Caffe Lena's professional sound, lights and stage. Sober Salon is specifically for people in recovery. It welcomes any and all art, crafts, and performances. Bring a sweater you knitted, a painting, a magic trick, a comedy routine, and certainly feel welcome to bring music and poetry! Truly, any artistic work is welcome. Art helps all of us express difficult emotions, and sharing it on stage helps us build trust in others. We hope that Sober Salon will help you move forward in your recovery and connect with a new, healthy circle of friends.
Things to Know:
Doors will open at 6:30PM and sign up will be on a first come first serve basis.
Presentations will be five minutes max.
The kitchen will be open for service.
We have a piano and a variety of instruments, including guitars you can use.
We will not offer a screen for displaying photos, but we will enable people to play backing tracks to sing with.
This Sober Salon will be hosted by John Dillon and Vivian Nesbitt, longtime creative partners whose lives and work bring together music, storytelling, creativity and recovery. John has been in long-term recovery since 1992 and has turned his own experience into a way of helping others, bringing music and collaborative songwriting into treatment and recovery communities throughout the Northeast.
Vivian Nesbitt is an accomplished actor, writer, producer, singer, musician, and storyteller with a gift for drawing out the stories and creative spirit in others. Her work has spanned stage, film, radio and television, and she brings warmth, curiosity and a wonderful ability to make people feel heard and welcome.
Together, John and Vivian created and hosted the nationally syndicated public radio program Art of the Song, spending more than 20 years talking with songwriters and artists about creativity, inspiration and the process of finding one's own voice. Warm, encouraging and deeply committed to the power of creative expression and human connection, John and Vivian are a natural fit for Sober Salon, and we're delighted to welcome them as hosts.
We can't wait to welcome you!
Admission is free thanks to the support of the Victor and Helen Geisel Foundation.