As February brings in the swing of the spring semester, the University of Rhode Island is coming alive once again and with it the campus hotspot that is 193 Coffeehouse.
193 Coffeehouse, aside from its nonprofit cheap coffee, is known for the various free events it hosts for students each semester. This spring, the coffeehouse will bring back all of its old event traditions, along with some new activities for students to keep an eye out for, according to second-year events coordinator Fin Maloney.
“This is the only place on campus where we kind of can do whatever we want in terms of events,” Maloney said. “There’s so many different people who come here and bring different walks of life and different passions and I feel like everyone who comes here is pretty creatively driven.”
Last semester saw a variety of events for 193. Along with its bi-weekly band nights and open mics, this fall the coffeehouse held a rave, a clothing swap, a mental wellness collage night and an activism awareness event.
Participants of a march for Palestine came last semester during an open mic to speak on the event, which caused a lot of people at the coffeehouse to attend, according to Maloney.
“I think that it’s a valuable space to invite people from different communities to come together and kind of learn more about each other,” he said.
According to Maloney, the coffeehouse has gained a lot more attention recently from all of these various communities.
“When I first got hired it wasn’t as busy in here,” Maloney said. “It’s really insanely busy lately, but a lot of the people who just come here during the day don’t necessarily know about what’s going on at night, so I think it’s good to spread the word.”
Maloney has worked at 193 since nearly his first day at URI and has been the events coordinator for just over a year. He said he and third-year Allie Iaciofano, his co-coordinator, have lots of new ideas to introduce into 193’s spring events schedule. These possibilities range from freewrites to jam sessions to a guitar hero tournament.
“I really started coming here because of the music community here at URI, because of Musicians’ Guild,” Iaciofano said. “I became a member of Musicians’ Guild and I also knew of a few bands who would play here occasionally so I wanted to check that out. I thought it was just a really great environment for people to come together and it was also such an intimate venue that had a really positive, charming vibe to it.”
193 Coffeehouse has a few specific bands both inside and outside of URI that often use the space to perform, according to Iaciofano. The coordinators are, however, trying to bring in new bands and performers to give them a space to demonstrate their talents as well.
Along with some new bands, Iaciofano says students can expect more community outreach and activism events this semester, including the possibility of movie and game nights.
“We’re really just trying to offer a bigger range of things for people to do,” Iaciofano said. “We know that we have a lot of people who come here religiously, who go to the music events, but we also want people of all backgrounds, all interests to come and see what we have to offer.”
In the coming weeks, students can look forward to several events including a paint night, a rave in coordination with URI’s Electronic Music Association and a poetry slam night with URI’s Black Student Union.
“I’m really proud of Fin, my co-coordinator, and myself and just the entire coffeehouse community for providing the community that they do and doing that service for people: providing a really safe, welcoming space where really everybody belongs,” Iaciofano said.
Updates on upcoming events can be found on the 193 Coffeehouse’s Instagram page (@193coffeehouse) and they are located on the second floor of the Memorial Union.