Coffee with Gen Z
PlatteForum, Denver, CO
Coffee with Gen Z has been hosted by the Biennial of the Americas, Denver Art Museum, and RedLine’s 48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art.
A human-centered forum and intergenerational discussion between high school students and local, national and international leaders on topics that matter most to their generation and the future of our world.
The conversations take place between high school students and community leaders in the spirit of a candid conversation in a coffee shop. Each student and community leader craft a conversation that begins as if they were strangers getting to know one another and discussing a social issue. Questions students and community leaders might discuss are: What is it like to be you? What challenges have you faced in your life? What makes you happy? What does a more beautiful world look like? Why is this social issue important to our society? What challenges have you faced in your field and for your cause? What opposition is there to the movement and how can we engage with it?
A movement emerges through knowing your neighbors and having a sense of place and community. The audience acts a make-shift community and witness the conversation, participating with questions and insights after the initial questions and conversations have begun.
The goal of the Coffee with Gen Z is for the youth and community leaders re-contextualize social issues through a humanistic lens, starting as two people learning about one another and transitioning into a conversation which imagines new possibilities.
