Café Historique
2026-2027 Season
Welcome back for a new season of great history talks with Café historique! (Lots of changes coming so please carefully note the information in bold face!) As you know, Hermann’s Jazz Club is temporarily closed, so this year we will be holding our events at an upstairs event room at Oak Bay Recreation Centre called the Sports View Bar and Grill. The address is 1975 Bee Street in Oak Bay; some of you may know the venue from BeaconRidge Productions folk music concerts. Oak Bay has been very accommodating of us and we are excited to offer this solution! 😊 Doors will open at 6pm.
For our theme this season, we are going back to our roots. The original impetus for Café historique back in 2013 was a course designed by my dear colleague, John Lutz, called Ten Days that Shook the World. This year, John and I are joint emcees, and so we are celebrating with a return to that theme. We will be offering you 6 great talks, each by one of our excellent History Department colleagues – in every case, they will regale you with the story of one day that “shook the world”.
We are trying out a new website called Zeffy to manage ticket reservations. Zeffy is cost-free to non-profits (like Café historique) but may ask you for a donation – please note that you are under NO obligation to donate to the platform. To reserve your seat, please register using this link: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/cafe-historique-october-talk-columbus-discovers-the-indies. If you experience difficulties in registering, please write to us at cafehistoriqueassistant@gmail.com and we can add you manually; you can also try registering on a different device.
Wednesday 07 October 7:00 pm
Dr. Peter Cook
October 12, 1492: Columbus “discovers” the “Indies”
Columbus gets much of the credit – and the blame – for inaugurating the European colonization of the Americas. But what were the real forces that shaped the voyage of 1492 and how can we understand its legacy today?
Links for the other talks will follow, each becoming available shortly before the talk. But just to whet your appetite, here is our exciting line up! We will be continuing on the first Wednesday of each month (skipping January):
Wednesday November 4, Jason Colby: August 21, 1791: The Haitian Revolution
Wednesday December 2, Penny Bryden: October 5, 1970: The FLQ Crisis
Wednesday February 3, Kristin Semmens: January 30, 1933: Hitler appointed Chancellor
Wednesday March 3, Oliver Schmidtke: November 8, 2016: The Rise of Populist Politics
Wednesday April 7, Serhy Yekelchyk: February 24, 2022: Russia invades Ukraine
As with last year, we will be charging a small ticket price ($5) at the door in order to cover our rent, which is about the same as it was at Hermann’s. Please bring cash and come early for the best seats (remembering that the doors will only open at 6). We can’t wait to get started. Looking forward to seeing you all there on Wednesday October 7th!
