Café Nautique inspires community conversations

When explaining what Café Nautique is, David Hancock quickly injects what it’s not.

It is: “a conversation”. It’s not: “a presentation”.

The distinction matters because he launched the speaker series in Picton with interactivity as well as community in mind.

Tonight (29 April) exemplifies these intentions. Amy Cragg, owner of Oxley’s Bar & Kitchen, will tell her life-change story as a cancer survivor juggling work and health. Public speaking goes beyond her comfort zone, yet she’s amenable to Café Nautique.

“People are choosing to be there, so I’m in a room with people who want to hear what I have to say,” Amy observed last Thursday, looking ahead to the event. “Even just the response we’ve had currently, it’s very cool.

“I’m really nervous. This is pushing my boundaries. I’m thinking I have to fabricate five minutes of this amazing life to tell everyone about,” she quipped – as if hers weren’t engaging enough – “but it’s an easy topic, isn’t it?”

Shared experiences
Ease will be in the ear of the listeners. Amy battled cancer for 14 months while simultaneously keeping her business open. She’s owned Oxley’s for 11 years; the previous 12 years, she had the East Coast Inn in Ward.

“I’m not very good at settling – even bringing up my children, work was always a priority,” she said. “So, this would be one of the first times I picked myself over work. I was still supportive of the team, obviously, but I definitely took a step back and focused on my treatment and myself.”

Rebalancing professional versus personal time remains “a work in progress” – and a process Amy anticipated sharing with Café Nautique attendees. Not to give too much away, epiphanies she’s had involve gratitude and joy.

David, who rolled out the series with three monthly sessions in the spring, invited Amy to inaugurate this year’s run from April through November. Each is on the fourth Friday and draws from a similar experience, Café Scientique, he’d curated in Lower Hutt.

With Amy, like her three predecessors, David knows the essence of what she’ll say … but where that leads will be unpredictable. So, perhaps this descriptor of his best explains what Café Nautique is: “Conversational jazz.”

At a Glance
Café Nautique
When: today (29 April), 6pm
Where: Seabreeze Cafe, 24 London Quay, Picton
Series info: soundevents.nz