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CoCreate PBC

@cocreatepbc

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Turning creativity into community.
Building the infrastructure of connection through events, strategy & story.

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For fifty years, the Mercury Cafe has been a stage, a kitchen, a dance floor, a meeting place, a home for whoever walked through the door.

The @MercuryCafe_Denver deserves more than a memorial. It deserves a future.

That future starts with listening. Today, we're opening a community survey to hear directly from everyone who has a Merc story: performers, regulars, staff, neighbors, dancers, poets, first dates, old friends. What did this place mean to you? What should it become next?

This isn't a survey about nostalgia. It's the first step in shaping what comes next, together.

📋 Take the survey: link in bio
🪟 Look for the QR code in the windows at 22nd & California
🗣️ Know someone with a Merc story? Send this their way.

We'll be listening for the next few weeks, then sharing back what we heard before any decisions get locked in. This is your invitation to help write the next chapter.

#TheMerc #MercuryCafe #Denver #DenverCulture #CulturalStewardship taken in Mercury Cafe Denver by @cocreatepbc

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Behind so many meaningful gatherings, there’s a small business carrying more than people see.

CoCreate is one of them, and much of our work exists to support others: small businesses, creative organizations, venues, artists, nonprofits, and community partners building something meaningful with limited resources and a lot of heart.

We know how much small businesses carry.

They create gathering places.

They hire local talent.

They sponsor the show, host the fundraiser, print the magazine, book the room, feed the volunteers, and keep culture moving.

To us, small businesses are part of the infrastructure of connection. When they thrive, communities have more places to belong, collaborate, and grow.

During National Small Business Week, we’re celebrating the small businesses and creative partners helping build a more connected cultural economy. by @cocreatepbc

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5 months ago

There’s a room on Denver’s Poet’s Row named for Molina Speaks. As Co-Director of @WarmCookiesRevolution, he’s been bringing art to small towns across the American West, most recently gathering 150 artists in downtown Alamosa to imagine what our communities could become. On November 5, he slows down for an evening of records and stories with us.

🎶 Analog Salon 18 with @MolinaSpeaks + @EthernetSpirit
📍 @PosnerCenter for International Development
🗓 Thursday, Nov 5 | 6–9 PM
🎟 Link in bio taken in Posner Center for International Development by @cocreatepbc

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“Thursday Flower”
Mercury Cafe / The Merc, Five Points – 10.26 taken in Mercury Cafe Denver by @cocreatepbc

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What songs help us remember where we come from and imagine where we could go next?

On November 5, Molina Speaks comes to Analog Salon with ten songs and a life shaped by hip hop, Chicana/o art, the natural world, and roots stretching from Wyoming and southern Colorado to northern Mexico.

Adrian H. Molina is an artist, poet, MC, and Future Builder at Warm Cookies of the Revolution. His work brings people together to consider what our communities could become and how we might begin building that future now. At Analog Salon 18, he’ll share the music that helped him find his voice, understand where he comes from, and keep looking forward.

📆 Thursday, November 5 | 6–9 PM
📍 Posner Center for International Development
🎟️ Tickets at AnalogSalonDenver.com taken in Posner Center for International Development by @cocreatepbc

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12 days ago

We're partway through the Merc's listening survey, and have spent the past couple of weeks reading through hundreds of responses. They're thoughtful. Emotional. Practical. Full of love for what the @MercuryCafe_Denver has meant to Denver's creative community.

Two weeks of listening, in numbers. Swipe through for who's shown up, what brought them back, and how many are already raising a hand to help build what's next.

Know someone who invests in art, culture, or community in Denver? Now's a good time to point them our direction. We'll share more soon on exactly how everyone can help.

Haven't taken the survey yet? It's open through October 31.

📋 Take the survey: link in bio
🗣️ Know someone with a tie to The Merc? Send this their way. taken in Denver, Colorado by @cocreatepbc

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17 days ago

Before @ConradKehn began building music robots, he was making noise in Denver’s ’90s underground.

Among the recordings he sent us were tracks from Kallisti and SkullFlux, introducing one simply as “another ’90s me.” It’s a small notation that captures something central to Analog Salon. Music has a way of preserving who we were, then transporting us back to the people, places, and chapters that shaped us.

This Thursday, we’ll hear the records Conrad chose to tell his story and the memories and earlier selves they bring back. DJ Moni (@Tinsel_Junk) will guide us into and out of the conversation from the decks.

⏱️ Thursday, October 1 | 6–9pm
📍 Posner Center for International Development
🎟️ Link in bio

FREE appetizers & FREE drinks courtesy of
@RatioBeerworks + @SeedAndSpiritDistilling

Produced in partnership with:
@CoCreatePBC • @CrossPollinateConsulting • @PosnerCenter • @Birdy.Magazine • @KGNU • @IllegalPetes • @CMDenver • @TwistAndShoutDenver taken in Posner Center for International Development by @cocreatepbc

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18 days ago

Friday morning, our co-CEO Dante took the stage at CreativeMornings Denver to share where things stand with The Merc, CoCreate’s work toward reopening the @MercuryCafe_Denver.

We’re not here to recreate what Marilyn built. We’re here to steward what the name, the history, and this community are asking of its next chapter.
And Denver has told us a lot already. Since we opened community listening: 1000+ people have visited our survey, 376 completed it, and 89% told us they’ve walked through the Mercury Cafe’s doors at least a few times a year. Two-thirds want dance classes and social dancing protected above everything else. One person put it simply: “The love and loyalty for the Merc is still here. I think trust can be rebuilt.”

The Mercury Cafe deserves more than a memorial. It deserves a future, and we’re building it with the people who kept it alive for fifty years.

Haven’t taken the survey yet? We’re still listening. Link in bio.

Want to be part of what comes next: programming, community outreach, or just lending a hand? Reach out: connect@cocreatepbc.com taken in Buell Public Media Center by @cocreatepbc

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20 days ago

Sold out on a rooftop, in the last of the August sun, on top of @KGNU’s building at the Buell Public Media Center.

Retired Denver Public Schools teacher and native Denverite Michael Thornton took us on a wandering, joyful tour through the songs and stories that shaped his life: seeing Jimi Hendrix play a gym at Regis, a purple vest picked up during a Cold War semester in Berlin, blasting the Sex Pistols in his own English classroom at Denver School of the Arts.

The evening also doubled as a fundraiser for KGNU, and Michael’s own account of the night just surfaced on his blog if you want to go even deeper. @ElkBellows

Bonus for anyone who loves this corner of Denver: our friends at @CM_Denver are back at the very same Buell Public Media Center this Friday, 9/25, 8-10AM, with speaker Dave Ashton. Worth the early wake-up.

📷 Josh Hunter @CoarseGrindPhoto taken in Buell Public Media Center by @cocreatepbc

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25 days ago

Meet Conrad Kehn. Composer, performer, educator, and founding director of @PlaygroundEnsemble, Denver’s chamber ensemble for modern music. His work moves as easily through concert halls as it does DIY warehouses.

Join us Thursday, Oct 1, 6–9pm at the @PosnerCenter for vinyl storytelling with Conrad + music from DJ Mooney.

Tickets at AnalogSalonDenver.com 🎧

Analog Salon #17
🗓️ Thursday, October 1, 2026 | 6–9PM | 21+
📍 Posner Center for International Development
🎤 Guest Speaker: @ConradKehn
🎧 Guest DJ: DJ Moni @Tinsel_Junk
🎟️ Tickets available now at AnalogSalonDenver.com

FREE appetizers & FREE drinks courtesy of
@DrinkMadLemon + @RatioBeerworks + @SeedAndSpiritDistilling + @IllegalPetes

Produced in partnership with:
@CoCreatePBC • @CrossPollinateConsulting • @PosnerCenter • @YouAre_FM • @Birdy.Magazine • @KGNU • @CMDenver • @TwistAndShoutDenver taken in Posner Center for International Development by @cocreatepbc

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a month ago

Lately, more of our work has been happening behind the scenes...
New rooms. New formats. New ways of bringing people together.
We're not quite ready to share details yet, but we're building with intention.

📸: Josh Hunter @CoarseGrindPhoto by @cocreatepbc

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a month ago

You may already know @MatthewJSage from his recent work with our friends at the Clyfford @Still_Museum, where he used conversation and live sound to explore a single painting.

That ability to move between mediums runs throughout Matt’s creative life. The Fort Collins–raised intermedia artist, musician, educator, and co-founder of Onestraw has shared work at the Whitney, MoMA PS1, the Art Institute of Chicago, and spaces across Colorado. He releases solo music through RVNG Intl., performs with the ambient jazz quartet Fuubutsushi, and is restoring 2.5 acres of land with his family along the Front Range.
This Thursday, Matt will tell the story of that life and creative journey through ten songs. His longtime friend DJ Ladybug will guide us into and out of the conversation with all-vinyl sets.

Think of someone you’ve been meaning to catch up with and invite them along. Analog Salon was made for nights like that.

Join us September 3 at the @PosnerCenter for Analog Salon 16.

🎟️ AnalogSalonDenver.com taken in Posner Center for International Development by @cocreatepbc

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