CoCreate PBC

10/01/2026

Thank you The Bardo Coffeehouse on South Broadway for sharing! If you know someone with a tie to The Mercury Cafe Denver, please have them fill out our Community Listening Survey. 🔗 in bio

Remember the Mercury Cafe? We do, too.

After fifty years, the Mercury Cafe is being asked what it should become.

CoCreate, a Denver public benefit corporation, is working toward the building’s reopening and is starting its work by asking a question rather than answering one. The campaign invites the people who filled the rooms at 2199 California Street — through poetry slams, swing nights, tango and salsa, live music, weddings, political rallies, and everyday gatherings — to share what they remember, miss, hope stays visible, and believe this place can become.

We’re happy to be part of this project — The Bardo Coffee House plans to operate a morning café at The Merc.

The listening phase runs through Saturday, October 31, 2026, at 11:59 pm. A public summary of what the community says will follow.

Community Participation:
�Complete the community listening survey:�https://cocreate.fillout.com/t/dkjGUWEuEtus

… and sign up for project updates and future opportunities to participate:�https://www.cocreatepbc.com/contact

Please share photos, flyers, posters, ticket stubs, recordings, or written memories. Collaborators can reach the team at [email protected].
Asked. Heard. Honored. Reopened. ☕🎶

09/30/2026

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 Mercury Cafe 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: CoCreate.fillout.com/merclistens
🗣️ Know someone with a tie to The Merc? Send this their way.

09/29/2026

Before Conrad Kehn 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 will guide us into and out of the conversation from the decks.

⏱️ Thursday, October 1 | 6–9pm
📍 Posner Center for International Development
🎟️ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/analog-salon-17-tickets-1999617220936?aff=Facebook

FREE appetizers & FREE drinks courtesy of
+ +

Produced in partnership with:
• • • .Magazine • • • •

09/27/2026

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 .

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: [email protected]

09/22/2026

We have been loving working with Prismajic lately! 🤍🌱

Hi I am Jennifer and I'm a artist and entrepreneur who created Prismajic and loves to talk about immersive art projects , somatic environments and creativity. Prismajic is the vehicle by which I create in the world! Subscribe to Prismajic's newsletter.

09/18/2026

We want to hear from you! Take our Community Listening Survey here >> https://cocreate.fillout.com/merclistens

A Denver creative group is under contract to buy the Mercury Cafe, with plans to restore the storied venue’s roots as a home for music, poetry, dance and community events.

09/16/2026

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 Mercury Cafe 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: https://cocreate.fillout.com/merclistens
🪟 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.

09/04/2026

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

07/08/2026

A teacher, a writer, a music critic, and a lifelong listener walk into Analog Salon.

For Analog Salon #15, we’re joined by Michael Thornton, a North Denver storyteller whose life and work are shaped by close attention to records, language, students, neighborhoods, and the culture moving through all of it. As a teacher, Michael knows how to open a question. As a writer and critic, he knows how to follow a song beyond the surface. This Salon brings those instincts together for an evening of music, memory, and conversation in support of KGNU Community Radio, one of our beloved partners and a vital home for independent voices across Colorado.

Analog Salon #15
🗓️ Thursday, August 6, 2026 | 6–9PM | 21+
📍 KGNU Patio at Rocky Mountain PBS
🎤 Guest Speaker: Michael Thornton
🎧 Guest DJs: From the KGNU family
🎟️ Tickets available now https://www.eventbrite.com/e/analog-salon-15-tickets-1993363188958?aff=Facebook

FREE appetizers & FREE drinks courtesy of Mad Lemon + Ratio Beerworks + Seed & Spirit Distilling + Illegal Pete's

Produced in partnership with:
CoCreate PBC • Cross-Pollinate Consulting • FM Boutique • Birdy • KGNU Community Radio • CreativeMornings/Denver • Twist & Shout Records