The Jackson Heights Poetry Festival presents :

FIRST TUESDAYS

The JHPF Monthly Open Mic held at Terraza 7 Train Café on the first Tuesday of every month!

First Tuesdays is a Poetry Reading series open to the NYC community.

Do you have poetry to share? Do you love hearing great poetry?
We meet every first Tuesday of the month at Terraza Cafe in Jackson Heights, Queens. All ages and levels, from beginner to published, are welcome to read!

There will be a different feature poet each month!
For more information on the feature poet, please check out www.jhpfest.org

Sign up at 7pm, reading starts at 7:30pm.

The return of everyone’s favorite GLBTQ Mixer in Queens.
What: Cocktail Party
Host: Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee
Start Time: Thursday, August 27 at 7:00pm
End Time: Thursday, August 27 at 9:00pm
Where: Terraza 7 Train Cafe

The mission of the Queens Council on the Arts is to foster and develop the arts in Queens County and to support arts organizations and individual artists in presenting their cultural diversity for the benefit of the community.

www.queenscouncilarts.org

June 2, 2009

Queens Cafe Owner to House Small Business Committee: “We’re Ready to Serve”

Contact: Contact: Sara Cullinane 917-676-3210

Washington, DC — On Wednesday afternoon, New York small business owner Freddy Castiblanco will testify in the House Small Business Committee’s hearing on “Common Ground: Finding Consensus on Health Reform, the Small Business Perspective.” Castiblanco, an immigrant from Colombia and owner of La Terraza Café in the Jackson Heights/Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, will testify on behalf of New York’s Small Business United for Health Care coalition – group spearheaded by Make the Road New York – and on behalf of the national Main Street Alliance network.

“We’re all paying the cost of our broken health care system – in unaffordable premiums for those who still have coverage, and in lost employees, lower productivity and financial insecurity for those who don’t,” Castiblanco said. “I’ve lost some of my most talented employees because I couldn’t provide health insurance.”

Castiblanco has owned his business in Jackson Heights for eight years since immigrating to this country from his native Colombia, where he practiced as a physician. He started it in an abandoned storefront, and has built La Terraza into a vibrant business with 11 employees. But affordable health coverage remains out of reach. “As my business grew, I wanted to find health coverage for my employees and their families. My hope was crushed when I consulted a broker and found the premium for a decent benefits package would be over $700 a month… for each employee. This would make health care the largest expense for my business after wages – over eighteen percent of my payroll – outweighing rent and any other operating expense.”

As an employer, Castiblanco says he’s willing to pay his fair share for good coverage for his employees. “Ask small businesses, do we want good health insurance for our workers? Yes, we do,” Castiblanco said. “Do we feel a responsibility to help our employees afford health care? Yes, we do. Are we willing to contribute? Yes.” The Main Street Alliance’s Taking the Pulse of Main Street report, based on a national survey of 1,200 small business owners, found 73 percent of small employers willing to contribute for health coverage for their employees.

But small businesses need more choices, Castiblanco says, and he supports giving businesses the choice of a public health insurance plan as part of broader reform. “Let small business owners decide what works for us: to keep what we’ve got if it’s working, or choose something new – including a public plan – if we have no good options. This will give us greater bargaining power and encourage competition among insurers to make coverage affordable.”

As key committees in the House and Senate begin to wrestle with issues of how to make health coverage affordable, how to provide more choices, and how to pay for reform, Castiblanco believes a reasonable compromise is within reach. “Give us more choices, including a public health insurance option to ignite competition, drive down costs and make good coverage affordable, and you will find small business owners on main streets across America not only willing to contribute, but ready to serve.”

Small Business United for Health Care is a project of Make the Road New York www.maketheroadny.org and affiliated with the Main Street Alliance — a national network of small business coalitions in a dozen states working with small business owners advance health care that works for small businesses, our employees and the economy.

www.mainstreetalliance.org

Profile

Owner Freddy Castiblanco, a doctor and amateur artist originally from Colombia, has created a space somewhere between venue, bar, and community center at Terraza 7. The clientele–largely South American expats chattering away in Spanish along with a few adventurous neighborhood newbies–have a variety of entertainment options: Thursdays are for Latin Jazz, when Afro-Peruvian jams and South American folk often ring out; Mondays are movie nights, where long-form shorts screen and the directors themselves occasionally stop by; and every first Tuesday of the month is the poetry jam (there are also the occasional art shows, D.J.’s, and workshops). The action goes on upstairs, where a small performance space hangs on wires, but most of the room is on the ground floor, which feels spacious thanks to full-wall windows, tall beams, and a multitude of mirrors. The space is furnished with shabby-chic couches and scattered pillows; colorful crochet streamers hang from the ceiling; glass hearts and terra-cotta crosses line the bright yellow wall over statues of saints, skulls, and seasonal vegetables; and Christmas lights twinkle against the margarita and martini glasses above the bar. The fully functioning hammocks are a singular treat, but the two computers with free Internet are nearly as popular. — Irina Gusin

Jackson Heights Life

Get Connected => Community Groups, Activities & Events => Topic started by: Aronan on June 10, 2009, 06:22:45 PM

When:
06.04.2009
Where:
Terraza 7 Train Café – Elmhurst

QCA Event

An intimate seminar to introduce literary artists to the advantages and opportunities available at Poets & Writers
led by Bonnie Rose Marcus, Director of Readings/Workshops (East)
and the Writers Exchange.

Poets and Writers, the nation’s largest literary organization serving creative writers, comes to Jackson Heights. Bonnie Rose Marcus, Director of Readings/Workshops(East)
and the Writers Exchange will discuss their grant program which pays writers to give readings or conduct workshops. Writers and sponsors of literary events are welcome to attend.

Thursday Feb. 19th 6:30 – 9pm

Come mix and mingle with your LGBTQ neighbors at a fun and funky neighborhood location!

We look forward to seeing you there!

Directions:

Terraza 7 Train Café

40-19 Gleane St. Elmhurst, NY 11373

It is just off Roosevelt Ave. between 82nd & 83rd. St behind Sovereign Bank.

From the 82nd St. station of the 7 Train walk East 1 and half blocks, La Terraza is on your right.

For more information call:
(718) 803-9602
or visit
www.terrazacafe.com