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The History of the Nexus Community Collaboration

Nexus Community Collaboration (NXCC) has maintained arts activity in the community since 2001, hosting poetry series and open mic events, as well as gallery shows, film screenings and collaborative pARTnerships. Some of the more notable Poetry Series and Open Mics were On the Fly: with the Dueling Poets and Up Close Let Loose Traveling Poets Reading Series, which featured national and international poets, the Speakeasy and Mrs. B.s Ballroom. NXCC has also hosted a Dialogue Through Civilizations Poetry Event, as well as, unique events like Mercado Latino’s Cinco de Mayo Poetry Fiesta: an Art Show. Some other examples of past arts campaigns and projects included Operation SoapBox, Commania!, A Peace Concert, and V-Day Bakersfield!
 


nXcaffe Espresso Lounge & Interactive Outlet
 
Form 1999 to 2001, the founders of NXCC hosted eclectic art events at nXcaffe Espresso Lounge & Interactive Outlet, a for-profit high-speed internet coffeehouse. Nexus Community Collaboration was born from the love of this art community that was first established at nXcaffe. After the closure of the coffeehouse, the founders wanted to continue the arts collective and spread arts awareness locally, so the 501.3© non-profit, Nexus Community Collaboration, was conceptualized and born.
 


The nX ArtHouse
 

The nXcaffe CoffeeClub & ArtHouse began in 2011 as a fun club to share art and poetry to remember the original atmosphere of art in a coffeehouse venue. Our intention was to send a callout to local fans of the community. After a short while, the NXCC Board, which had lost several board members, including Amber Goddard who passed away, began to rebuild and saw the popularity of the club as a perfect fit for NXCC, so the Board took control of the nXCaffe CoffeeClub & ArtHouse. 

Issues with our immense popularity and the logistics of the private venue with a commercial sounding name, motivated NXCC to take preventive action in order to avoid any issues, and renamed the private venue nX ArtHouse. The nX ArtHouse was a thriving artistic community. In 2013, activity at the nX ArtHouse was suspended in order to re-structure and pave the way for new artistic community opportunities. The nX ArtHouse was open approximately two years to invited guests and held two regular Open Mic events: On the Fly which was originated by NXCC and previously held at Center for Improv Advancement (CIA), and the Speakeasy, which was held for 2 months at the Reiter Gallery Downtown before finding its permanent home at the nX ArtHouse.
 


nX Annex 
 
The nX Annex Literary Arts Colony & Art Center  is a division of NXCC and modeled after the original nXcaffe. The nX Annex was founded in the fall of 2014, as a collaborative effort with another organization in order to enhance our community and provide “change through social entrepreneurship”.
 
nX Annex hosted various types of events such as: writing workshops, open mic events, art workshops, graffiti art competitions, art exhibits/receptions, and intimate house-style concerts. nX Annex also hosted a community garden, open to to volunteers of the nX Annex.

nX Annex has recently moved downtown to its own building and continues to be a no-red-tape venue for artists, by artists. We support artists and provide a third space in which they can promote their work without hidden agendas or excessive rules and our community has access to arts education.

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