International House Davis hosts Hope Café event
Hope Café, a unique art-infused community gathering aimed at creating genuine connections, held its third and final event
By GIA LOOMIS — city@theaggie.org
On Sept. 25, International House Davis hosted a community gathering event known as Hope Café, aimed to create a positive, connection-focused function in an era of fleeting face-to-face socialization. The most recent Hope Café marked the end of a series of three gatherings at International House Davis this year, which sparked from pilot versions of the event in 2025
The event aims to create an environment where attendees can connect in a positive, conversation-driven way that can help them find a break from the ongoing pressures of life. Hope Café originated from local civic artist Jesikah Maria Ross, who saw a need for a mode of connection in the Davis community that gives people a break from tough headlines.
“I spent years as a journalist bringing people together around hard issues,” Ross said. “But I kept noticing that the connection itself, not the topic, was what people remembered.”
Hope Café not only helps people connect, but it can serve as an important source of positivity.
“This community can come together around joy, not just crisis — and I think that's worth proving,” Ross said. “I hope people walk away feeling more welcomed, more supported and a little more positive, because that's what builds resilience [...] if people walk away feeling more seen and more rooted in this community, it's working.”
The Hope Café events operate as interactive, socializing functions with artistic touches. Designed by Ross, the gathering centers around and takes inspiration from art in several different ways.
The occasion hosts live music and poetry, creative prompts for people to share about and fun activities like drawing and poetry all to help bring people together. The entire function is art-infused, as various activities build on one another to create a recipe for connection. International House Davis’ Marketing and Communications Manager, Johanna Abasto, explained the role of art in Hope Café.
“Art and storytelling open the door,” Abasto said. “Music, poetry and creative prompts give people a shared starting point — something to respond to, reflect on and build from. [...] That process creates real connection, because art lowers barriers and invites honesty in a way that ordinary conversation sometimes can't.”
The event featured several activities throughout the night to help attendees get to know each other and dive deeper into connections. The café started with time to mingle — attendees arrived to find name tags with prompts that they were asked to fill out to help break the ice.
In the first activity, “gathering the ingredients,” Ross asked guests to talk to other people at their table and describe a compliment they had received that had really resonated with them. The next activity, “the secret sauce,” consisted of attendees being asked to draw other people at their table without looking at them. Then, the “mixing and combining” activity included a round of “speed relating,” where guests mingled with other tables to discuss a certain prompt. The final activity, “connection kitchen,” was a rock-paper-scissors tournament that broke out among the entire gathering.
Together these several activities came together to create “recipes for relating,” in which every table was given a recipe card that helped attendees work together to decipher the meaning of the dish they just created. Hope Café operates in a truly unique way that helps to connect people while also helping them reflect deeper on the meaning of connection and joy. Abasto explained the singularity of Hope Café compared to other events like it.
“Hope Café sits at the intersection of Jesikah's thoughtful facilitation and the rich diversity of the [International House] community," Abasto said. “It's not a performance, and it's not just a social gathering — it's a guided experience designed for genuine connection.”
The design of Hope Café has helped many attendees build real connections and senses of community at these events. While this was the final Hope Café event at International House Davis, Ross is looking for new venues and locations to host Hope Café, hoping to return soon.
Written By: Gia Loomis — city@theaggie.org