The nX Caffe Coffee Club and Art House, located on 2995 North Baker St., is an internet café and art house that provides computers, appreciation of various forms of art, free coffee and, according to the owner and operator Lisa Ann Lobasso, it is a no-red tape venue for artists of all genres.
nX Caffe was officially opened in February and is commonly referred to as the nX for short. According to Lobasso, she took half of her house and turned it into the club house that is operated solely by donations and volunteers and is based off of “Gathering of the Tribe,” located in New York City that is owned by Steve Cannon.
A second location in Bakersfield will be opening soon, tentatively a month or so from now at The Hub, where scheduled events have already begun to take place. The new location will be called nX Caffe at The Hub, which is located at 401 Sumner St. in Old Town Kern and is owned by Amber Beason.
“We are trying to create a true art community where everyone can come together and really enjoy art,” said Lobasso. “Plus, we have a really unique bean that we use for our coffee, so I truly think our coffee is the best in town so that makes us unique.”
The nX is the home to On the Fly Open Mic, ROFL Comedy Open Mic, and the Speakeasy Open Mic, which takes place the first Thursday of each month, Djembe Drumming which takes place every Monday, and many ongoing healing arts functions including Guided Meditation, Sound Therapy, Reiki Drumming, Reiki Share, as well as other similar events and values that take place on selected days each month. A lot of other events also take place that are not necessarily regularly scheduled events such as “Jesus Died for All Spiders,” on Sept 8-9.
“We get so many different types of people here,” said Lobasso. “Different ages, styles, art interests, but everyone really gets along.”
Upcoming offerings scheduled to be added are plate-breaking anger release sessions, other open mic offerings, open house hours and open studio hours.
“If anything goes wrong here, the community comes together to fix it,” said Lobasso. “But we really need volunteers and are looking for a few good students who are interested in the arts. We are close to BC, so it would be really convenient for them.”