COLUMBIA — In the late 1960s on Main Street there was a little coffee shop that boasted free flowing anti-war sentimentalities and a great deal of coffee, punks, former GIs, college kids and a thriving discourse against the establishment. Its name: the UFO.
The UFO was shut down in early 1970 due to a court case brought against the owners for “public nuisance,” causing protests to erupt over the closure of the space, which was one of the first GI coffeehouses in the United States.
The politically charged mentality the UFO once fostered is an energy that grassroots activists in the area have worked hard to exorcise from the grip of Main Street’s establishment in the years since. The hidden history of the UFO and the significance it bears for Columbia’s justice-minded folk motivated local writer and musician Josh Dunn to start looking for ways to reignite the flame the UFO once held in its poster-encrusted bosom.
Concertgoers sit on the floor and at tables in the cozy, familial GROW space provided by the South Carolina Progressive Network on Elmwood Avenue in Columbia.
In 2023, Dunn began probing the idea with friends in conversation.
“What if we brought the UFO back?” Dunn kept asking.
Not the physical space, he specified, but the sentiment — the energy.
After many conversations and making some practical connections with the GROW (GrassRoots Organizing Workshop) center that operates through the South Carolina Progressive Network, an idea was born at 1340 Elmwood Ave.
The result is a monthly concert series centering local artists that aims to foster community in the GROW building. Dunn hopes to draw people into the space for connection and education, and hopefully shed light on the buried history of the UFO and the long-standing activist community in Columbia that often goes overlooked in the wake of the city’s “big government” state capital social politic.
The first UFO at GROW monthly concert series took place April 14.
The small building, formerly a laundromat, was filled to the brim with attentive listeners and a potent collective investment in Columbia and its people. Four local songwriters, including Dunn, featured their work. Between the acoustic sets, history and context for the event’s inspiration was shared and celebrated.
Keep an eye out on Instagram (@theufoatgrow) or the SC Progressive Network events calendar for the next concert lineup announcement in early May and keep up with emerging details.
