While everybody’s out hustling in the morning traffic, I calmly sipped coffee at A Space MNL and listened to Carlos Celdran talk about how Manila once used to be one of the most civilized cities.

If you’re asking what the heck I was doing there at 8:30 in the morning, I was at the first Philippine CreativeMornings talk. CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series hosted in over 116 cities across the globe. It brings creatives together to talk about matters that interest and influence them over coffee. A brainchild of Tina Roth Eisenberg in New York City, it has spread quickly since its conception in 2008 to create both intimate venues for ideas that could have a massive impact.

Plus, the lectures are for free. All you have to do is register so you can have a little coffee on the side of some awakening insight.

When Patch Silva attended one of them in New York, she was inspired enough to bring it over to the Philippines. “I saw how it was simple it was and yet so effective for groups of people to really make progress,” Patch shares. Two years of planning later Makati became the 115th city to be part of the CreativeMornings community and today was the first day of this monthly lecture series.

In line with this month’s theme, Revolution, that is shared by all the member cities, CreativeMornings Makati invited Carlos, known creative, activist, and street historian, if you will, to talk about a little of Manila’s part as the center of progress and culture not just in the country. Armed with a desire to bring back Manila’s glory, Carlos forwarded Viva Manila, a project created to remind people to explore the city outside the usual constraints.

“Nowadays, people don’t know how to navigate around the city unless it’s going from one mall to another,” he said.

As of now, Patch is hopeful to make CreativeMornings a success, with another lecture lined up for July and the next few months. She didn’t want to divulge just yet, but said it will be released through the website.

If you missed out on this morning’s lecture and are itching to know more about this project, you may visit creativemornings.com to know more about this worldwide community. Previous lectures from all the member cities are uploaded on to the site as well.

Photo by Acushla Obusan