Stutter Town

One of the most effective ways to promote social change is to construct a desired new society within the shell of the old. This strategy has been adopted to stunning effect by the LGBTQ+ community. Gay villages are located in prime urban real estate, very close to transport links and with a healthy nightlife component. They are not just safe places for LGBTQ+ people, but are moreover a showcase for LGBTQ+ communities. Gay villages are showcases because they are not exclusively for LGBTQ+ people, but also cater for visitors who do not identify as LGBTQ+. Visitors enjoy increased contact with LGBTQ+ culture, and are educated about the issues which matter to LGBTQ+ communities. Increased contact and education are well-established as effective and low risk anti-stigma strategies. Through gay villages, LGBTQ+ communities have been able to de-stigmatise themselves with great panache. Gay villages also act as recruiters, encouraging more people to join the LGBTQ+ community.

I think we need an equivalent of gay villages, but for stuttering. Let’s call them Stutter Towns. Stutter Towns would be places where stuttering is the norm. Like gay villages, they would be in urban centres. Like gay villages, they would educate and inform about stuttering. Like gay villages, they would increase contact of the general public with stutterers. And, like gay villages, they would act as gateways to the stuttering community.

In short, Stutter Towns would be a world which understands stuttering. We wouldn’t need to change the actual world to create Stutter Towns. We need ask no-one for permission to create our byways and bylaws. And we don’t need to wait. We can create Stutter Towns right now, within the shell of the existing world. The rest of the world will catch up later. This might sound radical, but it’s the most basic type of community based activism. It worked for the LGBTQ+ community, and it can work for us.

Readers might be thinking, “this sounds nice, but it is demanding the impossible”. However, we already have Stutter Towns. They are everywhere. For example, stuttering conferences are pop-up Stutter Towns. So are open days, support groups, stutter socials and weekend therapy intensives. Any place where stutterers group together for hours or days at a time is a pop-up Stutter Town. What we have never had is something more than a pop-up. We have never had a permanent Stutter Town. A bricks and mortar establishment of stuttering, open all day every day. A place where stutterers turn up unannounced and hang out with others who stutter. A place where younger stutterers can take their first tentative steps towards the community. And a place where older stutterers, or stutterers who live alone, can find companionship and conversation.

Building a Stutter Town might seem a formidable task. Like any formidable task, it becomes manageable when broken down into smaller pieces. I suggest the starting point is a Stutter Café. These have already been trialled in Japan, where coffee shops were staffed entirely by stutterers and offered education about stuttering to non-stuttering customers. The Japanese trial had no permanent venue. However, expanding the café concept into a permanent venue creates opportunities. For example, the venue could be used on weekday evenings for support groups and workshops. At weekends, the venue could become a performance space, promoting stutter-related culture. Addition of an alcohol licence, and a recurring club night featuring stutter-related songs and a stuttering DJ, would provide a hook by which the venue could feature regularly in listings guides. The public relations benefits of a permanent Stutter Café are immeasurable, since it provides a permanent backdrop for any and all activism related to stuttering.

Running a Stutter Café at a profit is hardly beyond the wit of the stuttering community. What is needed is an organisation which will either underwrite the operation, or which will at least provide seed capital. Such funding is readily available – stutterers are generous, and have provided stuttering charities worldwide with sizeable donations. It can sometimes even be difficult for charities to find ways to invest the windfall contributions they receive from stutterers. Competently setting up and running a Stutter Café could provide a return on investment beyond that available to a charity through use of financial instruments, or by recycling funding into pursuit of ever increasing member donations. This is without even factoring in benefits of the Stutter Cafés themselves. Benefits consist of public relations positively promoting stuttering, jobs and training for stutterers, a permanent home for stuttering-related support groups and workshops, and an incubator for stuttering activism and culture. Attempting to create comparable benefits without a Stutter Café could eat through a charity’s resources in months or years. When pursued through a Stutter Café, the benefits can manifest whilst returning a profit.

Perhaps the greatest benefit from a Stutter Café would be the permanent increase in face-to-face activity. The act of stuttering is uniquely influenced by the nature of in person interaction. Without this face-to-face dimension we limit our exploration of what stuttering is, and what stuttering can become. Face-to-face activity between stutterers is crucial for growth of the stuttering community, for understanding of stuttering, and for the development of a stuttering culture. This can be a winning combination, especially when accompanied by drink and refreshment options better than those available at Starbucks.

We have the resources and the means to build Stutter Town. The question is whether we have the will to do so.

Thanks to Phil Osher for conversation around this topic at the NSA conference in June 2022.