Cup of Karma Café Presents Vineyard Visionaries

Sunday, August 9

3–5 PM

Please join us for an afternoon of storytelling by four wonderfully creative female Vineyard visionaries: Emily Coulter, Margot Datz, Susie Middleton, and Kate Taylor. 

Hosted by Polly Simpkins, this afternoon will honor these brilliant women who each have their distinct ways of showing up creatively on our Island. They will be sharing stories of their processes, as well as the inspirations and influences on their creative paths. 

Delicious tea, treats, and stories will be served! These Cup of Karma events are meant to inspire and remind us of the people we love and learn from in our lives.

This afternoon is dedicated to Beth Usher, who was one of the first Cup of Karma participants. She lived her life creatively and courageously, and we will always be grateful to her both for telling her story and for the way she brought joy to so many.

Find out more about the Cup of Karma Project at www.acupofkarma.com. 

Honoring Beth:

In 2013, Beth Usher was one of the very first speakers for The Cup of Karma Project, which sparked her speaking career. On that day she spoke about her close friendship with Mister Rogers, as well as being grateful for living this life she loved. She was someone born laughing! Her sense of humor and ability to look on the bright side helped her overcome the effects of a rare and debilitating brain disease called Rasmussen’s Encephalitis, because of which she had a left-sided hemispherectomy when she was just seven. Beth learned at a very early age that laughter can break down barriers, lift spirits, and smooth over even the roughest of characters. She made it her mission in life to make at least ten people smile each day. She passed away on November 29, 2024, after a six-month battle with endometrial cancer. She was forty-five years old. Despite enduring the devastating effects of cancer treatment, she did indeed make at least ten people smile a day. She never complained and was always grateful.

About Kate 

Kate Taylor has been singing rock ‘n’ roll and folk music ever since she was 14 years old. She is also an artist who makes wearable art from shells and gold. Her oil paintings, which she has been offering at shows on the Vineyard since 2015, now hang on the walls of private homes, and a piece of her shell work now hangs among the distinguished art collection at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. She recently made a completely homemade rug, ten feet long by three feet wide. That was made by the old-fashioned method known as rug hooking, in which wool strips are drawn by a hook up through the pores of fabric, frequently burlap or linen.

About Emily

Emily Coulter is the proud owner of Morrice Florist. In 2014, she and her husband Ben bought the 85-year-old shop. Over the past 11 years, she has grown it into the beautiful shop it is today. Through multiple renovations, she has made great efforts to restore and enhance the historic building. Emily approaches floral design with a loose, organic, and lighthearted touch. Her eye for color, scale, and balance shines through every flower piece she creates. During the growing seasons, she sources as many local and semi-local flowers as possible. 

About Margot

Margot Datz is a well known and beloved Vineyard artist. As a muralist, painter, illustrator, author, and sculptor, she finds countless opportunities to make magic from one end of the Island to the other. Her public murals can be viewed at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, both Steamship Authority terminals, the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard, the Vineyard Haven, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Chilmark children's libraries, the Old Whaling Church, and the Flying Horses. Her annual show, at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury on August 1, will exhibit her newest paintings and her limited-edition prints.  

About Susie

Susie Middleton is a writer, editor, cook, gardener, and photographer. She has lived on the Vineyard year round for 18 years. Before arriving on the Island, she was the editor of Fine Cooking magazine in Connecticut. After escaping the mainland, with a book contract, she authored four cookbooks and dozens of magazine articles. She also turned her passion for vegetables into a small farm, which she operated for nine years before taking a full-time job with the Vineyard Gazette in 2017. There, Susie writes and produces the newsletter and website Cook the Vineyard, edits The Vine, and has been a longtime contributor to Martha’s Vineyard magazine. She writes weekly personal essays in her Substack newsletter, Sixburnersue. She also continues to be a passionate grower of vegetables and flowers, which she loves to photograph.