Harmonious Virtual Coffeehouse

A venue for sharing music, spoken word, and the art of social justice

Welcome to Harmonious Virtual Coffeehouse

I have been challenged to do something with my passion of social justice, helping others, and music. My answer is the Harmonious Virtual Coffeehouse.

(Facebook)Harmonious Virtual Coffeehouse is a 24/7 open mike for the sharing of music, spoken word and art on the topic of social justice, inequities, Black Lives Matter, health care, housing, education, Women’s rights, LBGT+ rights, and any other area where injustice happens around the world.

Participants are encouraged to “perform” and share their music and spoken word (either original or their interpretation of others) and art at any time on the Facebook page for the group. I wanted to not make another time commitment for folks in our daily lives, so want the page to be available for posting and viewing whenever one can. If the idea takes off, perhaps in the future we can do some scheduled Zoom concerts or Facebook live, as well as in person once COVID is under control.

As with any good coffeehouse, we also need an audience, so please join and enjoy even if you feel you don’t have something to contribute performance wise.

What I don’t want this to be is links to others performing. This is to be YOUR work or YOUR interpretation of others. No links to Woody Guthrie YouTube, but you performing a Woody Guthrie song is welcome. Same with any spoken word or art form.

I also want this to be a safe place. No political criticism of content, there are many other places to do that. Instead I want to encourage free expression at all times.

For now, I want this to be a private group and would like to “vet” members. As the group grows, it may go public, but it will always be a spot that promotes social justice ideas and I will police it as needed to keep it such.

Why Harmonious? I did some reading on the term “Social Justice” and found the word harmony and harmonious used a lot. Since it also pertains to music, well, it seemed a great name for the group. Why a coffeehouse? I’m sure many of you have done open mike at local coffeehouses, so it just seemed to be a great venue, be it vir tual as I’m hoping this will spread to members worldwide.

As for how to post, don’t worry if you don’t have professional equipment. A simple phone or computer capture is fine. If you want to link to your own YouTube channel or use a Drop Box or other cloud link, that is also fine. I want this to be available to anyone, just as an open mike night is at local coffeehouses. I will also have an area for professionals to link to their own websites or merchandise. Hopefully participants will take advantage of those performers they like and support them in this way. If you have a Patreon or similar account, be sure to add that as well.

And NO SHARING of any content posted on this page without the express permission of the poster. Doing so without permission will cause you to be blocked from the group.

So let’s get started. Post a song, a poem, or some artwork that you have done that shares your feelings about the current state of our country or the world. Poor yourself a cup of coffee or tea and listen and look at other’s posts and like and comment (again, positive please).