H.U.M.A.N. to host community coffeehouse
- Published: December 14, 2024
As community conversation has attested over the last month, the Nov. 5 presidential election has left many villagers with a lot to think — and worry, rage and mourn — about. Up and down village sidewalks, in the aisles of Tom’s Market and in the pages of the News’ “Community Forum,” Yellow Springers have been asking themselves and each other: “What now?”
Local human rights organization H.U.M.A.N., or Help Us Make a Nation, aims to give folks a way to meditate on that question, and others, at a coffeehouse event slated for Sunday, Dec. 15, at the Foundry Theater. The event is sponsored by Mad River Theater Works.
The News spoke this week with event organizers John Booth, Mike Miller and Bomani Moyenda. As Moyenda told the News, the results of the election left him “stewing” over how he felt about it.
“It was a myriad of feelings — an emotional roller coaster,” he said. “I had this vision of having people gather downtown to just scream — so I made this post on Facebook that said, ‘We need to either have a scream-fest, or we need to have a coffeehouse.’”
Moyenda referred specifically to the coffeehouse events that H.U.M.A.N. held in the ’70s and ’80s, when the organization was at its peak.
Founded in the late 1970s by Antioch College professors Bill Chappelle and Jim Dunn and activist Glynna Garrett, H.U.M.A.N. was formed to fight racism and advocate for social change on the local and national levels. H.U.M.A.N. held coffeehouse events on an almost weekly basis for several years, hosted in a number of locations in and around the village.
“If you can visualize any place in Yellow Springs that could hold 20 or 30 people, we had a coffeehouse there,” said Miller, who was a member of H.U.M.A.N. in its earliest days.
The coffeehouses were not only useful for organizing around specific action, they also provided a place for folks to get acquainted and share music, poetry and anything else that was on their minds and hearts. That same atmosphere, Moyenda said, is what he hopes the upcoming coffeehouse event will offer for those who plan to attend.
“It would be a good venue for people to share their feelings using their art so we can get together and support one another rather than being stuck in isolation,” Moyenda said. “To come out in community and acknowledge our own reality and perspectives about what this whole election means.”
Though there are some folks scheduled to perform — Booth said he and Miller will play music, and that some “quality poets” are coming in for the event — there will be periods of “open mic,” where attendees will be invited to share.
“What we’ve put together is trying to capture the feel of what the coffeehouses used to be like in the ’70s and ’80s — a lot of participation from people who were just there to do the work of talking about civil rights,” Miller said. “People will be prompted to come up and say what’s on their mind, sing a song or recite a poem.”
Booth added: “What we’re trying to create is a safe place for people to feel comfortable speaking out about what’s on their minds.”
And, true to the event’s name, there will also be coffee, supplied by the Emporium.
Though the group flagged in the mid-1980s, efforts to revive it began in 2019, and the group has since become a registered nonprofit and hosted events such as Gabby Day and a “Know Your Rights” talk with an immigration attorney. In 2022, the H.U.M.A.N. Racial Justice and Human Rights Library was dedicated at the Coretta Scott King Center.
Throughout its two iterations, H.U.M.A.N.’s goal as an organization has often been summed up, on T-shirts and promotional materials, in two words: “End Racism.” As Booth said, it’s a goal that’s still a long way from being met.
“When overt progress is being made, people can get complacent,” he said. “We elected a Black president — when Obama was elected, people said, ‘Doesn’t this mean racism is over?’ And now we see how some of these groups that are anti-unity are emboldened, going out in public and trying to make shows of force. There needs to be some kind of organization — because obviously, those people are organized.”
“And that’s pretty much the essence of a grassroots movement,” Miller added. “It has to start in living rooms and poetry readings, where we can share our ideas and thoughts — and H.U.M.A.N. coffeehouses are a good model of how to do that.”
Though past coffeehouses, and the upcoming event, have been organized around the idea of sharing ideas through artistic expression, Moyenda said there’s also space for those who just want to talk.
“If there’s something you just want to get off your chest, we’ll be encouraging that,” he said.
And as for the “scream-fest” Moyenda originally conceived? He said there will be space for that, too.
“As emcee, I may demand it,” he said.
The H.U.M.A.N. coffeehouse event will be held Sunday, Dec. 15, 7–9 p.m., in the Foundry Theater’s experimental space. All are welcome and admission is free; donations to H.U.M.A.N. will be accepted.
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