Two more Lounge events have taken place since I last wrote about The Lounge. The latest, July's Lounge, was last Friday. Aside from the very first Lounge, personally this was the one that I enjoyed most. Somehow, everything seemed to run smoothly (except the sound which wasn't great this time!) and in terms of the event as a whole, it really shows that we're more experienced now and have the running of it in good shape. We know what works and have good systems in place! 
Set up & sound check complete, the scene as the doors open at 6.30pm
As a team, Tswa, Oria and I have delegated amongst ourselves who oversees particular areas of the night which seems a good plan and is going well. Others who help out also know what to expect and who to ask about what. 
We've averaged about 90-100 people at the last two Lounges which is very good considering the midwinter weather - one day it'll be great to have patio heaters... We've been experimenting with ways to encourage the open mic vibe with an organic, collaborative impro feel...We've always had a Jam session, but on Friday we tried something different and did away with the sign-up board and ran the whole night on a "grab the mic" basis. This worked well. We have a good security team, including one guy, Herbert, who was in a long-running Zimbabwean 
soap as a well-known character. Many of the crowd credit him with having inspired them to pursue arts in the first place. He's very humble so shrugs it off, but I'm looking forward to getting his creative input for The Green Room! We're on the lookout for people to come on board for that project and it's been cool to chat to guys at The Lounge who are also into theatre as well as music and poetry. For example, I was chatting to one guy who was interested, he's a writer, and it turns out that he wrote a sell-out play for HIFA 09 about current issues in Zim. Great to get to know him and others like him ahead of the Green Room launch in October.
soap as a well-known character. Many of the crowd credit him with having inspired them to pursue arts in the first place. He's very humble so shrugs it off, but I'm looking forward to getting his creative input for The Green Room! We're on the lookout for people to come on board for that project and it's been cool to chat to guys at The Lounge who are also into theatre as well as music and poetry. For example, I was chatting to one guy who was interested, he's a writer, and it turns out that he wrote a sell-out play for HIFA 09 about current issues in Zim. Great to get to know him and others like him ahead of the Green Room launch in October. 
I love the level of fun and trust we have as a team too. Whether we're pushing each other to perform as well as run the night, or watching each others' backs and making sure we all have fun too - it's a very cool dynamic that we have going on. We're in it together for the long haul and are open to experimenting with new ideas additional ways to collaborate as well as ensuring the Lounge remains organic and true to the vision of serving the community and creativity of the artistic community. We get on well and I think it all kinda shows through!
The June Lounge ended with a great Jam with dancers Rolx improvising along with the poets, rappers and musicians - it was pumping. The two guys on the left had travelled down from Harare to guest at the Lounge as part of a collaboration between us and some guys running another outfit in Harare. The collaboration came out of conversations we had at HIFA about wanting to increase the ties between the two cities and partner better. Next month we'll be sending one of our artists to their event in Harare.
Some of our crowd
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