The Open Mic movement lives on

PATIENCE MUSA

Ever so many times, my mind wanders back to a place and time when artists of all ages and backgrounds would gather at the Book Café for a Monday evening open mic, or was it a Tuesday evening?

If memory serves, it was Mondays at first—then Saturdays were added too, because the organizers knew that not everyone could make it into town at night.

I still remember my first Saturday afternoon there, watching the place fill up with budding artists, many of whom are household names today.

I remember scribbling some poetry myself, even though at the time I was known mainly as a singer.

It was inspiring to be in a place where you could be anything, anyone, and say your truth in whatever form your gift demanded.

Artists met not only to perform, but to share, to uplift, to challenge, to spark ideas in each other. The Book Café was a living, breathing incubator of talent. When it closed, that heartbeat went silent, and for years I wondered whether it would remain just a golden memory—something from a past life.

Then, one day while scrolling through TikTok, I saw it: visuals of a mic, a crowd, young artists pouring out their voices. Open Mic was alive again.

This revival carries the name Harare Open Mic, hosted by acclaimed poet and storyteller Batsirai Chigama, who began the movement in 2019 as her way of giving back to the artistic community that once shaped her.

“When I started as a poet there was a strictly Sistaz-only Open Mic at the Book Café,” she recalls. “That space shaped careers of most of the powerful women in the arts today. The closure of the Book Café took away this much-needed space for young artists… Let’s just say this is my way of giving back—or perhaps paying forward.”

Like the Book Café before it, Harare Open Mic has become a place of discovery—where raw talent is welcomed, where courage is nurtured, where collaboration feels inevitable. Its motto, “whatever your magic, bring it on”, is both an invitation and a promise.

For Chigama, the space is more than a stage: “An Open Mic is a space of discovering self, how far a gift can take you. A space to learn, to network with like-minded people, develop and strengthen knowledge and the practice of one’s gift.”

She believes Harare Open Mic fills a crucial gap in Zimbabwe’s creative landscape. “The Open Mic is a developmental stage, preparing artists for the bigger stages,” she explains. “Festivals and events are looking for ready-made artists, but before that—where are these artists being groomed, trained and prepared? I want to believe Harare Open Mic can be that kind of space.”

The journey, however, has not been without challenges. In its early days, finding a consistent venue was difficult, but persistence bore fruit. “It was hard in the beginning to find venues to host the Harare Open Mic,” Chigama admits.

“But it’s getting easier now with venue owners approaching me to host this event at their venues.” Today, Ela The Garden, Impact Hub, Jasen Mphepo Little Theatre, and Moto Republik are among the spaces that have opened their doors. Support has also come from initiatives like One Billion Rising.

And the results speak for themselves. Chigama has seen artists’ careers take flight after stepping onto her stage. “There are artists who have been consistent and I have had requests from event organisers for their contacts as they were impressed after seeing them perform at the Open Mic and wanted to engage them to perform. That, for me, is a big win.”

Her dream is to expand the platform further, building structures that can sustain the next generation of Zimbabwean creatives. “It is my hope that Harare Open Mic will be able to host developmental workshops and link up with festivals and events happening around the country so that we can collaborate by providing employment opportunities for these young artists.”

But more than anything, she hopes the space leaves every performer changed: “I hope the performers feel seen and heard at Harare Open Mic. I hope the audiences realise that we need to give room and space for these new voices to thrive and also appreciate these gifts while at it.”

For audiences and artists alike, Harare Open Mic is more than an event—it is a movement. As Chigama puts it: “The Open Mic espouses the ‘for artists by artists’ mantra. By this it means artists are doing for themselves and not waiting for others to create platforms for them.”

And there is yet more to look forward to. These open mic sessions are not a once-off gift; they are scheduled three times a year, a steady rhythm in Zimbabwe’s artistic calendar.

Two beats of the drum have already sounded in 2025, and now, as we step into the last quarter, there is one more gathering to await. So let us keep our ears to the ground—whether we need a stage for our own voices, or whether we simply wish to stand in the crowd and bear witness to the courage of others.

And so, as new voices take the stage—sometimes trembling, sometimes triumphant—the future of Zimbabwean art grows louder, richer, more certain. Each performance affirms what Koleka Putuma once wrote: “You owe your dreams your courage.”

Harare Open Mic is courage. It is Zimbabwe’s creative heartbeat reborn.

I am deeply proud of Batsirai Chigama for picking up the torch that once seemed to have burned out, and for realizing how necessary it still is. In 2025, recognition remains a difficult thing to come by. We still live in a country that too often takes its artists for granted, that struggles to appreciate the immense talent carrying our nation’s spirit forward.

And yet, as Harare Open Mic continues to live and breathe, to build dreams and inspire courage, my hope is that Zimbabwe will awaken fully to the truth: that arts and culture are not luxuries, but the very rhythm of our identity. They shape us, sustain us, and remind us who we are. When that rhythm dies down, we lose more than entertainment—we lose inspiration, we lose memory, we lose ourselves.

For now, though, the mic is alive. The voices are rising. And in every note, every verse, every dance, Zimbabwe’s heartbeat is finding its way back home.