FHN’s seventh annual North Street Coffee House will take place on Feb. 18-19 during the school day. It will be held in the library, and everyone is encouraged to come and watch.

The Coffee House takes a while to prepare, and isn’t something that is just thrown together. First, money is received from STUCO and then the planning can begin.

“It takes a good couple of months to get things together. Getting teachers to sign up. Buying the cookies, hot chocolate, and coffee. Also, we plan the date for next year’s Coffee House now,” librarian Angie Gunnell said.

If teachers or student wish to come see the Coffee House, teachers will have to sign up with Gunnell in order to do so. She will also place sign up sheets in all the teachers mail boxes.

“The Coffee House has performances of poetry, music, and essays all in a beatnik atmosphere. There is usually around 30 performances, 15 per day,” Gunnell, said.

The most common performances usually seen are poetry and music.

“It’s rooted in poetry, promote reading, makes the library have a good welcoming atmosphere and makes people that usually don’t come to the library drawn in, encouraging them to come checkout a book,” Gunnell said

The Coffee House is a great way to show your talent. All anyone has to do is audition and get permission to get out of class. Also teachers and students get a chance to see talents from other students that they never knew they had.

“It gives students a forum that we don’t have. And [it’s] another way for them to show their talent because we don’t have a talent show,” Gunnell said.

Coffee House has been such a success in the past that FHN is going to continue to have it. They haven’t thought about doing anything else or changing it because everyone is amazed by the talents they see each year.

“I thank the kids for coming out and auditioning because they are pretty cool,” Gunnell said.