The Foremothers Café
The Foremothers Café is a Women's History Museum and Cultural Center in Virtual Reality, set in Lund, Sweden, in 1918. Inspired by the courageous women of early 20th-century Sweden and the world, our space honors their legacy of resilience, empowerment, and mutual support, while fostering a modern gathering place for creativity, dialogue, and connection.
We are a global community excited by the fact that in the Metaverse there are no borders, and we love bringing people together to celebrate culture, history, and community through art, cultural events, and engaging conversations.
How to visit The Foremothers Café
The Foremothers Café is hosted on the ENGAGE platform. We are always open, and you can visit anytime using our Persistent Session ID: 2a0K6 (2 a zero K 6).
To join one of our Cultural Events, click directly on our event listed on the ENGAGE bulletin board.
Important: The Persistent Session ID is not used for events.
Download the ENGAGE Platform
If you are not familiar with Virtual Reality or ENGAGE, please begin by reading our FAQ which includes instructions on how to join.
Are you a regular? Join the Foremothers Café Discord Server to stay in touch with the community.
Our Ongoing Events
Check the Events page to see upcoming and previous months' speakers and topics.
The Foremothers Cafe’s Community Discussion Series
Helen hosts monthly discussions on a range of topics, with a new guest speaker every month. Interested in being a speaker? Any subject in the humanities, from philosophy and history to the arts and culture, is welcome. Contact Helen to enquire.
Fika
Fika is Swedish for coffee break with something sweet to eat with friends.
Come join us for a fika! Bring your imagination and try our signature frog cookies.
Thursdays 1 pm Eastern.
Foremothers Day
The Foremothers Café is named after the women who came before us whose shoulders we are all standing on now.
Helen started the Foremothers Day tradition on November 30th 2022 to honor her mom who would have been 86 that day and invited others to honor their mothers too. It has become an annual tradition, honoring not just our mothers but all of our foremothers.
Who were your foremothers? Join us to tell us about your mother, grandmothers, great grandmothers, or other women in your family.
Art Exhibitions
Are you an artist? Contact us to display your art in The Foremothers Cafe
Special Occasions and Holidays
We love to celebrate. So far we have celebrated Pride, Swedish Midsummer and Lucia, New Years Eve, Canada Day, and Halloween. More is merrier, contact us if you have ideas.
Watch The Foremothers Café Live Lucia Concert-The first Lucia concert ever performed Live in Virtual Reality!
Women's History and Literature Inspired The Foremothers Café
The Foremothers Café is inspired by Helen Lundström Erwin's historical novel, Sour Milk in Sheep's Wool about women’s struggle for equal rights at the turn of the 20th century, Sweden.
In the book, Hanna’s cafe becomes the central meeting place for women advocating for suffrage and women's equality, and a space that grows into a nurturing and supportive community. It's Hanna's community and her passion that inspired Helen to create The Foremothers Café. It launched in May 2022 and has been a thriving Cultural Center and Women’s History Museum in Virtual Reality ever since.
The cafe is set in Lund, Sweden in 1918, the year Sweden held its only national suffrage march, which was joined by thousands of women from the whole country. You will find several details from this march at The Foremothers Café, including on the cover of Sour Milk in Sheep's Wool, which you will find in the café’s book corner.
A creative version of the banners carried during this march is hanging on our wall, historically accurate in all respects, except for the fact that it's written in English.
Contraceptive use was a very divisive concept during this time, and it was illegal to spread information about its “propaganda.” It would take a few more years before Elise Ottesen-Jensen began to lecture about the benefits of them. Her portrait is hanging in a frame on the wall among our other honored foremothers. Did you know that Ottar, as she was also called, co-founded International Planned Parenthood?
Swedish women are not the only women honored here, Sojourner Truth, is as well. Did you know that she was a suffragist as well as an abolitionist, or that she was the first Black woman to win a lawsuit against a White man?
Advocacy is not the whole story, not in the book, and not in our history. Many women were raising large families, enduring frequent childbirth, and living in poverty. Some worked long hours in factories for about two-thirds of men’s wages, while others were stigmatized for having children out of wedlock. For many, daily survival left little energy to speak out, even if they longed for change. While our cafe building is centered on advocacy, we are expanding our VR World by adding historical buildings that will include more women's stories.
Our Team
Helen Lundström Erwin, Founder and Creator
Helen has published three historical novels, including Sour Milk in Sheep's Wool, the book that inspired The Foremothers Café, and has also written and illustrated a children's book. She hosts and produces our cultural events.
World Builders
Cause+Christi Immersive XR Design
Austin Caine (Cause) and Christi Fenison built The Foremothers Café. They have built many beautiful worlds, including the United Nations Act Now VR Series.
Cause+Christi
Cause and Christi share how they built our space
Click here to read
Nimzy 3D
Anita Shenk (Nimzy) maintains The Foremothers Café.
She has created several beautiful worlds, including, "Project Color in the Gray": VR Experience for Mental Health Awareness
Nimzy 3D
Videos
Helen's keynote at ImmerseKL Malaysian Economical Digital Cooperation, Malaysia
Helen On her Inspiration to Create The Foremothers Café
The Foremothers Café Trailer with World Builders Cause + Christi
The Foremothers Café Grand Re-Opening Tour
The Foremothers Café Second Anniversary
We are a Global Community
We are a Global Community
Praise for The Foremothers Café
Not archived, but lived
Endorsement
⭐Helen Lundström Erwin is using XR to make culture timeless. Her Foremothers Café VR experience preserves Sweden’s stories while reimagining how history is passed down — not archived, but lived. - Angeline Seah, Women in Tech, Malaysia
Like discovering a perfectly decent cup of tea in a universe of energy drinks.
Endorsement
A Splendid Virtual Rendezvous: When Sweden Meets Japan in Cyberspace
Greetings, fellow digital wanderers,
I've just emerged from what can only be described as the most civilized virtual reality encounter I've had in years—a meeting that's left me genuinely excited about the future of social VR.
Picture this: there I was, expecting another expedition through some neon-soaked virtual wasteland, when instead I found myself transported to Helen Lundström Erwin's exquisitely mundane 19th-century Swedish café in Lund (the ENGAGE virtual reality version). Now, as someone who's spent the better part of four decades living abroad, stumbling into this utterly unpretentious slice of Scandinavian domesticity was like discovering a perfectly decent cup of tea in a universe of energy drinks.
Helen appeared—as one does in VR—and we settled in for what the Swedes call fika. Not to be outdone in the cultural exchange department, I conjured up a fetching blue-and-white Japanese teapot, complete with wisteria handle, courtesy of my local potter. Because nothing says "meaningful cross-cultural dialogue" quite like competitive tableware.
The delicious irony wasn't lost on either of us: two Swedes, having spent decades perfecting our respective adopted languages—she English in America, I Japanese in Japan—occasionally fumbling for words in our mother tongue like linguistic tourists in our own heritage. Meanwhile, outside our cozy time capsule, motorcars and horse carriages rolled past in perfect historical harmony—yesterday's rush hour, today's museum piece.
What struck me most profoundly was how this utterly ordinary setting—no dragons, no explosions, just two middle-aged Scandinavians having a proper chat—created perfect conditions for extraordinary conversation. We found ourselves deep in discussion about VR's potential to reshape human connection, agreeing that while this technology might not appeal to everyone (much like adventurous travel or culinary escapades), it only takes a determined minority of digital nomads, explorers, and benevolent eccentrics to change the world. We have the huge advantage of being able to open a door and instantly be transported into the vision of another person.
Helen's café stands as a testament to what I'd call the "Metaverse for Grownups"—a space where meaningful discourse trumps mindless mayhem, where intimacy matters more than instant gratification. It's precisely this sort of thoughtful virtual environment that gives me hope for our increasingly fractured world.
Sometimes the most revolutionary act is simply sitting down for coffee with a stranger who shares your dreams of a better tomorrow—even if that coffee exists only in ones and zeros, and your café spans both centuries and continents. - Hans Karlsson, Mimir LLC, Japan
Keeping history alive
Endorsement
Thank you for keeping the history alive through the power of virtual reality. - Stephen Butchko, Founding member of Ferryman Collective
A gathering place for enlightenment
Endorsement
Helen, this is good work, and especially a gathering place for enlightenment, enquiry and exploration. It is also fun! Bless you in these efforts. - Tom Furness, Professor (Emeritus), University of Washington
Safe new experience
Endorsement
And somehow… having this discussion with our voices but through an avatar was a whole new safe experience to me. I want to know more about the benefit of hard conversations in the VR space. You all who engage in this technology are brilliant. Here’s to learning! Thanks again for the invitation, Helen Lundström Erwin and for everyone in the The Foremothers Café Café last night. - Dawn Y. Graber Women's Equity expert and Licensed Coach
Heartfelt thank you
Endorsement
I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Helen Lundström Erwin for inviting me to her weekly meeting yesterday. Experiencing her virtual space in Engage was truly delightful.
The warm and welcoming atmosphere allowed everyone to share their week's experiences, ask questions, and engage in meaningful conversations with fellow attendees. Once again, I was impressed by how virtual reality meetings are significantly more effective and engaging than traditional Zoom sessions. The immersive nature of VR fosters a stronger sense of presence, making interactions more personal and discussions more focused.
Once again, thank you, Helen, for fostering such a supportive and engaging environment. I look forward to our future gatherings. - James Charrel, Technology Integrator at Lycée Français de New York
Art, Sound, and Technology
Endorsement
As I continue this journey of the Virtual Worlds Museum, I'm constantly reminded of some of the powerful threads that bind us. Community, Art, Sound, and Technology!
Big love and shoutout to Helen Lundström Erwin for the community engagement and creativity of her Lucia Concert at The Foremothers Café - Julian Reyes, Virtual Worlds Museum, and Keyframe
Welcoming
Social Media
Helen Lundström Erwin, you've built such a beautiful, welcoming space. I look forward to breaking virtual bread with you and these other lovely humans, every week 💜 - Sarah Barker, Immersive Instructional Designer | Media Psychology Doctoral Candidate
Best community
The Thursday Fika has become an important part of my life, a nice break from everything with the best community. - Ruben McCarthy, MSc Plant Pathology
VR Therapies
Editorial Review
"I've done a lot of things in VR but I've never stepped inside a book. It is such a powerful concept what you have achieved! This cafe where women came together in secret meetings, for the suffrage movement and fought for women's rights... How you recreated that cafe, now bringing women in XR together to continue that fight and support each other. It is beautiful and brilliant and I left feeling empowered and inspired." - Rebecca Gill, founder of VR Therapies
Ribbon cutting
Editorial Review
“Excited and honored to take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony for The Foremothers Café based on the novel Sour Milk in Sheep’s Wool. This space represents an expansion of the literary imagination. Authors can now build out their works to create rich experiences for their readers. Already we have immersive theatre, and there are so many more opportunities for artistic creation. “New technology opens up new possibilities for artistic creation.”
In the metaverse we are not only crossing genres, but synthesizing and expanding art forms in exciting new ways. What a time to be alive!”- Karen Alexander, XR Connected and XR Women
I’m inspired in so many new ways,
"Thank you for creating the Virtual Space and hosting important gatherings. I'm inspired in so many new ways, by the possibility to gather as sisters and brothers on the planet, unbound by geography, sharing important ideas.I can't thank you enough Helen!!" - Theresa Puckett
Press
Over Coffee Podcast
Dot Cannon talks with Helen about her books and The Foremothers Cafe.
Click here to listen
Forbes Magazine
Write up on 48 Hours in the Metaverse
Click here to read
48 Hours in The Metaverse
The Foremothers Café was was featured in the 4 Times Award Winning Documentary 48 Hours in The Metaverse
Click here to read and Watch
You can also watch a short clip from the documentary in our 2nd Anniversary Video here
Thank you to Altspace
Our World Builders Cause and Christi talks about how it all started on Altspace
Click to read and watch here
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Where is The Foremothers Café? Is it in Lund, Sweden?
A: No, The Foremothers Café is not a physical space. It’s in Virtual Reality portraying a fictional café in Lund, Sweden in 1918. This means that no matter where in the world you live, you can participate in our activities.
Q: What is Virtual Reality?
A: Virtual Reality is a fully immersive space and experience. When you wear a VR headset, it covers your eyes and shows you the VR-World in 3D all around you, making you feel like you're inside the space. You can turn your head in different directions and walk around, creating the sensation that you're actually there.
We're fond of this apt explanation:
“I asked AI to explain VR to my 5-year-old. It said, ‘Imagine putting on glasses and suddenly you’re inside a train or a rocket ship!’” – Dan Blair, Applied XR Researcher and Educator
Virtual Reality can be accessed through headsets such as the Meta Quest 2 and 3, Meta Quest Pro, Pico, or Apple Vision Pro. Alternatively, for a 2D version, it can be accessed through a computer, smartphone, or tablet. (See below)
Q: Do you have to have a Virtual Reality Headset to join events at The Foremothers Café and other Virtual Worlds?
A: No, you can also join on your computer or smart device for a two-dimensional experience. Just like with a headset, you use an avatar to interact, but you’ll navigate using your mouse, arrow keys, or the W, A, S, and D keys to move around instead of hand controllers. The Foremothers Café is fully accessible through your computer or smart device. Please use headphones to minimize audio feedback while interacting with others.
(While it is possible to join through a smartphone or tablet, we recommend using a larger device, such as a laptop or a computer.)
Q: Is it like Zoom?
A: No, it’s not like Zoom. Virtual Reality is fully immersive, meaning you enter a space or experience where you use an avatar to interact with others in real-time or engage with objects in the virtual world. Just like in real life, you might attend a movie, join a discussion, play golf, or hang out with friends. At The Foremothers Café, you can join us for Fika (Swedish coffee hour) every Thursday afternoon, participate in our monthly Community Discussion Series, enjoy a cultural event, or visit an art exhibition.
Q: When is The Foremothers Café open?
A: The Foremothers Café is open 24/7. It’s a public space, and you can visit anytime. Events and happenings are scheduled, so please check out our events page here
Q: How do I find The Foremothers Café?
A: Whether you have a headset or plan to join through another device, start by creating an account and avatar here: https://engagevr.io/download-engage/ It’s free!
Once you're set up, you’re ready to join us. There are two ways to do this:
- Visit The Foremothers Café anytime by logging into the ENGAGE app and clicking “Join Session, then Join by Session ID,” then enter: 2a0K6 when prompted. Take note that the third digit is a zero.
- Join one of our scheduled events by logging into ENGAGE, clicking on "Events," and selecting our Foremothers Café event once it goes live.
Important: Don’t use the Session ID to join events. The Session ID is only for private visits, meetings, or unlisted private events.
Q: I went to The Foremothers Café but my avatar wasn't there. Why didn't it work?
A: If you were in The Foremothers Café World your avatar was there. You don't see your avatar because you're inside it. It's just like in real life, you don't see yourself walking around in front of you. You are inside your body.
If you're in a VR Headset just lift your arms and look at them. You'll see your body if you look down toward the ground or the floor. If you're on a laptop, you'll see your legs and feet if you drag your mouse to look down.
Q: Can other people see my avatar?
A: Yes, other visitors can see you. And when you see an avatar in the cafe, that’s another person visiting. The name tag above their head will light up green when they’re talking.
Q: How much does it cost to join events at The Foremothers Café?
A: Nothing! All events at The Foremothers Café are free of charge. However, we greatly appreciate donations. All proceeds go toward supporting The Foremothers Café.
Support and Recognition
Special Thanks to The Field, ENGAGE, SWEA NY, and The Puffin Foundation
The Foremothers Café Community has been nominated for Auggie Awards For Biggest Societal Impact two years in a row, 2023 and 2024, and Helen was nominated for an XR Women Trailblazer Award in 2023.
The Foremothers Café and Helen were featured in the award winning documentary 48 Hours in The Metaverse, 2022.
Helen's novel and The Foremothers Café inspired a Meta Quest Skin from Briar Prestidge's dynamic World Hopping Meta Quest 2 Collection.
Corporate Sponsorships and Partnerships
Would your company like to hold an official event or meeting at The Foremothers Café? We create tailored partnerships that give your team or brand a meaningful presence in our cultural space.
To enquire contact Helen
Donate to The Foremothers Cafe
Your Tax-Deductible Contributions through The Field
help support our free events
Please click here.
Helen Lundström Erwin/The Foremothers Café is a sponsored artist with The Performance Zone Inc (dba The Field), a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization serving the performing arts community. Contributions to The Field earmarked for New Futures Theatre Company are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information about The Field, or for our national charities registration, contact: The Field, 228 Park Ave S, Suite 97217, New York, NY 10003, phone: 212-691-6969. A copy of our latest financial report may be obtained from The Field or from the Office of Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.