This Tuesday, Oct. 24, Creative Writing Club is holding its first-ever Open Mic Night. The event will be held in room 302 from 6:30-8 p.m. with free admission.
The night will allow a variety of artists, such as writers, comedians, musicians and more to showcase their work in front of a small audience. Participants can choose to read or perform their own work, or have a designated reader read their work. If someone desires to showcase their work, they can choose to sign up at the beginning of the night or at any point during the night.
“…You can sign up when you come in, or throughout the event, you can spontaneously decide to perform,” said Elizabeth Battaglia, Creative Writing Club adviser.
Between performers, there will be small, casual snack sales and time to just hang out. All proceeds will support funding for Creative Writing Club.
This event is meant to foster a sense of community free of judgment and hate. People will be celebrated and appreciated for talents they may not have had a chance to showcase in the past.
“This place is a safe space and hate of any kind is not welcome in that space, but people and their viewpoints are, and their ideas and talents,” said Battaglia.
Another reason to attend this event is practice for possible future competitions. The Rooted & Radical competition in the spring is a slam poetry festival that Creative Writing Club hopes to have a team for. By attending open mic nights, students in the club gain valuable practice for potentially larger events in a smaller setting.
This open mic night has a loose, spooky Halloween theme. While students don’t have to stick to the theme, it can be a fun way to show seasonal spirit.
More open mic nights are a possibility depending on the success of this one. The club would like to host a few more this year and have each one include its own loose theme.
“We really want to grow the creative writing community at North, and we want this to be an opportunity for people’s creative writing to be showcased,” said Battaglia.
Another goal of open mic night is to provide an outlet to showcase student talent that may not have been shown off before. Many students have ways to show off skills in music, athletics and drama, but academics and writing are often overlooked. “Often [we] don’t comment on the difficult academic work [students have] done or the pride that they felt accomplishing that work, so maybe this event can showcase some of those special gifts,” said Battaglia.
