Snaps and applause filled the Dailey Theater Tuesday, February 17 during the “What is Love?” Open Mic Night presented by University of La Verne’s Slam Poetry team. Audience members were given the opportunity to get up to the microphone and perform their own poetry or sing songs to a receptive and encouraging crowd. Junior music major, Christian Garay, and sophomore history major, Patrick Swart, accompanied each other performing two original songs, alternating vocal duties on each, and ending with a modest “thank you,” receiving a round of applause. / photo by Daniel Torres
Michaela Bulkley
Staff Writer
“What is love?” was the question of Tuesday night, as 23 students took to the mic to perform their hearts out in the Dailey Theatre for Campus Activities Board’s Open Mic Night.
The event was collaboration between CAB, the Slam Poetry Team and the theatre department.
There were a variety of students from biology to music majors performing poems and songs focused on relationships and love.
“The amount of people who write poetry, and how good it actually was, was surprising to me, in a good way.” sophomore theatre major Audie Munoz said.
“It was a great way to express ourselves, and we should do things like this more often.”
The beginning of the show had the more polished and practiced materials. The first performer was Melanie Nadon, who performed a poem called “Every Damn Day.”
It was about real love found in relationships, contrary to ones depicted in movies.
“I thought it was a great way to bring everyone together and express themselves and show how creative they are.” Munoz said.
Steven Andrew Forns, sophomore theatre major and captain of the Slam Poetry Team performed a piece he plans to take to a slam poetry competition.
“Epithalamia” was about the emotional vulnerability in relationships.
Forns performed another piece directly after called “Konstantin” that was about a person he wish he could keep defending, Forns said before he performed.
It explained a brutal, but honest depiction of the effect of emotional investment in a rough relationship.
The performances inspired other students throughout the show and some spontaneously decided to perform.
“I have never gotten on a stage in front of people,” senior philosophy major Salinger Morales said. “I walk around campus and I sing all the time, but getting in front of everybody was nerve-racking. You could see my hands shake.”
The bravery of the participants increased as the audience of about 120 started to thin away after 11 p.m.
Students sang a capella, while other improvised poems for the first time.
Despite people leaving, the rest of the audience was supportive of all the performers, clapping, snapping and cheering over forgotten or fumbled words, leaving the performers feeling supported in a safe environment.
Several audience members said their favorite piece was by senior criminology major Myron Woods.
It was a poem about Pokémon, his love for the game and its crucial involvement in his childhood.
“We need a bigger community of artists on this campus and I feel like events like this really contribute to that,” Forns said. “We need to support our artistic community.”
Michaela Bulkley can be reached at michaela.bulkley@laverne.edu.