As the day grows dim, students trickle into the Battelle Atrium and splay across haphazardly-arranged couches and chairs. A microphone stands at the rear of the room, and doesn't spend much time unused. Most of those gathered will sing or recite in front of the mic; their voices ring out in clarion calls or whispered and heartfelt secrets. These students, attendants of WVAU's open mic nights, later will leave as they came - in trickles - and leave some part of themselves behind.
As Kahlil Gibran wrote in The Prophet, "Beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, but rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted." A congregation of artists is a sight to behold. Dozens of bass-lines and breakbeats hum in singular voice, baring the players' enflamed hearts and enchanted souls to the world, or at least to the fifty-odd attendees.
WVAU, AU's student-run radio station, organizes these open mic nights. You can listen to WVAU on your computer via wvau.org or on your iPhone (isn't modern technology grand?) through Shoutcast, a free Internet radio host.
The 2008-2009 school year saw eight total open mics. Four open mics per semester allows for just enough time for musicians to practice new songs and writers to craft new poems without there being so large of an interim period that the event seeps out of the artists' memories. Also, the month-long break between each is long enough to ward off any feeling of the occasion seeming stale. Instead, each experience is as warm and fresh as the preceding one.
The physical setup aids the intimate mood of the occasion. Anybody who wants to find a proper chair had better arrive early. The second wave of people scours the area for spare couches and chairs to be dragged over. Those who can't find a seat pile onto the stairs, or peer down from the balcony, or simply plop on the floor. Half nervous, half excited musicians congregate in the rear, loudly tuning guitars and quietly memorizing lyrics. The setup is relatively straightforward on WVAU's part. All they need to do, according to Liz Feuerbach, WVAU's public relations representative, is to set up a few speakers and microphones; the rest happens organically. It's a coffeehouse atmosphere minus the coffee.
"It's a perfect open mic elixir," said performer Sam Marks, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. "It's inviting, cozy, and frivolous." This inviting atmosphere helps foster the creativity that the stage produces. At one recent open mic, a group of freshmen belted out a rousing rendition Biz Markie's 1989 single "Just a Friend." The cover elicited joyous peals and hearty squeals of laughter from the audience. The musicians were skilled, to be sure, but they weren't taking themselves too seriously. The environment lacked pretence, and instead encapsulated fun and enamored the audience with its warmth. The environment was, in a word, frivolous.
Though frivolous it may be, the open mic nights certainly play an important role in the community. "[Open mic nights] showcase what AU has to offer from a creativity standpoint," said R.J. Pettersen, a recent CAS graduate, former WVAU D.J. and the station's librarian.
It's easy to see our community's purely intellectual achievements through the number of alumni who have become important government officials, gone into the Foreign Service or hold important positions in industry. However, the open mic nights serve to reveal what isn't so readily obvious at AU: our campuses' collective creative core.
The population of these events is relatively steady. According to Feuerbach, this helps to foster the warm and welcoming environment. "Most people recognize nearly all of the performers and audience members, because they all attended every open mic," she said. Performers encourage their friends to attend, and soon those less-willing attendees become performers in turn, perpetuating the cycle. The result is a community unto itself where everyone has perhaps only one or two degrees of separation.
So, I implore you, readers: Attend! Sing! Recite! Perform! If you do, you won't regret it, for a friendly congregation of our university's most creative minds awaits you.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
