Fall Open Mic Night
No lit mag exists in a void. The York Review especially aims to reflect a dynamic, real-life community — and to provide a platform for art-sharing beyond just the page, the screen. It seems #beweirdwithus has always been an important motto for us, even before hashtags and social media in general existed. Weirdness as the courage to be different. Weirdness as a communal thing. Weirdness as anything you make of it, really. Although the submissions period for our upcoming volume has ended, the team is still eager to hear the stories of York College students. So when Morgan helped us team up with CAB to host an open mic on the evening of Friday, November 9th (poet Anne Sexton’s birthday, incidentally!), we were pretty excited.
It was a particularly powerful event, emceed by Morgan and Maggie from TYR. Julia kicked it off with a cover of “Crazy” by Gnarles Barkley. Of course, covers, too, are an important form of expression, the lyrics taking on new meaning there, in Spart’s Den, all of us listening before a stage with colorful lighting. “Does that make me crazy? / Does that make me crazy? / Probably.”
Lindsey sang Arianna Grande’s “God Is a Woman.” Maggie graced us with “Marceline” by Willow Smith, a reminder to “remember your cosmic roots” after a rainstorm of knives on earth. Misa performed his own original compositions.
A comedian named Frankie imagined us all in our underwear — long johns, that is — and placed a certain political figure (take a wild guess!) among the characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And Avika delivered a favorite comic book monologue — when the Joker believes he’s driven Commissioner Gordon insane.
Lamyaa brought some audience members to tears with her poems “Privilege of Anger” and “The Dinner Table.” J, another courageous poet, addressed the ongoing realities of racism: “America, land of the free / But really, how could that be? / Got your hands on me like we’re back in slavery.”
Ben Jones performed early on with his guitar and a great deal of passion for the specific music he’d chosen — “Just (You Do it to Yourself)” by Radiohead and “Walking Alone” by Green Day. He reflected on his experience, saying, “Well, singing at this open mic was a great joy. The people were very nice and very into the event. Performing gets you energized and as such, you feel invincible and willing to try new crazy things to entertain an audience or to touch them emotionally.”
These are only some of the performances we had the pleasure of witnessing. There were seldom any gaps, and students tended to return to the mic, even more confident than before, once we’d gotten through the entire sign-up sheet. Thank you to everyone who joined us there! We appreciate your talent, enthusiasm, and support.