'Re-vamped' Poetry Open Mic tonight

By Monica Kreber
kreberm@mytjnow.com

Tonight DSU is hosting Poetry Open Mic Night in Dina’s Place starting at 8 p.m.

Though a DSU event, Poetry Open Mic Night was organized by two students. One of them, senior psychology major Sabrina Blue, said she and senior modern languages major Andre Isaac both agreed to team up with Boyd Jones, director of Student Activites, to make the event happen.

“Andre and I are not part of DSU,” she said. “We were both 2012 Orientation Leaders,so that’s how we know each other. We are however good friends with Boyd Jones, so we both agreed to host because we love participating in things around campus, and any chance we get to work with Boyd is awesome.”

Poetry Open Mic Night, Blue said, is a fairly popular event hosted on campus throughout the school year; the last one was hosted close to a month ago.

“It was hosted by the Homecoming King and Queen,” she said. “I’m not 100-percent, sure but I think we have them almost once a month or so.”

Although they are hosting the event, Blue said she has no plans to recite any poetry during the night.

“I am not very poetic, and I will not be reading any of my own work. I’m not sure if Andre is a poet, but I’m almost sure that he won’t be reading any of his work if he has any just because he’ll be hosting the show.”

Since this is a DSU event, it had to be approved by Boyd Jones.

Jones said DSU hosts Poetry Open Mic Night “every now and then” throughout the semester.

“The students felt like trying something new,” he said, “so instead of mixing poetry/music/comedy/guitar playing/etc. as we do most Open Mics…[we decided] to have a poetry beatnik type of night and see how this will go over.”

What is also different about tonight’s open mic, Jones said, is that instead of inviting MC’s from off campus, DSU is using current Winthrop students to serve as MC’s.

Like Blue said, last time it was the Homecoming King and Queen. Jones said one year the winners of the Talent Show hosted the event. Now it is Blue and Isaac’s turn.

“For our February Open Mic, we are choosing two Orientation Leaders who I hope are well known and have many WU friends who might come to support them,” Jones said.

Tonight’s open mic is something DSU is trying on a “one-time basis” and the organization will evaluate it to see if it continues in future.
“It will give Winthrop students a chance to hear the talents/writings of their fellow Winthrop students,” Jones said. “This is something we’re trying and we’ll see how this goes over. If it does not, we’ll just have Open Mics where you can share a variety of talents, as that has worked well in past.”

Blue said although Poetry Open Mic Night has been held before, this is the first time she will be attending one.

“I’m hoping that students will come out to have some nice relaxing fun,” she said. “I’ve actually never been to a poetry night, so it’ll be interesting to see how the crowd responds to the energy.”

On that note, Blue said she looks forward to seeing how the night turns out.

“If this one goes well, I would definitely like to see more poetry nights,” she said.