There probably won’t be that many people, I thought as I stepped into the Barefoots Joe coffee house a few minutes before Open Mic started. I was very wrong. People sat on couches, wooden chairs and even tables that were turned to face the lit-up stage. Even then, many people, including me, still had to stand.
Hosts Davis Smith and Noah Paisley interjected with witty commentary, wordplay and banter in between each performance. The performers were diverse, each contributing their own unique genre, flair or even language to the mass showcase of talent. There was everything from banjos to cellos. Christian songs to love songs. An emotional piano ballad— an original song by Eunice Tan, a sophomore journalism and English double major, called “Without You” — that left us speechless. A One Tree Hill cover with an electric guitar and drums that made jaws drop and heads bang. There was everything.
But then there was the performance that stuck out to me the most. It was a cover of a song from “My Hero Academia” by Maggie Wills, a sophomore Spanish major and art minor.
“Akogare nado kienai kawaritai,” she sang, strumming her ukulele. And whatever those words meant, they sounded beautiful. I could only imagine what it must have felt like to sing an anime theme on a uke for a crowd that looked simultaneously confused and fascinated. Something about Wills sitting cross-legged on a stool while effortlessly pronouncing words in a language she doesn’t speak natively told us that we were seeing her unapologetic self in that moment.
“I don’t know [why there is embarrassment attached to anime and different cultures],” Wills said. “I think I was excited to say, ‘This is a part of me. I really love Japanese, I like “My Hero Academia,” I love singing and I love ukulele.’ There’s a part of my personality, maybe, in my voice and in my song choice.”
McKenzie Strasko, a junior music and English double major, sang with the last group of the night. I wondered how she felt about performing in front of her peers as someone with experience singing to crowds of strangers. She told me that she views Open Mic as a bonding experience and a way to connect with peers in a unique way.
“There’s something that’s really fun about getting to show off something that you normally wouldn’t do and doing it for people that are in similar stages of life,” Strasko said. “You get to show off a different part of your life, whereas normally it’s like, ‘We go to class together’ or ‘We have English together’ and stuff.”
As I stepped out from the toasty coffee shop and into the chilly fall air, I turned to my friend and told her that I enjoyed myself. No, I didn’t enjoy standing for one and a half hours or awkwardly bumping elbows with the guy next to me. But I did enjoy cheering on my peers, whom I felt like I knew just a little bit better in that moment, as if a part of themselves went into every note hit and instrument plucked.
Photo By Laila Al-Hagal
