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October 21, 2009
By Michael Omenazu
Staff Reporter
Two speakers separated by a small amount of space yet an infinite range of topics stood on a stage in an open mic sponsored by the English Club.
Event Coordinator Stephanie Ebershol explained the purpose of the event. "It gives people in the community a chance to express themselves and to have a good time,” she said.
Coincidentally in a conference room only a few feet away, several speakers and their attentive audience met to address the future of English studies. Keynote speaker Richard Miller contended that the greatest change in human communication was currently taking place.
College campuses often serve as breeding grounds for diverse views, beliefs and philosophies. Inside the classroom both teachers and students engage one another in poignant discussions of global and personal issues. The open mic served as another forum for furthered conversation.
All types of art were encouraged. “Everybody is welcome to get on stage. We don’t care if you do music or poetry or whatever because there is no judging,” Ebershol said.
The proceedings began with rapper Jim Smiley performing an original piece articulating his personal struggles. As he rapped over his track, his emphatic gestures engaged the crowd, garnering both their interest and emotional investment into his set illustrated in heads bouncing to his cadenced rhyme coupled with widened eyes stimulated by clever metaphors.
The English Club also produces the Alchemist Review, a collection of non-fiction, fiction, plays poems, and artwork. UIS students, staff, faculty and alumni are encouraged to submit their literary work. After the various pieces are published they are presented in the annual Verbal Arts Festival. For additional information, including guidelines and how to submit literary and artistic work, e-mail: eng-ga@uis.edu. |
Four young rappers took the stage, whose first act featured a remix to Charles Hamilton’s “Ain’t Nothing Like a Brooklyn Girl” with the New York borough replaced with their hometown, Springfield. Three members of the group lyrically recounted their romantic experiences through verse while accompanied by the melodic crooning of their singer.
The essence of the event was poetically described by a participant who took the stage. Effectively using alliteration he described the process of getting up before the attendees as “skittishly squandering up and then shutterbugging down.”
The night smoothly flowed with performances of both original and classic poetry, which included a reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven."
The open mic served as an exchange of both ideas and ideals between the performers and the crowd, which watched from their seats with their toes rhythmically tapping on the floor.
(Sidebar)
