By CAITY ARIAS Freelancer
Open Mic Night encouraged Western’s community to embrace their individuality.
The event focused on sexuality to coincide with Out and Proud Week. Out and Proud Week brings awareness to the equality of all people regardless of their sexual preference.
Lacey Roop, spoken word poet, was a special guest. Other performers joined the stage to share their creations.
The first performer, Keenan Richmond, played the acoustic guitar and was encored to sing three songs. The songs were “Norwegian Wood,” “Things We Said Today” and “A Day in the Life” written by The Beatles.
All of the songs emulated love and life, indicating that neither of the concepts are perfectly defined.
Aliyah Nicholson walked to the stage next, drawing attention to her appearance, no makeup and comfortable. Nicholson recited a poem she had written over the summer. The poem described that words do hurt. A vicious cycle is implemented when
people use words to defy and destroy others. The cycle will consist of repeatedly hurting each other and diminishing each other’s self-esteem.
To avoid this cycle, Nicholson said, “self-image can be restored by the change of mind frame.” Roop, “high five and hug” connoisseur, introduced the power of poetry through laughter and seriousness, happiness and sadness.
In one of Roop’s poems, she pokes fun at the reactions she has received from other people in her life: “I walked into a bar and this guy asked me, ‘are you a dude or are you a dyke?’”
“Well, I don’t really know,” Roop replied, “I guess you can ask your girlfriend after she went down on me last night.”
Roop balanced prevailing stories about her life with her poetry to imply that her writing is based off of her memories. She illustrated the ignorant displays
of humanity that she’s had to face, but also voiced her love and acceptance for herself. Her easy laugh and humor guided the audience to relate with her.
The last performance by Sofia Yamez featured a poem about her struggles with her sexuality and the stereotypes that come with it.
She ends her poem by saying, “sexuality is predetermined by my own soul.”
After the show, Joseph Thorpe, a senior and interdisciplinary studies major commented, “I really enjoyed it. The poetry was inspiring and thought provoking.
I feel like I need to change what’s going on. There’s something more I should do to try to help people. It makes me want to change a lot of stuff about my life. I didn’t know poetry could make me do that.”
Henelle Crites, community health major, said the show was “really good and a lot of fun.”
