AFC Open Mic Night - Creative Event

For my second creative event, I went to the Auburn Christian Fellowship’s Open Mic Night on April 19. Again, I wasn’t inspired in the way that I am often inspired by good music or visually engaging artwork, but I was inspired for writing nonetheless. When I got to ACF, the first acts had already started and the whole close-knit community of ACF was there, along with many others. The small building was packed out with people sitting all over the place, on couches and chairs and standing in the back. I found some people I knew then started paying attention to the young girl on the piano performing through the loud, incessant talking and laughing drowning her out. It also didn’t help that she was very timid and was barely singing into the microphone, and when she was, it was impossible to make out the actual words, if it truly was words she was attempting. During her set, and many other times throughout the night, the super supportive people would share a collective “shh!” and things would quite down, though usually it lasted less than a minute. Regardless of who was paying attention or how many times the performer made a mistake, the applause when the set was over would be unanimous and excited, forcing a smile on the nervous person leaving the stage.

One performance that was especially eye opening was when two young men wearing bandanas performed a rap in which it was completely impossible to understand a word. They fumbled over their obviously unpracticed lines and were rarely in synch with the beat the entire song. The crowd, however, was on their feet and laughing and clapping with the beat, encouraging them with yells of approval. When it was finally over, the two guys left the stage beaming and I had to wait my turn to talk to them because so many people got to them first and told them how amazing they were. The performers actually smiled and took the compliments like they deserved them.

I realized that the whole night had very little to do with art or performance and a lot to do with community. No one cared about someone actually being able to sing or do magic or tell a funny joke, they were just proud of their friends for getting on the stage. I’m sure I’ll be able to use that theme in a story at some point and I was glad I went; It was a refreshing way to look at the arts. I learned that they didn’t have to be taken so seriously and that art is even more diverse than I thought it was. It can be used as a tool to simply bring people together.