Lyrical Content sponsored an open-mic poetry reading in Founders last Friday. The event had members of Lyrical Content sharing deep poetry they’ve written, as well as allowing any audience member to go on stage and either read their own poetry, rap or sing.
Inopportunely, there were some scheduling issues for Founders. There was a miscommunication in the time slots for Lyrical Content’s show and Pocket Lint’s. The groups met up beforehand and were able to compromise: Pocket Lint would start at 7:15 p.m. and last an hour, after which Lyrical Content would set up and begin at 8:30 p.m.
Because of this, Lyrical Content members were on Facebook right before performing, alerting their friends via social media to the time change, as well as last minute PR in encouraging people to come at the new time. This led to a shaky start in organization, and an unfortunate turn out.
However, once the show started, it was immediately redeemed by club member Meaghan Summers’, ’17, reading of an original piece. To me, this was one of the most fantastic displays of the evening, as Summers whimsically painted a picture of confidence with her words.
Other standout performances included a reading of a poem about loving an ambitious girl, as well as junior club member DaShawn Glover’s raps. Another highlight was sophomore Holly Carmel: she is not a member of the group and had not had much experience in writing poetry before she wrote a piece on the spot about moving on from someone who doesn’t deserve you. This had the most passionate response from the audience, howling with laughter and cheering.
Lyrical Content founder Autumn Smith, ’15, closed the show with a powerful piece about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that had the audience snapping fingers and sucking in sharp breaths from the first line all the way to the end.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening; it honestly made me want to join the group. I found myself clapping and snapping along with the crowd of poetry fans. My only wish was that the time would have been figured out earlier, as I believe so many people would have loved the event, had they known about the new time. It was a night full of laughter, empathy and the beauty of the spoken word.
