Students at Sinclair wanting to get their feet wet by performing in front of people will now have a chance to perform on campus.
In the basement of Building 8, there will soon be an open mic event on Tuesdays from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. starting on April 3.
The idea comes from Sinclair student and student worker for the Student Leadership Association (SLA) Denny Wilson, whose dream is to provide a venue for whoever wants to perform.
The concept is not just for musicians, performers of all types are welcome.
“A writer can come with their poetry or even a short story, or actors from the Theater Department could come and get some chops at being funny and getting experience engaging an audience,” Wilson says.
Wilson says that the idea for the open mic event came from his classroom experience at Sinclair as he reflected on the importance of performing in front of an audience to his own musical development and career.
“I noticed that some music majors have no way to get experience to perform short of their recitals, and a lot rides on the recital, Wilson says.
Students who are not going to perform can still go to experience live acts, Wilson says.
He hopes that an open mic event will introduce students to other students with similar interest even if their disciplines are not the same. Wilson hopes that music majors will gain from hearing comics or listening to poetry being read.
“Sinclair creates this space for us to be creative. It’s symbiotic,” he says.
Wilson’s vision is also that the stage in Building 8 will lead students to affect the community outside of Sinclair as well. He wants to draw on his past experiences to connect students with venues outside of Sinclair.
“What is really valuable, if you want to be a musician, is getting more experience playing. We’ll get into the club where you can be seen by the owner and we’ll bring a crowd,” Wilson says.
Wilson grew up in Dayton, where he remembers how bands supported one another. He said that one band would bring their crowd to another band’s show and the favor would be reciprocated.
“When I was young, everybody came to everybody’s show. The crowds were huge,” Wilson says.
Now at Sinclair, he wants to help foster what he once benefited from.
“I want to be active. It is no longer good enough to say that this will be a good idea. But what can I do to serve to get that idea to exist,” Wilson says.
The length of the open mic events depends on the number of performers.
“The timeslots will depend entirely on the event. I think the show will start off to be about 2 hours, and maybe it will grow to be about 4 hours,” Wilson says.
As an experienced performer, Wilson will be involved with helping acts sound good. He will likely run the soundboard when he can lend his talents to what he hopes will be a community-building event.
“The future that I want to contribute to has to be beyond my rhetoric,” Wilson says. “It actually has to be that I am what I say I am, which would mean that I have to be out there doing the job that no one wants to do to facilitate this.”
Anyone interested in performing can sign up in the office of SLA in the Basement of Building 8 Room 025.
- Fri. Jul 19th, 2024