On Feb. 17, an open-mic event will be held by the Campus Activities Board in the stage area of Building 8, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The theme of the event will be ‘Battle of the Sexes’ but the topic as a whole will be how men and women use mobile and social media differently.
“Open mic has always been a thing here at Sinclair,” Mar’shell Crosby, a member of CAB, said. Crosby said that these Open Mic events have been happening for a few years now. The idea for the event came along while Crosby and her friends were talking.
“A group of friends of mine were sitting in the office talking, when the idea came up that we should have a battle of the sexes and we should have it on an open mic,” Crosby said.
She said a battle of the sexes is a great and fun theme–we’re always getting into arguments like “girls do this and boys do that.”
“So why not make that the theme of the next open mic, since there wasn’t a theme for it yet,” she said.
She said she hopes the event is successful so it will be a monthly event.
“When people think of open mic, they think of singing, dancing, you know, some form of entertainment,” Crosby said. “When I think of open mic… it is literally an open mic. You can talk, discuss issues of today, of yesterday, you can still do dance and music, but I feel like we are in a more professional setting for being on [a college campus]. We’re old enough to sit down and have mature conversations about anything.”
Crosby said the topic is aimed toward the differences of social media: male vs. female. “Specifically, this one is due to social media, and how we use social media differently. A lot of guys I talk to, they use it for sports and entertainment. Girls are more sociable, they use it to chat with their friends,” Crosby said.
Crosby said she’s expecting 15 to 20 people to show up to this event.
“Every open mic is different, it ranges from 10 to 30 people,” Crosby said. “If more people show up each month, then it will definitely make it a monthly thing.”
CAB is trying to find other ways to engage students in activities on campus. This event is just to elicit an awareness of the sexes at Sinclair.
“In our own little cliques, we all go out with the girls and are all like ‘oh my God look at the way she’s dressed’, and we think being a girl or a woman, we think guys must like that but in reality they think the exact same thing,” Crosby said.
She said her main goal is just for the whole event to be fun.
Any student on campus is allowed to come and participate in the event. Crosby said if it gets bigger, and more people start coming to these open mics, it’ll be open to the public.
“We want to get people engaged on campus first, before we start bringing in people from outside [the school],” Crosby said.
There will be a sign-up sheet outside of CAB’s office in Building 8 room 025. Students will have the option to choose a time to talk during the event.
“You’ll talk at this specific time about this specific topic … but it is actually an open mic, so however you feel, if something triggers for you at that moment, then say it,” Crosby said.
Zoe Hurley
Reporter