Lovers of poetry and music gathered together Wednesday night to display their talents at an open mic night hosted in the Residential College South dining hall. This event was the result of a collaboration between UM Jam Club and Turning the Page, the university’s student-led poetry club. Students displayed an impressive range of musical and poetic talents.
“Turning the Page is a poetry club that offers fellowship within the students of Ole Miss,” Lillyan Madrid, a senior journalism major and president of Turning the Page, said. “It was created as a safe space to come together and write, to read, to explore different types of poems out there.”
The UM Jam Club, which is a student-led music club, took the initiative in organizing this open mic night.
“It was the UM Jam Club that was more heavy with the planning with RC South, and we were invited to collaborate,” Madrid said.
Turning the Page has hosted events in combination with UM Jam Club before, as clubs often work together to create events for students.
“This isn’t our first time collaborating with the UM Jam Club,” Carlin Gillen, a junior journalism and English major and vice president of Turning the Page, said.“We actually did it last year, which was our first actual event that we did, and it was our open mic.”
There were poetry readings and musical performances from members of both clubs. Students felt that the open mic night gave them a chance to express themselves in a welcoming environment.
“(The open mic night) gave me the opportunity,” C’Nia Price, a freshman psychology and entrepreneurship major, said. “It’s like when somebody opens their arms, they’re opening their opportunity for you to embrace them.”
The event challenged students to share their poetry and explore their talents in ways they might not have done alone.
“I guess it just goes back to people coming up to me, telling me what they thought, and kind of putting my face out there because I wouldn’t do it myself,” Price said.
Price said that the open mic night also gave her the opportunity to connect with like-minded poetry lovers.
“It gave me the chance to make connections with other people putting themselves out there and then seeing a similarity,” Price said. “So if there was another person who did a song or a poem that I liked, then I could go up to them and be like ‘Hey, I really liked what you did.’”
The students leading Turning the Page said they definitely want to have similar events in the future, with the possibility of expanding beyond campus.
“We also want to go outside the campus as well, not just Ole Miss, but also the Oxford community,” Madrid said.
Their goal is to encourage students to not be afraid of sharing their voice through poetry.
“Your voice doesn’t only deserve to be read, but also deserves to be heard,” Gillen said. “So, we also want to push people, not only to get comfortable writing poetry because it’s intimidating, but with speaking it as well.”
Price said that sharing her poem with the crowd gave her a confidence that she did not have before.
“The best part was that there’s a certain way I want the audience to feel,” Price said. “And so for people to come up to me after, saying that I made them feel a certain way, it’s like, ‘Wow, I completed the mission.’”
