Students have various ways of complaining about finals season. Some do so with memes, and others by discounting liberal arts classes as far easier than STEM classes during otherwise cordial conversations. Want to complain in song to a live audience? Then come out to The Meantime Open Mic Night.
The Meantime, a student-run coffee shop, will host a free open mic in the Campus Y on Dec. 6 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Meantime will stay open during the mic night to sell snacks and drinks. In addition, student artists will be showcasing and selling art at the event.
Olivia Neal, The Meantime’s chief marketing officer, said spur of the moment performances are encouraged after all of the scheduled performers have finished.
“I think we have the room reserved from 7 to 9, I don’t think anyone’s reserving it after us, so until somebody kicks us out we’ll probably be there,” Neal said.
Neal said that many of The Meantime’s baristas are artists or performers themselves, so hosting a combined open mic and art night felt natural for The Meantime.
Patty Matos is a barista for The Meantime and a member of its marketing and communications team. Matos said The Meantime has had difficulty in providing a space for students solely to hang out in, which is easier for coffee shops with more space.
“We wanted to bring people in and let them share with each other — create a bit more of coffee shop ambiance,” Matos said. “Even if it’s temporary, we wanted to do that just for the sake of following some of the guiding principles of The Meantime which include fostering community and outreach.”
The open mic will take place in the Anne Queen Faculty Commons, which is named after a former director of the University of North Carolina’s YMCA-YWCA. Faculty use the lounge for meetings. Matos called the lounge, which is closed to students from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, beautiful.
Artists of all kinds will perform at the mic. Maximilian Bazil, who plays guitar, piano and clarinet, appears last on the evening’s list of performers. Bazil said he heard about the mic on a regular visit to The Meantime.
