Carolina Artists’ Coalition's open mic celebrates vulnerability and experimentation

On Friday night, students gathered under the warm lights and cozy atmosphere at Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews for a night celebrating spoken word poetry and music. 

Usually, the coffee shop is bustling with activity, as many students frequent Epilogue to study. However, during the open mic, the Prologue section of the store seemed to hold its breath during student performances. 

Students performed music and read original poems with busy Franklin Street as their backdrop. Some performers sang original songs, others covered beloved pieces — Laufey, musical soundtracks and more, often supplemented with guitar. The poems read explored a variety of themes including love, mental health and spirituality. Most poems took on experimental forms, such as a narrative poem in the format of a conversation between two speakers.

Anyone was welcome to perform regardless of skill level or experience, and a sign up sheet allowed students to sign up on the day of.  

The open mic was hosted by the Carolina Artists' Coalition, a new student organization that celebrates intersectionality between various forms of art and allows students of all levels to engage with new creative processes. 

UNC senior Alex West founded the Carolina Artists' Coalition after finding that most of the arts clubs on campus only focused on a specific type of art and were more competitive. 

“Out of all the UNC creatives that I’ve met, they don’t just do music or just do film or just do visual art,” West said. “It’s a combination of a couple of things, and that intersectionality is really humanity in a way, and I wanted to create a space to celebrate that.” 

The Carolina Artists' Coalition started as a smaller, unofficial campus group but has since become an official student organization and expanded their executive board. 

The current board includes representatives that specialize in a specific art form, such as music, film and poetry. These representatives help host specific events for those art forms, such as different workshops and the open mic at Epilogue. At the end of the month, the coalition still hosts multimedia mixers that celebrate all of the arts. 

Rin Singh, a sophomore currently serving as poetry representative, said that his role involves coming up with events to spread the outreach of poetry into the UNC community. The open mic at Epilogue was an event they had envisioned for about a year. 

Singh describes his experience as a board member as “healing,” especially since they’ve been writing poetry for three and a half years now. 

“I’ve loved starting to make ideas that were once dreams now a kind of reality,” Singh said. “It’s very invigorating.” 

One of Singh’s goals for the open mic was to create a welcoming, safe environment for people to perform and feel celebrated. Sharing your art, they said, is a very vulnerable moment for many people. 

Notepads and pens were provided at Friday’s open mic for audience members to write notes to performers about what they liked and resonated with. 

“I understand that while having applause is lovely, they’ll never really understand what the person felt about your poem unless they tell you,” Singh said.

Between performers, attendees passed along folded notes to express their support for the students who poured their hearts into their performances. Many performers explored topics that were deeply personal to their lives, often giving brief context before reading poems or performing music. 

Kiran Garcha, a senior who performed a song at the open mic, said that she was nervous about performing, but wanted to challenge herself to get out of her comfort zone. 

“I am always really insecure about my own voice, because I don’t feel like it’s good enough,” Garcha said. “I’m not a trained vocalist, I just found out that I can do this.” 

Garcha said she heard about the event through the Carolina Artists' Coalition’s instagram. She is a friend of West and has attended several events hosted by the coalition, which she described as welcoming. 

Getting involved with Carolina Artists' Coalition is a great way to meet other creatives, Garcha said. 

“This club connects all of the arts together,” she said. “This is the first club of its kind.” 

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com