By Eva Andrews
Photos by Julia Herrera
On Sept. 2, Incunabula hosted its first Open Mic Night of the year on Clewell Patio. The performances were personal, fictional and emotional. Incunabula’s Editor-in-Chief, Kayla Conway, made a comment about the Open Mic Night. “I think overall it turned out really well thanks to the hard work of every Incunabula staff member and the gracious reception we received from all the students in attendance,” she says.
Shannon Henesy performed a prose that captivated the audience by leaving them breathless at a cliffhanger. Henesy told the story of the a cashier who was bagging groceries for who she perceived to be a father and daughter. The cashier took keen interest in the daughter and offered to help the two out the door and to pack up their groceries. After trying to make small talk and failing, the cashier received a tip with a note in it from the daughter, but the cashier didn’t see it until late that night. The note read, “He’s not my father.” The audience gasped after learning that fact.
Slam poet Keylisha Nelson traced a rough upbringing around drug deals, promiscuous women, and cat calls in a piece etching out life in a North Carolina inner city. The poet placed the audience within the streetside of the poem.
Lorina Morton performed the revised song “Strange Fruit”—originally sung by Billie Holiday—that night. Alexxander Anderson performed the percussion piece “Trouble Waters.” And Nakila Evans performed the poem, “Teenagers go through It Too,” which was a powerful exclamation about her teenage years and how hard growing up can be.
Incunabula has reached their goal of “inclusion of more diverse performances, such as music and dance [which] was the key to what made our Open Mic so unique.” Incunabula encourages all types of performances from musical to lyrical to poetic.
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