Long Beach Community College’s English Majors and Minors club made a comeback with their Halloween themed open mic for volunteers to share poetry with the audience while dressed in costume.
The open mic was held at LAC in a festively decorated room in honor of Halloween with treats for attendees and goodie bags for volunteers.
English Majors and Minors club adviser, professor Jason Casem, addressed the situation concerning their previous open mic with the importance of respecting the code of conduct implemented by the college.
“When you’re up on stage just remember that your words transcend time and space. We’re here for fellowship and we’re not here to demean or use any derogatory language and statements towards anyone,” said Casem as a reminder to potential volunteers.
Volunteers began to read their poetry and the event commenced without issue, which lead into a promising event hosted by the club despite their last readings scandal.
Volunteer third-year student Gavin Gagna dressed as the Star-Lord, a fictional superhero from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.
Gagna kept to the theme of Halloween and read an original poem entitled “Shining in the Moonlight,” a poem about a character who commits an immoral act that leads to his punishment.
Gagna said, “I wanted to do something dark for Halloween.”
He said he used turmoil in his social life to fuel the inspiration for his poem.
Others used original material they wrote from a class assignment or exercise like student Henry Mattson who dressed as a Victorian era vampire, top hat included.
Mattson’s poem entitled “Blooms” came from an exercise in his creative writing class where they were challenged to write in second person.
“I just really liked what I wrote because it captured something that I feel a lot, you know just that existential boredom,” said Mattson.
The open mic ended with the arrival of another class but allowed for many club members and student volunteers a chance at performing their own poetry or prose for the audience.
Club adviser Professor Casem thanked everybody for their participation and closed the event with a reminder for their next open mic which will be taking place sometime in November.
Read about the last open mic event and hear the excerpts at: https://lbccviking.com/2019/10/two-students-present-sexually-charged-material-at-open-mic