Sigma Tau Delta hosts open mic night

Monday night Chadron State had an open mic in the Sandoz Center Chicoine Atrium for students and faculty and community members to come and read poems or perform live music or even to just talk about things going on in their life and what’s going on in the world today. 

There were many people who spoke on the mic and talked about deep stuff and the audience was great crowd. Bobby Pace a professor of Communication, Music, Art, & Theatre here at Chadron state is also Music Accompanist. Professor Pace preformed a beautiful song on the piano during the open mic and he defiantly left the crowd in aw after his performance was over. When asked if Professor Pace played any other instruments, he said “I really just play the piano and I also sing a little bit.” Also, when asked on if he felt comfortable up on the mic, he said, “It was the first I ever done that, so I was nervous at first but once I settled in It felt good to play.”  

There was one performance that stood out from the others though. And that was 11-year-old Lillian Jondrow. She performed this written story that she has been writing for about 2 weeks and it’s still not finished she said. But the story was about these sea creatures and each of them had their little own story to them, but all the sea creatures were connected in some way throughout the story. When asked if it was her first time coming to open mic and how she felt when felt when she was up on the mic she said “yeah this my first time here at open mic. And it was stressful at the beginning but once I relaxed into it, I felt more comfortable up there when I was reading.” She also stated that she will be coming back to open mic whenever the next one is, and she plays the piano a little bit as well.  

The open Mic was hosted by English assistant professor Mary Clai Jones who is involved with  

Justice Studies, Social Sciences, & English. She has been working at Chadron state for 4 years now coming from working at Lincoln university in Missouri. Jones took over the open mic about a year and a half ago and when asked how many times they meet for open mic she said, “we usually try and meet 4 times a semester so about once a month but due to covid this year we have only got to meet twice this semester.” Also, when asked if she could explain what open mic is to people who are unfamiliar with it, she stated. “Open mic is traditionally held in bars or café and people can bring original music, poems, different kinds of artwork and sometimes people do improv comedy.” She also said that open mic is “more of like amateur hour and people can bring different types of stuff to perform and people can also talk about deep things to relieve stress they have and things of that nature.”  Professor jones plans to have more open mics next semester and will have induction ceremony which will also be a reading and will be more formal but still waiting to see if it’s going to be face to face or via zoom.  She also is planning to come up with a fundraiser for the open mic club during February and it being valentines themed. And they will have an open mic celebrating black history month.