Gammage hosted ASU talent on Wednesday for Open Mic Night, an intimate talent show featuring performances from students and staff, including ASU alumnus and nationally recognized spoken-word artist, Myrlin Hepworth.
The open mic night is a biannual event sponsored by Gammage as part of its Cultural Participation program. The show in the fall semester is typically much larger than the one in the spring, but the small crowd created a very friendly and open experience.
"It's not about how many people show up, but what people show up and what they bring," said Hepworth, who was the Master of Ceremonies and featured artist of the night. Hepworth, who graduated from ASU in 2011, began hosting the open mic night while he was still a student.
Before finishing his degree in creative writing, Hepworth had already began his professional career as a poet and teacher. He currently performs around the country and works with local high school students through Phonetic Spit, a youth organization he co-founded with his friend, Tomas Stanton, to teach young people how to express themselves through poetry and spoken word.
Stanton was also present at the open mic night and joined Hepworth on stage to open the show with a humorous but powerful poem.
Since the audience was small, Hepworth broke the ice by having the audience members introduce themselves. His encouragement, along with the intimate setting, created a welcoming environment for all of the performers.
“Your job (as the MC) is to find the energy in that crowd and help people enjoy themselves and feel comfortable, Hepworth said. "You want to encourage them to share some part of themselves."
Open mic night is not exclusive to performing arts majors and welcomes everyone to share his or her talents. The performances varied from guitarists to singers to poets, and the performers were both students and staff members.
“These shows are always interesting," Hepworth said. "It’s a different mix of performance art and refreshing compared to typical poetry events."
Hepworth hopes to continue hosting the show as long as Gammage keeps asking him and it fits in his schedule. He has a busy year ahead of him as his next projects include releasing a hip-hop album in April and writing a spoken word play.
Before closing the show, Hepworth also encouraged those who enjoyed the experience to start their own open mic night so they could get together and perform more frequently.
Until the next open mic night in the fall, the next Cultural Participation event at Gammage will be the final installment of the BEYOND series, a performance by renowned choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones and the Arnie Zane Dance Company.
Reach the reporter at julianne.defilippis@asu.edu or on Twitter @juliannemarie25
