How an open mic event helps Virginia Tech writers flourish

As leaves were changing on a sunny afternoon on Saturday, October 21st, 2023, college student writing enthusiasts were gathered down the dark stairs of The Milk Parlor for an open mic event. The Milk Parlor is a charming local restaurant on the outskirts of campus at Virginia Tech in downtown Blacksburg, Virginia that hosted the open mic event that brought together four on-campus writing organizations: Elevate magazine, Silhouette magazine, CreativiTea writing club, and the Glossolalia literary festival.

This open mic was a hub for student writers to share their work on stage in front of an audience, which can be quite intimidating for anyone. However, writers specifically can feel more on the vulnerable side when it comes to sharing their work with audiences. From my personal experiences as a new performer at this event as well as in general, I can speak to that anxiousness that comes hand in hand with putting yourself and your hard work out there in front of strangers, especially at first. Many people write about their own experiences, struggles, and emotions, which can make sharing the written form of a piece of you, difficult.

However, this open mic allows performers of all experience levels to take the first step forward in developing their own unique stage presence. The welcoming atmosphere helped performers feel more comfortable with each supportive round of applause after all final lines, spoken with smiles. It gave writers the experience of performing that can be seldom and far between. This allows them to grow into their own performer mindset with a projecting voice and getting into character while performing, which is a challenge in it of itself.

Emelia Delaporte, editor in chief for Silhouette, speaks on her personal experience as a performer that came on stage four times throughout the event, to the audience’s enjoyment: “The open mic honestly felt like coming home! I’m no stranger to the Milk Parlor and am getting more comfortable on that stage every time I get up there. I’m a stiff performer – always holding on to the mic too tight, talking too fast, never moving comfortably – and so I’m working on that.”

With announcers like Delaporte recommending the audience to sign up in-person besides the online scheduled slots made previously, multiple performers felt encouraged to sign up again and read more of their work, as well as audience members that hadn’t planned on sharing to sign up. This is an example of this event’s value to anyone that appreciates writing and likes to express themselves through this art form.

Alazar Izedin, one performer that also appeared on stage multiple times, said “The event was really great. My friend knew I had been trying to go to open mics since I am working on being a Dodge Poetry Festival laureate for October 2024 and sent me the flier. I tend to be a bit shy in new spaces so I really liked how the emcees of the event were very open on having anyone sign up and perform. The vibes were good and I really enjoyed the positive environment. I would definitely do it again.”

This collaboration event included Elevate, Silhouette, CreativiTea, and Glossolalia. Elevate is Virginia Tech’s newest literary arts magazine focused on uplifting minorities’ voices in the arts, and it’s their first year publishing their magazine at the end of this school year. They produce articles as a newspaper, accept prose and poetry student submissions, and do photography shoots.

Silhouette is Virginia Tech’s long-established literary magazine that’s been in publication since the 1970’s and accepts student submissions of poetry, prose, photography and art for their magazine printed each semester.

CreativiTea is Virginia Tech’s creative writing club open to people of all experience levels and meet every Thursday to actively practice writing to make time for it in our busy schedules. They also provide tea and other hot drinks which add to its cozy atmosphere.

Lastly, Glossolalia is the literary festival held annually to showcase selected student works of poetry and prose, with the undergraduate selections read by graduate students, and vice versa, all while hosting published authors at the event as well.

When Delaporte was asked about how these literary groups has been hosting their open mics in the past, she said, “I remember that before I was EIC [editor in chief], the Sil had held open mics before that were collaborative with CreativiTea and Glossy. Such a large part of the purpose of all of these organizations is developing welcoming community spaces for our campus creatives, and it’s an easy way to do it! With Elevate recently having joined the scene, it was a no-brainer to loop them in, and we’re so glad that we did.”

All these amazing organizations help support Virginia Tech liberal arts students from all disciplines gain hands-on experience for future job opportunities, and they came together to co-host this open mic as an example of that.

Through a lone microphone sometimes too tall or short for varying readers, audience members were able to hear from all sorts of different perspectives that are sometimes only seen through lines of poetry. This gave writers an opportunity to share those thoughts and experiences with others whose words may resonate with or open up consideration of experiences never considered before. Because writing is so personal, we were able to hear stories of the impact of others on writers, and the ranges of emotion felt by a person, from soaringly happy to achingly sad. Everyone that comes on stage, as well as everyone in that room, has a story to tell, and this event gave the room for people to hear them. These open mics provide the welcoming space to do just that, and help give people a voice, in this case, through a microphone.