The Cultural Affairs Commission wants you to let your words speak for themselves.
The commission’s series, “The Word on Wednesday,” formerly known as “Eclectic Open Mic,” will have its opening tonight in the Kerckhoff Art Gallery to provide a venue for people to express themselves through the spoken word.
“We’re trying to create a space where you can feel comfortable to say whatever you want to say, whether it’s in a speech, poem or any form of self-expression,” said Jessica Smith, co-director of the series and a fourth-year political science and anthropology student.
With Wednesday’s event, “Words, Rhymes & Good Times,” the commission hopes to take self-expression back to its roots by stripping away performance and emphasizing the power of words on their own, Smith said.
“We have an atmosphere where we’re just in the art gallery, so it’s just going to be bare walls and people and their words,” she said. “The first event is major because it sets the precedence for how the rest of the year is going to go.”
The idea to change the “Eclectic Open Mic” series came when Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kinnery Shah, co-director Ebony Donnley and Smith began attending spoken word events at Da’ Poetry Lounge, a popular poetry reading venue in Hollywood.
While there, they often saw other UCLA students who said they were too intimidated to speak at Da’ Poetry Lounge despite having an interest, Shah said.
The commission saw the need to revamp “Eclectic Open Mic” so performers would feel like they had a safe space to express themselves where they were given more of a voice, Donnley said.
“”˜Eclectic Open Mic’ night worked, but a lot of the time it wasn’t necessarily focused on words, it just had a really random, eclectic nature,” said Donnley, an English student with a creative writing concentration. “We wanted to refocus that so that people would see the event as a platform to come and feel included and be heard.”
A sign-up list to perform will be available at the event, and people will speak on a first-come-first-serve basis.
The event is open to anyone who feels like they have something to say, Smith said.
“We really want to bridge the UCLA community with the off-campus community, so you don’t have to even be a student,” she said. “Everyone who loves the word is welcome.”
For third-year philosophy student Jordon Norris, who plans on performing at the event, “The Word on Wednesday” is not only a place where people can showcase their artistic and creative abilities, but it is also a place where people can learn from each other.
“I feel like it’s a classroom outside of a classroom, so to speak,” Norris said. “What people say sheds a light on a lot of areas within our society.”
Donnley, who has been taking part in spoken word events since she was 13 years old, has performed in spoken word slams in New York City and San Francisco. She knows from personal experience how important it is for people to feel like they have a voice and an audience.
“This event is really a microcosm of what you should be doing in life,” Donnley said. “You should be speaking, you should be feeling like you’re heard, you should be having a voice.”
For future events, the commission hopes to co-program with student groups to showcase an issue or a theme so they have a platform for expression and dialogue, Shah said.
“We want to use this space to make people more aware of issues or let them use it as a space to explore their own community,” Shah said. “We want to see people thinking about social or political issues and really have a venue to express themselves.”