By Rebecca Gagnon ’23
Staff Writer
Everyone has had a memorable “first” at least once in their life. Perhaps it was your first step, your first kiss or your first year at Mount Holyoke. A memorable “first” was the theme for the open mic night held by the Office of Student involvement on Feb. 24, 2021.
“A lot was definitely on my mind about encouraging firsties to reach out or attend the event,” Amanda Windsor ’22, a co-organizer of the event, said. “This semester especially, we are really focusing on first-years and trying to make sure they feel included in the community. … Going through those first experiences with college and things of that nature was definitely something I was cognizant of.”
Windsor works in the Office of Student Involvement with Amirah Winston ’21, the other organizer of the event.
“Our boss [Ymani Francis] actually came up with it [the theme],” Winston said. “We thought maybe, it being so broad, it might encourage people to want to share.”
Meggie Czepiel ’24 is a first-year who sang at the open mic night. “The song [I performed] ties into the theme because it was among the first six songs that I released ever,” Czepiel explained. “The song is called ‘For Free.’ It is basically taking a bunch of moments that my friends and I had had with people we didn’t know super well who had just done something really kind for us. It is sort of telling different stories — each story happens in one line — and putting them all together and coming to the conclusion that these moments have become really important to us and that it is impressive to think about how much power we have as human beings just to make someone happy.”
Czepiel, who is considering a music major, has been playing music since she was about three years old, participating in various musical groups such as church choir and taking piano lessons on the side. She can currently play piano and guitar, which are her two main instruments, along with ukulele and a bit of flute.
“I miss performing,” Czepiel said. “It’s been over a year now since I played a live gig, and I used to go to a lot of open mics before COVID[-19] hit. … I was just really happy to see that there was an opportunity here because I haven’t gotten to play my music live very much lately.” Czepiel’s song was released last year in her EP called “The Clock,” available on all streaming services.
Czepiel and Winston were the two performers in this event. A few people came to watch as well. Between the performances, there was some discussion about the performers’ skills and getting to know people in general.
“Getting some more performers would have been nice,” Windsor said with a laugh. “I think overall our goal was to bring students together and have this raw sharing of things and hav[e] that connection, which I … think was there but not on the scale of what we would hope for.”
Winston agreed with this sentiment. “That is the purpose of every event we put on. Just to bring the community together and allow them to have a dedicated time and space to do whatever and [bond].”
Czepiel was proud of the event, adding, “It was a warm environment with such a friendly crowd, and that is always nice.”
Looking ahead, Windsor believes it is important that the community realizes virtual events like open mic night are taking place. “We definitely try to put a lot of time, energy and work into these things and figuring out what is actually going to be relevant, helpful and [beneficial]. It is not just something that appears in your email or on Embark one day — there is a whole process to it,” Windsor said. Windsor added that it is important for others to recognize that students are behind these events, and they require the support and attendance of other students in order to succeed.
“Even if that gets one student to come to one event then that is still one more thing we find worthwhile, and we will take any small victories at this point,” Windsor said.