The Poetry Club and WHRW, a free-format, community radio station, collaborated to hold an open mic night this Friday. The event featured both poets and musicians and took place at the Food Co-op in the University Union Undergrounds.

The room was lit with dimmed fairy lights, illuminating the colorful artwork on the walls and the “take what you need” clothing rack. Wooden birdhouses and coasters were available on the table for audience members to paint while they watched the show. In addition, the Food Co-op, a student-run vegan cafe, served a variety of food and beverages at the event, including Earl Grey and double chocolate chunk cookies, chai blondies, espresso brownies, hot apple cider, hot toddies and apple and nectarine kombucha.

Ashley Dua, the Food Co-op’s general manager and a senior majoring in political science, described how the collaboration between the two organizations took place.

“We’ve done an open mic before, but WHRW and the Poetry Club reached out to us, because we hosted the space last year and they just wanted to do it again,” Dua said. “We love hosting as many events as we possibly can just because we like getting a good amount of people in here for the community.”

When it came time for the performances, there was a litany of media being presented, ranging from indie garage bands and solo artists to sentimental and comedic poems. The stage was littered with guitars, amps, basses, Moleskine notebooks and loose-leaf papers that participants were reading poems and lyrics from.

Roxanne Wells, a senior majoring in theatre, performed as the lead singer for her band Go Away Bird, the first act to perform. Wells explained how the band plays a mix of indie and pop songs. At the Co-op, they were set to perform a cover of a Strokes song as well as “There She Goes” by The La’s.

The musical acts which followed drew from a variety of different genres. Some songs played included “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan, “Santeria” by Sublime and “Francis Forever” by Mitski.

The event had a homey feel which united audience members in their mutual viewing experience. Many poets, who had originally planned on just attending as audience members, were inspired to sign up during the event and performed spontaneously. Each poem was met with snaps of fingers from the audience members.

Holli Tasker, the Poetry Club’s marketing chair and a sophomore majoring in psychology, shared a piece called “When I grow up I will be my younger self,” which expressed the similarities between young children and old adults, especially ones who experience memory loss. She also shared her thoughts on the experience of performing poetry live.

“Performing poetry out loud is truly a unique way of expression that is rarely replicated in any other way,” Tasker wrote in an email. “Whether it be to people who know you and know your motivations or complete strangers that are being opened into your world from a special perspective, you are putting yourself out there, which is a vulnerable experience, it’s freeing, in a way.”