A warm, red light shined on a group of artists while they sang; fingers strummed guitar strings and music reverberated in your chest. That was the vibe in Room 111 of Appalachian Collegiate Center on Saturday, Nov. 19 while artists from different spheres ventured out to perform in front of an encouraging atmosphere, as part of the event, “Open: Shipwrecked.”
“Open: Shipwrecked” marked the last of a series of events for this semester. The series, by art collective Open, provided a platform for emerging artists — be they musicians, poets or martial art performers — to share and promote their work.
Peter Kline, a junior majoring in English, was the first act to go up. He performed three original songs and his guitar strumming was pleasant, with the songs flowing from areas of slow, meaningful lyrics to faster bits.
The next hour was an open mic, featuring both group and solo performances.
Following this, there was a performance from Chanbara, one of BU’s on-campus student organizations that practices the Japanese choreographed martial art of the same name. This unique form of martial art focuses on stage performance rather than actual fighting.
Chanbara added a short, but entertaining act to the evening’s show. The performers moved swiftly across the floor with prop swords, accompanied by dramatic background music.
Other performances included members of Bing Stand Up.
Following the theme of “Shipwrecked,” audience members were asked to write down their thoughts on pieces of paper and put them in a container — a makeshift message in a bottle.
Godfrey Fenton, the president of Open, said he had always been inspired by music and art, and this passion had manifested itself in these events.
“All my life, I have been doing all this stuff,” said Fenton, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering. “I’ve been into stand-up, I’ve been into music, I’ve been into rap, I’ve been into dance — that hasn’t happened [in Open] yet — but I’ve been also into martial arts. So this is basically kind of an extension of myself. I love all these things and it’s affected my life in such a beautiful and profound way, so I’ve been wanting to give that [to others].”
James Tlsty, the vice president of Open and an undeclared sophomore, sees these events as a way to bring BU’s artistic community together.
“There’s all these different avenues, but there isn’t really a place where they all converge and that’s what we’ve been trying to do — is create a place where all these different styles can come together,” Tlsty said.
The event had about 50 attendees — including the organizers and performers — and the audience had positive responses.
Kline, who has performed at all the previous Open events, said that he liked “Open: Shipwrecked” the most.
“I think it’s probably the best one yet, just because I think it had the best showing,” Kline said.
“There were a lot of really cool performers.”
Kicked off in the beginning of the semester with support from the Mountainview College Council, there have been three Open events so far, with “Open: Shipwrecked” being the fourth.
The Open series will continue next semester.
“I was really happy with the turn out and all the variety of acts,” Tlsty said. “I’m really excited to do more of these and grow the community even further.”