Open mic event honors Black History Month

By Charlotte Herz cherz@iu.edu

Girls Rock Bloomington and the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts held a Black History Month open mic night at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

“The goal is to reduce barriers for people who want to make music,” Amy Oelsner, the founder and director of GRB, said. She shared that GRB has been putting on open mics for about a year, though this was only their second in-person one.

The non-profit organization arranges a music camp each summer, as well as a variety of other workshops and programs, especially for girls, transgender and non-binary kids who are 8-14 years old. While all of the night’s performers were adults, several children sat in the audience, cheering for the performers and dancing to the music.

The theme of the night was “Black Resistance,” one chosen by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History for Black History Month. Several of the performers — many local Black poets and musicians — discussed this theme by recounting the injustice they had faced and their ongoing struggles being Black in America.

“As an African American Christian, there’s a lot I have to deal with in order to feel comfortable doing things that go against what others expect,” singer Alese Allen said.

She sang one of her singles, “Emotions,” as well as a preview of an upcoming single.

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