A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Inklings Hosts Its First Open Mic Night Of The Year

Banathi

Nkehli

On 4 April, the Inklings society hosted an open mic night in the humanities building. The evening was jam-packed with all kinds of performances, from poetic to musical in nature, and everything in between.

The evening kicked off with published author Zac Labuschagne reading a short story from his book Tales of the Unreal. The prose featured an exotic setting, Lovecraftian vibes and a bit about a tribe of inbred people, all while boasting a convincing Australian accent where appropriate.

A common area of performance that evening involved talented writers reciting their original poetry. One standout performance came from Realeboga Melato, or “Rea Mel”, who shared her poem A date with my mind, which featured powerful verse like “he sold me dreams and I bought them with a kiss… he kissed me on the cheek, just like Judas did”. Other stellar performers included Travis Stephan Guerico, who presented a poem from a play he co-wrote titled Devour me, and Sharon Rose Chisango, who delivered three original poems.

An honourable mention at the open mic night must be extended to Carina Wessels for what she erroneously referred to as an “attempt at comedy” but would better be classified as a well-executed piece of stand-up comedy. Wessels’ performance featured a variety of fantastic jokes that either asked you to imagine your parents having sex or to “see Jesus for the Chad he really is”, as “he is the alpha and omega”.

The Inklings’ open mic night is a place where students with an insatiable hunger for live performances in a variety of formats can have their fill. By featuring a wide array of performance types as well as performers, this can only be seen as an open mic night to remember.