About halfway in to the set of Tuesday night’s “Drop the Mic” event, the performance halts because of a slight bump in the road: one of the acts is a no-show. After the emcee calls his name two or three times, a voice rises from the corner of the HPA Starbucks.
“I’ll go.”
Noah-Mykal Mackey, a freshman, boldly stands up and approaches the front of the room. The emcee gives him the mic and allows him to perform.
The second Noah drops his first line, the audience is captivated, grasping onto his every word. They snap their fingers and voice their approval when any particular verse resonates home. He paces the front of the room, gesturing with his arms like an old-fashioned Baptist preacher. The crowd gathered at Starbucks is his congregation, the notepad filled with poems is his gospel.
Even the back of the room—occupied by regular patrons who were noisily chattering during the previous acts—sits in a stupefied silence, enthralled by the walk-on poet at the other side of the cafe.
To Project: SPIT (Student Poetry Initiating Thought), the club who ran the event in conjunction with the Campus Activities Board, it’s just another day.
At the end of the event, some of the performers gather outside of the Starbucks. A circle forms, somebody lays down a beat, and an impromptu freestyle battle begins. The energy bounces back and forth between each performer. Random people walking along Memory Mall stop and listen, nodding their heads and voicing their approval with each verse.
Shelby Birch, a senior Interdisciplinary Studies major who co-founded Project: SPIT along with Sapphire Huie, stands in a separate circle and explains the mission of the group: to change lives and change souls
“Spoken word is the art of getting people’s attention in a cool and different way,” Birch went on to explain. “We’ve been saying the same thing for years. We just decided to switch up the message.”
Although Project: SPIT is a spoken-word poetry club, Tuesday’s Drop the Mic event wasn’t limited to just poets. A variety of musical acts, poets, and performers took the stage, including a group called The Side Notes, who performed a soulful rendition of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”. Anybody who had a message and wanted to share it could go up and pour their heart out, without restrictions on the medium.
Project: SPIT prides itself as being welcoming group of poets and artists who can share their message without fear of judgement.
“I feel privileged to be in their presence,” Birch said about the performers. “I feel proud. I feel grateful. I feel honored because they saw fit that Project: SPIT was a safe place for them to tell their personal stories. I would’ve never thought in a million years that I could create a place that would liberate people. For that, I am humbled.”
Project: SPIT gathers under the gazebo in front of Howard Phillips Hall every Tuesday at 7 p.m. Their next open mic night is next week, and their 3rd annual poetry slam, One Night Slam, and SPIT week are all coming up in November.
