Nicklaus Wilcher
Contributing Writer
“That just took my spirit.” Meonyez Goodwin ’18’s words echoed the mood of the room, cutting through the rapturous applause for Korri Palmer ’20 and Donte Claybrooks ’18‘s belted rendition of Daniel Caesar and Kali Uchis’ “Get You.” I felt the same — once Claybrooks and Palmer hit that falsetto chorus, my spirit, wig and breath were all taken away, a feeling I learned to get used to over the course of the night.
The duet was performed at the Women of Images and The Goliard Women in Arts event, held last Friday, March 30 in Douglass Hall basement.
Unlike Covers, which fills that same basement with boisterous chatter and high energy tunes on a monthly basis, this event’s atmosphere was mostly one of quiet focus, a welcomed break from an average Friday night’s drunken roars.
As if the performers’ read-aloud poetry was scripture, I imagined the audience seated in cushioned pews, seated in reverent silence.
The calm was punctured by the occasional snaps and ‘woos,’ which Goodwin, who hosted the event along with Kennedy McKain ’18, assured the audience came from a place of love.
I was happy to see such an enormous outpouring of love for women (a group that often gets pushed to the wayside in this campus’ art scene) from both performers and audience.
As an event dedicated to “[showing] appreciation for women in arts,” Women in Arts was an unequivocal success — not only by way of saccharine love ballads, but also heartwrenching confessions of gratitude towards mothers, grandmothers and (maybe most importantly) the self. God (perhaps the original mother), too, was subject of many a poem, from Nicky Benya ’21’s pleading cries to Channler Twyman ’18’s polemical words from the voice of his mother.
Though many performances were dark and sobering (lines that stood out include “Newsflash: I’ve made mistakes, too” and “My bones were built on ash”), other artists inspired sheer awe.
Kevante Weakley ’18 (aka K.O.) and Derrick Florence ’18 (aka MoonManFlo) weaved sharp lyricism and an imaginative space opera into three killer original songs, while Chevy Echols ’18 and Crystin Johnson ’19 bravely sang without backing tracks, save for the lone harmonizer in the crowd. Morgan Day ’19’s handstand was also pretty impressive.
My favorite moments, though, were moments of audience participation. The Women in Arts event was important because it celebrated and elevated voices out of the margins, in a way that was all at once respectful, goofy, somber and ecstatic.
I left Douglass knowing that our community needs more things like this, because a community can’t survive without pausing to laugh and cry, and it can’t survive without embracing its least appreciated members.
To see so many people smiling, dancing and mouthing along to Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” — if you were there, you’d be overjoyed too.