With gentle strums from Sophia Rabin’s guitar and the comforting warmth of hot chocolate, Open Mic Night was a night of music, literature, and comedy. As the sunset marked the beginning of Open Mic Night, which took place on Thursday, November 17th, the VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts) team and the ASB team worked together to stage an encouraging environment for its performers.

Varying in the genre of music, the performances were each unique as Mr. Miller, a resident geometry teacher at CdM, vocalizes just how much he “loved the variety of the performances, all the different eras of music, and all the different instruments that were used.”

Playing “Sway” by Dean Martin, Anthony Cruz a Sophomore at CdM and a first-time Open Mic Night performer realized that he needed someone to play guitar as he sang which turned out to be Mr. Miller the first teacher to ever participate in the event. Commenting on where he got the idea to ask Mr. Miller, Cruz explains how “…Andrew Rabin, [who sits next to him] in geometry class told [him] that [he] should have Mr. Miller play the guitar who is a pretty great guitarist….” Practicing in between lessons of Geometry, Mr. Miller “practiced as much as [he] could in 3 days.”

Although taking place in the fall, Christmas came early to Open Mic Night in the form of a song as “Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Idina Menzel was sung with a little bit of audience participation. With an “unplanned teen beach movie theme” both “Can’t Stop Singing” and “Fallin for you” from Disney’s Teen Beach Movie were also sung at the Open Mic Night, leaving certain audience members feeling nostalgic.

Sophia Rabin a Senior here at CdM, a member of the VAPA program, and the creator of Open Mic Night loves “[the event] because it allows for people in all grades and all stages of learning to come out to the same thing and sit in front of an audience of people that are also doing the same thing and [it feels] like the appreciation is very mutual between the audience and performers.”