Scout Lynch, senior, emcee’d another Coffee House in the Panther’s Den April 3. There were readings of poetry, prose and impromptu live performances by several students and a faculty member.
Ferrum holds a Coffee House each semester, almost always emcee’d by Lynch. Often, Lynch will perform their own prose or poetry in order to get the crowd enticed and for people to actually come up and read their work.
“It’s always fun when there’s a Coffee House around. I love coming to these,” said Gabriel Alvarez, a junior.
While the turnout wasn’t what they expected, it was still a decent turn around with musical performances from Alvarez, Melvin Macklin English professor, and Lynch, who presented a performative piece that they often put on during the events.
Lynch has an act where they will sing a song while painting a portrait of a consenting member of the audience in order to represent the fact that they put too much on their plate. This time it was Kiren Groce, a sophomore. Lynch sang “The Ultimate Showdown” by Lemon Demon, which got a good reaction from the audience.
“It was pretty cool,” said Groce. “I got a good laugh out of it because I’d never heard that song before. Plus, I got painted by one of my friends. I’m going to keep it forever.”
Macklin went onto the stage and sang a song that brought members of the audience to tears.
“It was special to have Dr. Macklin sing tonight. That was a special surprise,” said Kathrine Grimes, English professor
Another of these performers, Alvarez, played an impromptu performance on guitar that he came up with while on stage.
“I actually didn’t play any song, I improvised the entire performance,” said Alvarez. “The entire thing came out of my head right on the spot.”
While there are usually more Coffee Houses throughout each semester, this has been the only one for this spring.
“We usually have two or three Coffee Houses a semester, but the last one got snowed out, and we were without power, so we cancelled that one and just had this one for this semester,” said Grimes.
There are also students who have never performed at one of these events, such as Phillip Turner, a first-year student.
“I enjoyed reading,” said Turner. “Minus the tunnel vision.”
The Chrysalis staff often sponsors these coffee houses to give students an opportunity to share their work–plus it also gives them experience for the magazine’s publication, which the staff dubs a reveal.
“We will have a reveal (of Chrysalis) on April 23rd, which is Shakespeare’s birthday,” said Grimes.
The actual reveal of the newest issue of the magazine will be conducted at 8 p.m. and will be in the Blue Ridge Mountain Room.
Grimes said she hopes that students and faculty will join Chrysalis staff and other students to read their work aloud when the next Coffee House opens.
