TASNEEM LUK MANJEE
An intimate crowd of eight students nestled in the 4th floor lounge of the University Center for an evening of community, creativity and rhymes at the Cultural Center’s Lyricist Lounge.
Sophomore architecture student Makiyah Holloway-Dudley emceed and performed at the Lyricist Lounge and is the Cultural Center’s lyricist lounge and arts intern. “Lyricist Lounge is actually like a 20 something year tradition of the Cultural Centers,” she said. “It was inspired by a student in my position a while back […] we do it because we want to carry [on] that tradition.”
Opening up the final Lyricist Lounge of the spring semester on April 24, Holloway-Dudley read a poem mimicking a phone conversation with her father as she tells him that she would not be returning to USF in the fall. She talked about the rising costs of living in the city, highlighting the burden of being a student who has to work to sustain themselves and pay out of pocket for school supplies.
“My brain began listing all the things I’m expected to take care of since coming to college, trying to see if I’m overreacting or misunderstanding something,” said Holloway-Dudley, checking each item off on an invisible list, “My hygiene products, clothes, cleaning supplies, shoes, groceries, tissues, school supplies, architecture supplies, gas bill, energy bill, Wi-Fi bill, phone bill but my mouth said nothing because anything would’ve been discombobulated anger.”
In the poem, she touched on how having a smaller crowd makes her feel.“Planning, marketing, designing for an event each month that I hope at least ten to fifteen people out of the entire school show up to, I’m not telling [my father] this because I’m complaining. I just thought you knew.”
After wrapping up her performance, Holloway-Dudley supplied the audience with “Let me introduce myself” cards, which were used by several attendees as an opportunity to join the open mic space of the Lyricist Lounge.
Andrea Hidalgo, a freshman nursing major, was a first time performer at Thursday’s Lyricist Lounge. “I loved it. I did talk about having anxiety, and honestly this was the first time I went up and presented a whole poem even though I’ve been coming and listening [to lyricist lounge] this entire year,” she said.
Diego Zamalloa, a sophomore international studies major, also performed. Zamalloa sat on a chair in the middle of the venue, reading from a well worn leather notebook. He did two renditions of his piece, first in Spanish and then in English. His performance was an introspection on his desire to make people happy while still staying true to himself. “Salté de la cama, me apuré, no me duché, de arreglarme me olvidé, me fui corriendo para servir a otros clientes, corría y corría a un lugar que siempre cambiaba, me quedé con una persona que no era yo” said Zamalloa, which translates to, “I jumped from my bed, I rushed, I didn’t shower and I forgot to get ready and I went running to brush other people’s teeth, to look through other people’s glasses and clean other people’s messes, messes of people that weren’t me.”
Zamalloa spoke about his motivation for performing. “It was a feeling that I think I had kind of brewing inside me for a while now,” he said. “ I thought this space was the perfect place to share it and a place where it could be appreciated as well.”
Holloway-Dudley interspersed the remaining time with shorter performances, as well as more introductory pieces from the audience.
Yaya Owusu, a junior nursing major, shared some of her favorite aspects of the night. “I liked that it was a small group, I thought that was pretty cool. I got a chance to hear from everybody. I liked that it felt very authentic and non-judgmental,”she said.
“Pre-COVID, […] Lyricist Lounge was a very big thing and used to be a spot people could come to on a Friday night, it was a good enjoyable space. I feel like it was when there used to be more energy on campus which really determines how much our events thrive,” said Holloway-Dudley. “When we used to have it on [University Center Fourth Floor], I’ve been mainly told some of these things, but it would fill this whole space.”
“It saddens me that it doesn’t have as much of a reputation or knowledge across campus the way it used to,” she concluded.
Holloway-Dudley has plans to encourage future interns in the Cultural Center to expand the event. “The Cultural Center could turn Lyricist Lounge into more of a workshop or [open] the floor to things that engage people with each other because that makes people feel more comfortable,” she said.
“I like the tenderness that this space brings out and so I like coming here and I always leave with something kind of close to my chest,” said Zamalloa.
Editor-in-Chief: Jordan Premmer, Chief Copy Editor: Sophia McCrackin, Managing Editor: Jordan DelFiugo, Opinion Editor: Dakota Duran, Scene Editor: Elina Graham
