Open Mic Night Turned Mini Residency

Jordyn Baby Woods

February 14th, 2025

Open Mic Night Turned Mini Residency 

Just before Christmas 2024, I had the pleasure of playing an intimate set. All together there were a lot of us who had never met, but somehow felt like a small family. There were poets and short stories, rock, rap, folk, jazz, alternative and Acapella performers. There were two versions of O, Holy Night which was the perfect amount of times to sing O, Holy Night. There were themes of social justice, grief, love, taboo and controversy which roused my feelings properly.

It just so happened that I was living there after reassembling my studio, having yet to perform anywhere. The show seemed to come to me though and it felt like a mini residency, a first. Playing a show while you're staying somewhere is just a different experience, to call the stage your home. I remember wearing my ballet slippers in preparation for the half a jump I would do for the little bit of choreography I had worked into my set.

One jump while singing Acapella something from my 2022 record " Dark Mode ". There were admittedly mistakes amongst us all, but I think it was fitting imperfection which stands in contrast to today's airbrushed virtual reality we are being forced fed. It was a relief to hear people being people; needing to take breaths and having voice cracks, tripping over some words or forgetting a line.

Just like silence is a part of music, imperfection is a part of perfection. That show will be the only that show that there is. There was the lady in red, the aspiring rapper, the published poet, the seasoned musician, the widow, the dog, the child prodigy who had grown up, the lady with a cough, the man with the long gray hair, the woman with a seat just for her guitar, the one performing while sick, and the one who was secretly living there.