Gaia Open Mic

This open mic is a unique opportunity to play with an audience, not just for them. Come experience the joys of getting the audience singing your original music, creating a collaborative soundscape for your poem, or inviting them to drum along to your story!

GROUND RULES: This mic is a space for self-expression of all sorts! Mistakes, forgotten lyrics, voice cracks, and re-starts are all welcome and encouraged in this space. Our goal is simply to support one another, make new connections, and have fun! ✨

We'll start by making a little music together - singing some pretty chords around together, some fun call & response, that sort of thing - and then kick off our night of sharing. In this opening ceremony, we'll share some fun tricks for getting the audience participating in your art, and we encourage you to try them out!

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Sign ups will be available AT THE EVENT. We ask that you limit your sharing to roughly 5 minutes - if there are free slots remaining after the first half of the evening, you're welcome to sign up for a second slot!

Doors at 6:30pm

Sharing starts at 7pm

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The mic is open for:

• songs, finished or still half-formed
• stories, in whatever form they flow forth
• poems, spoken or sung or shouted
• improvisations, messy and raw
• silly party tricks & talents
• all forms of art, period
• whatever you'd like to share, the mic is yours!!

Audience participation is always exciting in this space, if you want to invite us to create with you!

In terms of supporting your art-sharing, we'll have:

• a keyboard
• an acoustic-electric guitar (whose bass note tends to lovingly lean sharp)
• a mic
• a n amp
• a laptop that can play backing tracks through the amp
• please bring along anything else you might desire for yourself!

This event will be facilitated by the brilliant Sofia Campoamor.

Sofía Campoamor (she/her) first started writing songs to make school projects more fun. This lighthearted approach to academics led her to study music at Yale University, where she performed a cappella music around the world as the first woman member of the Whiffenpoofs. Now that school has given way to a music career, Sofía looks for ways to make her songwriting itself more fun! In winter 2023, she completed a 36-song cycle “to fall in love with anyone…” structured as a daily challenge answering the “36 questions that lead to love” as song prompts. In 2022, Sofía’s word game project #wordlesong gained popularity on Tiktok and generated several of the songs for her debut album "if you knew, i couldn't tell,” an indie folk collection that blends her love of intricate vocal harmony with dreamy acoustic soundscapes to tell tales of love, longing and friendship.

Sofía is passionate about collaborative songwriting; she serves as the Music Director for the nonprofit Hear Your Song, organizing volunteers and leading sessions with children managing serious illness and complex health needs. She also enjoys teaching music to kids ages 5 to 80 and singing with the Oratory Choir of St. Boniface. Sofía is so grateful to call Gaia Music Collective her creative home, and can’t wait to share her love of music making with the community this summer!

For more info, or for any & all questions, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

PHYSICAL ACCESSIBILITY

• There is an elevator leading up to the floor of the event

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COVID VACCINATION & BOOSTER RECOMMENDED (but masks not required)

CANCELLATION POLICY

We want as many people to be able to experience these gatherings as possible, and since capacity is limited, each spot is precious! If you RSVP but are no longer able to come, please let us know at least 24 hours before the event so that we may offer your spot to someone else. Tickets are non-transferable, as we need to be able to gather enough funds to rent the spaces and pay our lovely facilitator.

For more info, contact us at [email protected].

MEDIA CONSENT

Because we want to share what we’re up to with people who can’t join us in person, there will be photographers and videographers present — by attending, you consent to being a part of that media, some of which may be posted online! Please email us with any questions or concerns at [email protected]

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GAIA MUSIC COLLECTIVE MISSION

Gaia Music Collective is a creative community based in Brooklyn, NYC. Our mission is to create connective, playful, accessible spaces for collaborative music-making. Spaces where we can seek expression, growth, freedom, & release in our music. Spaces where we can explore the healing potential of collective music-making and improvisation. Spaces where folks feel safe to express themselves free of judgment or expectation, and to make new friends as our weird, beautiful, authentic selves.

All are welcome in this community. Gaia celebrates humans of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, classes, religions, abilities, national origins, languages, and musical experiences. All we ask is that you bring an open mind, a desire to connect, and a willingness to leave judgment of self & others at the door.

Here at Gaia, we believe that music-making - and making that music in community & collaboration with other people - is a fundamental human practice, and this project seeks to build space for that in a day and age when it can so often be hard to find.

Gaia Music Collective seeks to break down divisions between performer & audience and craft experiences where we are ALL part of the music-making. We hope to offer a network & platform for local artists & creatives to connect with other artists, activate their creativity through play and collaboration, and engage their art with other musical minds.

In short - we're here to sing, to play, to connect, to grow, and to have a good time!

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Sky2, 309 Gold street, Brooklyn, United States