Published: June 01, 2007 02:07 pm      

NOTHING TO DO?: Youth display talents at Shirt Factory Cafe open mic night

Much like a college town coffeehouse, Medina’s Shirt Factory Cafe was filled to the brim with anxious performers and eager listeners as Thursday evening’s open mic night took form with a mixed bag of talents from local youth. The skills ranged from poetry readings to solo guitarists, a four-member band and an unaccompanied vocalist.

The idea for the event began with informal discussions between cafe owner Andrew Meier and Orleans County Youth Bureau Director Guinevere Smith because they both had heard the constant concern that there was nothing to do in the community. Through school focus groups last year many students in the area suggested having events such as an open mic night and from that point plans were made for the cafe’s first youth event.

“I think there’s a lot of people that have a lot of things to share especially the young people that don’t have a venue for it normally,” Smith said.

But now there is a venue and it is rightfully called “The Gathering Room,” a back section of the cafe that has cozy tables and soft lighting, where Meier said he saw a crowd that “truly is a gathering.”

Matt Fuller, 20, was one of many to take the spotlight where he played a cover of a Beatles classic and a handful of songs that he had written.

“I got my first guitar when I was 16 but I didn’t start playing seriously until I was 18,” Fuller said. “My friends, they just kept pushing me to do this and finally I said ‘OK.’”

For some performers, having a night to go and enjoy playing in front of a packed room of peers was seemingly old hat. Kyle Monti, 19, has been playing guitar since seventh grade and said that it had been a long time since he had played in public, but that after the reception he received he plans to sign up again when the next opportunity arises.

“I’ve been giving guitar lessons and it helped me get back into it,” he said. “It was an inspiration to myself to come back out and play.”

Though Meier wasn’t sure what kind of turn out the event would bring, he said he had been hearing how the young people in the community wanted to have the evening become a reality and, when the time came, a lot of them showed up to support it.

“The talent... there’s so much talent,” he said. “Judging by the crowd, we’ll be doing this again.”

While there was a plethora of musical gifts on display from people who had signed up for a time slot, audience members were also given the opportunity to become part of the event as impromptu performers to read poetry or belt out a tune, which high school junior Maggie Moriarty did when she took the microphone and sang “Wade in the water,” a soulful African American gospel song.

“I don’t really do anything like this,” Moriarty said before she began.

Her unaccompanied voice, however, filled the already packed room, reverberating off the walls and flowing out the open windows where other youth and community members had gathered to cool down after being inside.

“I think we’re going to change the name of this from open mic night to Medina Idol,” Meier said.

Meier said he hopes to begin planning for a second open mic night to take place within the next month.

Contact reporter Miranda Vagg at 798-1400, ext. 2225.