Against the dimly lit backdrop of Dom’s Lounge, students stepped onto the stage one by one, reciting personal poems and performing songs that ranged from covers of popular tracks to original music.
On Tuesday, Feb. 24, students gathered for the Open Mic Night co-hosted by the Pens & Poetry Club and Pomona Student Union (PSU). This event was first launched last semester in November, making this their second collaboration in an ongoing series.
The open mic night featured various poets, singer-songwriters and musicians, highlighting both established 5C artists and first-time performers.
The evening opened with a performance by Casey Ippolito PO ’29, who shared a freshly drafted spoken-word poem that touched on themes surrounding coming of age and shifting perceptions of the self. This was followed by several other captivating performers, from acoustic guitar covers of Milk’s “Sweet Trip” and Phoebe Bridgers’ “Georgia” by Joseph Morco PO ’27, to a lighter, humorous poem by Matteo Marques PO ’29.
One student, Diego Zavala-Morineau PO ’28, performed four poems — a mixture of works from his recent collection, a zine he had assembled in his advanced poetry class last semester and a standalone piece. He credited Pomona English Professor Prageeta Sharma as an inspirational and supportive mentor, as well as the 5C literary magazine Agave Review for publishing his poems in their fall 2025 issue.
Zavala-Morineau recognized the value of academic guidance in poetic craft, while also describing the act of performing poetry as entirely different from writing poetry in a classroom setting. Many student attendees echoed this, explaining that it’s vital that artists at the 5Cs have spaces like this to breathe life into their written work.
“When you can hear your poetry — when you bring it into the physical world, when it resonates off of the classroom or when it resonates off of these halls — you have to think about it inherently differently [from written poetry] because you come out of that impossible melody of your mind,” Zavala-Morineau said.
He explained that performing poetry in front of an audience was a way to translate his thoughts and words into something tangibly shared and to express himself in a low-stakes environment.
“When you come to class, you bring a draft, you bring something that you want to critique, something that you want to deconstruct,” Zavala-Morineau said. “Here, you know, the only responsibility is just to be present, and I think poetry is one way that we can be present to one another as a community at the 5Cs.”
Drawn by the performances’ intimacy and lyrical quality, attendees described the event as a welcoming space to share stories and experiences through language.
“Everyone is [here] to listen to music, to hear whatever poems people [perform],” attendee Derek Kyan PO ’28 said. “It’s like a third space, and I think we need more spaces like this on campus.”
Julia Aceron PO ’28, a singer in the 5C student band Love, Pluto, agreed that the open mic night offered a safe space for performers.
“The vibes are very intimate, very welcoming, very just — very beautiful — obviously very poetic,” Aceron said. “You know, it’s full of people with diverse backgrounds, and they have their own stories to tell, and I think poetry is such a beautiful way to describe that, and to me personally, poetry to me is like songwriting, so that’s also kind of why I wanted to try open mic.”
Much of the appeal of open mic nights comes from this spontaneity and imaginative energy — this sense that the next time someone takes the stage, anything could happen.
The leadership of Pens & Poetry embodies this spirit of spontaneity, stepping up to ensure everything from the food to the schedule felt cohesive. When faced with a last-minute scheduling mishap, Juan Andres Rodriguez Fuentes PO ’29 — executive board member of the Pens & Poetry Club — rose to the occasion and recited a poem he had written during his senior year of high school.
“I wasn’t planning on performing tonight,” Fuentes said. “My team let me know, ‘Hey, we have a little spot right here, and there’s going to be a bit of an awkward pause — do you have anything you wanna come up and perform?’ I had this poem written from when I did spoken word poetry competitions in high school, and it’s a really important poem to me because it talks about my experience as an immigrant and sort of what it means to be an immigrant right now.”
Fuentes described his untitled poem as a meditation on immigration and identity, reflecting on the process and intentions behind writing it during uncertain, shifting political climates.
“I was writing [the poem] right as it got announced that Trump was going to become president again, and I was seeing how, you know, sort of immigrant cultural contributions are treated in such a disposable way where it’s sort of taken and watered down and incorporated into American culture, and then discarded at another second,” Fuentes said.
Alongside individual performers, the open mic night featured a partial set by the student band, Love, Pluto, along with Earthtones — the first all-Black a cappella group at the 5Cs. In the spirit of their preparation for the 2026 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella this upcoming Saturday, Earthtones prepared a couple of numbers from their set, in addition to fun vocal exercises and an improv performance.
Future open mic nights by Pens & Poetry and PSU are to be held at least once a semester, offering students a sustained space to come together and showcase their creativity.
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