On the first Thursday of every month, De Anza’s Black Student Union transforms the Euphrat Museum of Art into a small venue for student art and expression as part of it’s First Thursday open mic series.

BSU President Orit Mohammed, 18, said that the BSU chose to host an open mic event because it was the best way to involve fellow students.

 “The beauty of the open mic is that it really incorporates the students so that they have a place to come and express themselves artistically where they might not have any other place to do that,” Mohamed said. “A lot of other open mics are pretty professional and people feel really nervous and don’t want to perform, and this is a really comfortable setting where anyone can just come up and it is really supportive.”

Psychology major Sid Monshi, 19, performed at First Thursday for his first time Feb. 2 and said that the event was very welcoming.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone is putting pressure on anyone performing,” Monshi said. “People can just go up there and do their thing and not worry about being judged.”

Monshi played an acoustic version of a song he wrote, but the performances were not limited to music.

“People just come and they share anything from hip-hop, spoken word, poetry, singing, sometimes people just come up and talk if they feel like talking,” Mohamed said. “We used to call it the fusion of poetry and hip-hop and art.”

McTate M. Stroman II, 39, co-advisor of the BSU and one of the originators of First Thursday, said that he was inspired to create an open mic event for students in order to raise awareness of the presence of the Euphrat Museum of Art.

“About two years ago I was reading in La Voz that they were looking to cut the budget for the Euphrat,” Stroman said. “As a spoken word artist I know the value of a museum so I proposed that we put something together with poetry and visual arts as well. It’s mainly to allow the students a vehicle of expression as well as bringing attention to the fact that we even have a museum on campus. A lot of students aren’t aware of that.”

Mohamed said that the crowds coming to the monthly open mic events have grown since First Thursday’s inception, but the monthly event remains an intimate affair.

“It started off pretty small, and then there were random days where a lot of people would come, but now we’ve got a fairly set audience of about 30-40 people,” Mohamed said. “It’s really comfortable and small.”

“I love the turn out,” Stroman said. “I swear they’ve always got me sweating in the beginning, but always we end up running out of chairs and students seem to enjoy it.”

More than just De Anza students are filling the Euphrat to see the show.

“We’ve had faculty, we’ve had our president Brian Murphy come out,” Stroman said. “We’ve had high school students come out and that gave them access to a college campus at the same time.”

 “One time, someone came all the way from San Francisco just because he heard about First Thursday,” Mohamed said. “He rapped.”

Mohamed said that First Thursday is exciting because it is a different show every time, and encouraged all students to come out and see it.

“You don’t have to be a performer, it’s a really great experience that has added to the culture of De Anza College,” Mohamed said. “It’s a great place to meet new people and to listen to some cool stuff.”

TELLING – Ben Stevenson, 20-year-old philosophy major, tells about his first college experience at De Anza. (Max Keil, Web Editor)