After more than 20 years of providing Sidwell students with a forum to show off their talents, the school’s monthly Arts Guild open-mic night has broadened its appeal by attracting different kinds of performers and performances, according to organizers. “Recently students have made it more inclusive and a safer place to perform as opposed to having to be super proficient at [their act],” says David Merlin-Jones, the current faculty adviser for the event, which is considered a student-led club. “We have people who are refining their act and just want to perform in front of other people something they wrote, and there are also people up there who have never sung in front of an audience before and they’re just getting over their fear of speaking in public.” Started in the 1980’s by a small group of students, the event originally only featured folk acts, and was largely reserved for upperclassmen to perform, says Merlin-Jones. More recently, however, it has grown more diverse in th...
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