Breaking from their yearly literary print editions, Texas A&M’s Eckleberg Project will showcase spoken word poetry and music with an event at downtown Bryan’s First Friday.
The Speakeasy Artists’ showcase will pay homage to artistic expression that can’t be printed in a magazine. The showcase will focus more on spoken word poetry and music due to limited space. The Speakeasy will be a part of the monthly First Friday in downtown Bryan, and Gabi Aguilar, editor-in-chief of the magazine and telecommunication and media studies senior, said she hopes to gain a more expansive audience with the crowd that will already be out and around town.
“We’re really founded on the idea that art should be free for the community, because it’s created from a very free place, and so it should be easily accessible,” Aguilar said. “There should be no boundaries to access it, which is why we do all of our events for free.”
Hannah Grunwald, communication junior and treasurer of The Eckleberg Project, said the event provides a way to connect to the community through other artistic organizations, as well as an opportunity for artists to develop and showcase their talents.
The event will feature Mic Check Poetry and the bands King and Nation, Kaitlyn and Cynthia, Lebanon, Ricky Bureau and student painter Kaitlyn Forks. Forks, a wildlife and fisheries sciences junior, will paint during the event, and her work will then be available in a $1 raffle auction.
Forks, who works at Pinot’s Palette in College Station and is currently enrolled in a literary class, said as a college student she often has to work with what she has when balancing interests.
“My course work is very heavy, science-based,” Forks said. “I have to take chemistry courses, I have to take math courses, so through all of that science-based curriculum, I’ve always struggled to find time for my art. By getting this job at Pinot’s Palette, and by taking coursework at A&M, I always make time for art. I think there’s this big false idea that we have that you can’t be an art person and a science person, and I’m really passionate about making it a balance and destroying that false idea and making sure that people know that they can be both.”
The Speakeasy will take place on downtown Bryan’s mainstreet at the Revolution Cafe. The Revolution Café is a different venue from last year, and there will be more artists compared to the year before. Grunwald said she thinks that it’ll be a beautiful experience for the audience that they get to see someone incorporate their works and showcase it at an event like the Speakeasy.
“For me, just seeing people who are passionate about their art, or what they make, you’ll get to experience something beautiful and genuine,” Grunwald said.
The Speakeasy Artists’ Showcase will run from 6-8 p.m. Friday.
