Gaia Open Mic (Masked!)

This open mic is a unique opportunity to play with an audience, not just for them. Come experience the joys of getting the audience singing your original music, creating a collaborative soundscape for your poem, or inviting them to drum along to your story!

We’ll start by making a little music together – singing some pretty chords around together, some fun call and response, that sort of thing – and then kick off our night of sharing. In this opening ceremony, we’ll share some fun tricks for getting the audience participating in your art, and we encourage you to try them out!

Our theme this month: REMEMBER/FORGET
If you so choose, you are invited to share art that explores memory, in its capacities or shortcomings or anything in between. Shares outside of the theme are just as welcome!

GROUND RULES:
This mic is a space for self-expression of all sorts! Mistakes, forgotten lyrics, voice cracks, and re-starts are all welcome in this space. Our goal is simply to support one another, make new connections, and celebrate creativity!

SIGN UPS will be made open AT THE EVENT.
We ask that you limit your sharing to roughly 5 minutes, so that we might hear from as many folks as we’re able!

The mic is open for:

• songs, finished or still half-formed-stories, in whatever form they flow forth
• poems, spoken or sung or shouted
• improvisations, messy and raw
• silly party tricks and talents
• all forms of art, period
• whatever you’d like to share, the mic is yours!!

Audience participation is always exciting in this space, if you want to invite us to create with you!

In terms of supporting your art-sharing, we’ll have:

a keyboard

an acoustic

electric guitar

a mic

an amp

a bluetooth hookup that can play backing tracks through the amp

please bring along anything else you might desire for yourself!

WHY MASKS?

This event is an opportunity to show up for the folks in our community who feel more comfortable singing with masks and welcome them into the circle. We’ll be up to our usual circlesinging shenanigans, but with masks required for all participants. We require that you wear either an N95 or KN95 mask. If you do not have one, we will have extras available that you can use!

If you’re someone who has been waiting or asking for an opportunity to sing with masks on, we hope you’re able to join us! We love you, and look forward to singing and connecting with you.And if you’re someone who doesn’t need a mask to feel safe, we invite you to put one on anyways and show up in solidarity and community with our mask-wearing friends!

WHO IS FACILITATING THIS EVENT?

This event will be facilitated by the wonderful Sofia Campoamor.

Sofía Campoamor (she/her) first started writing songs to make school projects more fun. This lighthearted approach to academics led her to study music at Yale University, where she performed a cappella music around the world as the first woman member of the Whiffenpoofs. School gave way to a music career; in 2022, Sofía’s word game project #wordlesong gained popularity on Tiktok and generated several of the songs for her debut album “if you knew, i couldn’t tell,” an indie folk collection that blends her love of intricate vocal harmony with dreamy acoustic soundscapes to tell tales of love, longing and friendship. When she’s not touring or recording, Sofía volunteers for the nonprofit Hear Your Song, leading collaborative songwriting sessions with children managing serious illness and complex health needs. She also enjoys teaching music to kids ages 5 to 80 and singing with the Oratory Choir of St. Boniface. Sofía is so grateful to call Gaia Music Collective her creative home, and loves co-creating with the community at every collaborative open mic, songwriting circle, and choir!

For more info, or for any and all questions, feel free to reach out to us at gaiamusiccollective@gmail.com.

RESPECT THE SPACE:

Arts on Site 3F is a beloved venue and we want to honor them! Please be considerate of the space.

PHYSICAL ACCESSIBILITY:

• 2 step walk up to lobby.
• Elevator available to the 3rd floor (reserved for those with physical disabilities).
• Seating available (narrow benches with no backs).
• Bathroom is not wheelchair accessible.
• Venue prefers shoes to be removed upon entering.
• Venue does not have AC in the summer, so please plan accordingly and bring a personal fan if necessary!

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LOW-PRESSURE PARTICIPATION

Gaia Music Collective events are participatory, but low-pressure. You’ll be invited to sing along and make music with us, but we encourage you to draw your own boundaries and engage at your own pace – we pride ourselves in creating a judgment-free community where you can express yourself however feels right!

LATE ARRIVALS

We ask that you arrive no later than 30 minutes after start time, after which we close the doors (lovingly) in order to preserve the intimacy and trust of the musical container we’re building. Thank you for understanding!

CANCELLATION POLICY

Tickets are refundable up to 24 hours before the event, after which we are no longer able to offer refunds. This policy helps us keep these events financially sustainable for both our community and our team. If you RSVP but are no longer able to come, please let us know so that we may offer your spot to someone else! We want as many people to be able to experience these gatherings as possible, and since capacity is limited, each spot is precious.

For more info, contact us at gaiamusiccollective@gmail.com.

MEDIA CONSENT

Because we want to share what we’re up to with people who can’t join us in person, there may be photographers and videographers present — by attending, you consent to being a part of that media, some of which may be posted online! If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at gaiamusiccollective@gmail.com.

NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS

Gaia is funded by sliding scale ticket donations, with a “no one turned away for lack of funds” policy. It is of the utmost importance to us that these events remain affordable and accessible – we never want money to be a barrier to making music together. If a ticket scale is financially prohibitive to you, feel free to donate outside of the scale at whatever amount is sustainable for you, or to email us at gaiamusiccollective@gmail.com for volunteer opportunities or assistance!

COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

At Gaia Music Collective, we are dedicated to building a community where creativity, collaboration, and care thrive. The values listed here shape how we work together, how we engage with the world, and how we move toward upholding these principles.

OUR MISSION

Gaia Music Collective is an NYC-based creative community seeking to foster a more connected world through collective music-making. Founded in June of 2021 in a living room in Brooklyn, this project was born out of a desire to create accessible, inclusive, playful spaces for people to explore connection, expression, healing, and release through collaborative song – spaces where folks feel empowered to make music free of judgment or expectation, and to make new friends as our full, beautiful, authentic selves.

We believe that communal music-making is a fundamental human practice, and this project seeks to build spaces for folks to nurture their relationship to music, whether they’re shower singers, professional musicians, or anything in between.

All are welcome in this community. Gaia seeks to foster spaces of belonging for humans of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, classes, religions, abilities, national origins, languages, and musical experiences. All we ask is that you bring an open mind, a desire to connect, and a willingness to leave judgment of self and others at the door.

FAQ

Have any questions that haven’t been answered here? Check out our Event FAQs!

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