“Dancer, Lover, Musician, Swiftie, Poet, Queer, Daughter, Intelligent, Woman, College Educated, Neurodivergent, Disabled, Chef” and other identities greeted guests who attended Oakland University’s Echo Cognito open mic night on the evening of Sept. 24, 2024.
Echo Cognito is a themed literary journal which focuses on a new theme every year — this year being identity. Although the journal was established in 2014 originally by Honors College students, it was revived in 2023 by club president and founder, Grayson Hershey.
“We publish different types of art and written work that are within that theme to guide people because, like, I want to submit to literary journals but it’s very daunting to just make up new work on the fly so we hope with themes it could help guide people,” Hershey said.
Open mic nights are an opportunity for writers and artists to display works they’ve otherwise not been able to in front of an audience. It’s a celebration of creativity and expression, and for Echo Cognito it is an observance of identity.
The night’s event displayed some work that fit into the journal’s theme “Echo Cognito: An Anthology of the Human Heart.”
The open mic was open to anyone and everyone who wanted to participate — not to just those who are a part of the club. In fact, club members encouraged the audience to read any work regardless of if they had written it.
Writers’ work spanned from a quick five minute play about a circus crew struggling to make ends meet which results in the characters finding a new meaning to the word family to poetry and short stories of understanding appearances and masks.
It truly felt like those who went up were confident in their work, and rightfully so. These pieces challenged what identity is and what it meant to them and you could feel passion as they read each word off of their pages.
For those who were unable to attend but would love to get their work out there as well, Echo Cognito is a club anyone can join at any point.
“We do plays, short stories, poems, photography, any other type of art that you can take a picture of and slap in a book,” Hershey said in regards to what goes into the journal.
“As long as a student can write a piece that has something to do with their identity or how they fit into their identity or how they don’t fit into their identity then we accept it,” Malena Pugliese, Echo Cognito vice president, added.
The open mic had an atmosphere that felt incredibly warm and welcoming and overall uplifting as a club where members and non-members alike celebrated their work together.
“I like to think that people want to have a place where they can talk about things that they couldn’t somewhere else,” Vice President Malena said, “I think this is the place to do that.”
For more information on Echo Cognito you can visit their Grizzorgs or head to Instagram at @echocognito. For submission information and guidelines you can visit their website. Submissions are open until Dec. 1, 2024.
