Gaia Open Mic

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!

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!

WHO IS LEADING THIS GAIA OPEN MIC?

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. Now that school has given way to a music career, Sofía looks for ways to make her songwriting itself more fun! In winter 2023, she completed a 36-song cycle “to fall in love with anyone…” structured as a daily challenge answering the “36 questions that lead to love” as song prompts. 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.

Sofía is passionate about collaborative songwriting; she serves as the Music Director for the nonprofit Hear Your Song, organizing volunteers and leading 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 can’t wait to share her love of music making with the community this fall!

For more info, or for any and all questions, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

PHYSICAL ACCESSIBILITY:

• Elevator access is available to all floors directly from the building lobby, including the Karl Kemp Performance Space (ADA-compliant).
• Venue is wheelchair accessible, including the lobby and performance area.
• By November 2025, the space will likely be located on the 2nd floor, which will have accessible bathrooms available at all times.
• There is also one accessible restroom on the 3rd floor, available upon request if needed.
• Seating is flexible and can be arranged to accommodate mobility devices.
• Street parking in Midtown Manhattan is limited—please plan extra time for arrival or consider accessible rideshare drop-off at 151 W 30th Street.
• For specific access needs or questions, please contact the venue at [email protected].
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RESPECT THE SPACE!

This is a beloved venue and we want to honor them! Please be considerate of the space.

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected] 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.

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