Students had the chance to perform at the first open mic of the semester hosted by Amaranth, AACC’s award winning literary magazine, on Wednesday.

Students read poetry, performed live music, told stories and did stand-up.

“We have a lot of great talent here,” Mitchell Santos, editor-in-chief of Amaranth said. “This is a really welcoming space, there is no ‘my piece was better or that piece was weaker.’ We’re all here to have a great time. We’re all here to experiment. We’re all here to have fun. That’s the most important thing.”

Kayla Harshaw, a second-year creative writing student, performed original poetry.

“I wasn’t too nervous, I guess. It wasn’t that bad,” she said.

She added, “It was very relaxing after a terrible day at work.”

Mike Pierorazio, a second-year creative writing student, said he enjoyed the open mic.

“It’s nice to see students turn up [and] share the things that they’ve written,” he said. “Usually writing is such a solitary project that to be in the same room with a bunch of other writers is kind of a cool experience.”

Pierorazio performed three original poems and live music.

“It didn’t drag, people had a lot of fun,” Santos said.

Pierorazio added Amaranth always welcomes new people.

“It’s a community here where if you mess up on stage during a live performance it’s no big deal,” he said.

Santos added, “We’re also looking for Amaranth staff, so if anybody is interested in joining we meet Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 3:30 [p.m.] to 4:30 [p.m.].”