Second Time a Charm for Lady Caress

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Connor Swagler, Reporter

Lady Caress came on January 21 to perform for the second time after her last visit failed to attract an audience.

Habrienne Louchie, a sophomore nursing major, said she enjoyed the performance with her friends.

“I was thoroughly impressed with her performance that night because it was different, and I’ve always had an interest in poetry and her delivery made it even better,” said Louchie.

When Lady Caress came out last semester, the MCN87 television station  planned to record a video of her performance. However, when the TV crew was set up and Caress started her performance, no people were in the seats.

Louchie said both events were well publicized with flyers throughout campus, including her dorm, but she skipped the first event because a scheduling conflict with a soccer game got in the way.

“I was aware that she performed last semester because of the flyer once again, but due to the soccer championship on the same night, it became a conflict, and I chose the game because that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing sometimes, and I did not want to miss out. Almost the whole school was there as well, so I felt bad that she came and no one was there to support her,” said Louchie.

Student Activities Director Darcy Brodmerkel explained that she isn’t entirely in control of event scheduling because sometimes sports can be too sporadic to predict with perfect accuracy, especially in the case of championship games.

“Well part of that is a problem, we don’t know when those games are going to take place or if they’ll even make them. So it happened that both of those events, we got to host the championship game for both men’s and women’s soccer. So that took any potential of students that were going to be there,” said Brodmerkel.

Lady Caress had already been booked and paid when the games were set.

“It was quite disappointing, to spend that money and not have anybody show up, and at times it can be somewhat embarrassing to not have people show up at these types of activities because the performers are still going to perform. If there are three people there, they’re still going to put on a show,” said Brodmerkel.

The recent show was a hit, said junior communications major Lena Williams.

“I thought she was very unique and passionate. I loved how she combined beat boxing, poetry, and singing, and how she wasn’t afraid to speak on personal issues,” Williams said.

However, this performance night was not without technical difficulty. There was a problem with the audio equipment at the start, which made the sound system speakers sound screechy and scratchy. The performance was briefly stopped to repair the issue, which couldn’t be fixed through the regular sound system. The Student Activities work study grabbed a new sound system, which worked perfectly.

Brodmerkel said the sound system has been replaced with a new system for future events.

“That sound system in there is terrible, and they had put that in not too long ago, and I just said to Patrick Makamy, from now on we are not using that system anymore,” said Brodmerkel.

Nevertheless Lady Caress, like a true professional, didn’t let the technology stop her from sharing her message that the audience came to hear.

Events are held on campus almost weekly for the entertainment of the students or in some cases to help keep  students informed about issues. Brodmerkel plans these events, which run the gamut from magicians, poets, comedians, motivational speakers and different social awareness events.

“On the weekends we like to give[students] something to do. We also want to encourage them to stay around and participate in some of these things, get involved, make new friends, socialize. Some kids don’t have the option or luxury to go home, so we want to be able to plan things for them,” Brodmerkel said.

As long as people show up, events will go on.