By Joseph Nichols, Staff Writer

Xavier Live, a new club on campus, aims to celebrate student artists and performers. Their inaugural event was an open mic night that took place last Friday.

Xavier Live is a live performance club that seeks to promote the performances of Xavier students.

“I started the club because I saw there were a lot of talented musicians, and the school didn’t do anything about that,” sophomore English and music double major and President of Xavier Live Azziz Samureh said. 

“I saw they had Xavier Fest last year and brought people in from the outside, but we didn’t celebrate any of the artists or musicians that are currently on our campus doing good stuff,” Samureh continued. 

Xavier Live’s first meeting and live performance was held on the bottom floor of Gallagher Student Center. After a brief statement from Samureh on excitement for the club and its direction, the performance commenced and featured a variety of performers, ranging from a stand-up comedian, a rapper, a Pink Floyd cover duo and many more live performances. 

Event organizers faced several technical difficulties but managed to keep the show going. As first-year economics  major Jameria Evans sang Loren Allred’s “Never Enough,” the music cut out numerous times and was unusable. The crowd encouraged her to sing the song from the start without music, and Samureh started a clap on the beat in the second half of the song. 

Each singer or speaker received applause after their performance from one of the dozens of students who passed by or stayed to watch their peers perform.

Samureh has already begun planning the club’s events for the rest of the semester, including their next open mic night next Monday. 

“I hope this will really involve a lot more students who are politically inclined, because it is right before election night, and it’s important to vote,” Samureh said.

It can be difficult to stay afloat while finals are approaching, and Samureh already has something in the works for these students; the club leaders hope to provide an opportunity for students to relieve stress closer to the end of the semester. 

“We’re going to have a pick-me-up open mic during finals week to uplift morale around campus and get people feeling away from feeling stressed,” he said. “We’re going to have coffee and tea. I’m hoping it’s a chill event so people can go have fun during finals week. I hope to get strong attendance.”

One goal of Xavier Live is to include a broader range of  student performers in their events. 

“I would love to have a poetry night where there are spoken word poets. People can come present their poems over piano and have a chiller vibe with coffee,” Samureh said.

The club president also expressed interest in a song-writing seminar as well as collaborations with Xavier clubs, including Hip-Hop Collective.

Students interested in Xavier Live can attend their next event on Monday and find the group on EngageXU.