By Mariya Manzhos

The Center for Teen Empowerment and the Somerville Public Library brought area youth together for a special “open mic” night of fun, music, and personal expression. — Photos by Sean Post.

Last Wednesday night the meeting room of the Somerville Public Library reverberated with laughter and applause. Youth from the area gathered for the Night of Mics, an open mic event, organized by the Center for Teen Empowerment in partnership with the Somerville Library. A series of workshops and events hosted at the library this summer are funded by the Mayor’s Office and are aimed to make the library a more appealing place for the local youth.

“When you come to the library, it shouldn’t be about going to the computer right away. What else are you doing here when you come?” asks Stephanie Santiago, who is one of the Somerville community facilitators at Teen Empowerment.

Santiago grew up in the Mystic projects and got involved with Teen Empowerment as a youth organizer when she was 17. Here she felt that she wanted to help people who had been in similar circumstances to hers. Now an International Business major at Bunker Hill, she came back to work for the Center.

While Santiago, now 20, reports to her senior supervisor, she also gets to hire and supervise even younger library leaders, who help plan workshops and events at the Somerville library throughout the summer. This multi-layered structure allows for numerous leadership opportunities for youth of different ages. “The program works to help youth get off the streets and help them get jobs,” says Santiago.

Currently the leaders are gearing up for an upcoming workshop titled “Never Rated,” a program encouraging youth to stand up to the standards of beauty the society prescribes. “We want to help them build their self-esteem as they go into high school,” says Santiago.

Even the leaders didn’t know what to expect from the evening. Walter Jacobs, one of the younger library leaders, expressed hope that the Night of Mics would increase awareness among the attendees. “Maybe someone will sing an African folk song, that someone who’s from the Asian background didn’t know before. Hopefully, people will learn things about other people’s cultures, ” said Jacobs before the show.

Youdine, another library leader, opened the evening with an interactive icebreaker. Reluctantly, teenagers broke off into small groups and started to brainstorm skit scenarios based on one-word prompts they received. Within minutes, inhibitions fell away and the groups acted out what topics such as support, school, and art meant to them.

One of the few older attendees in the crowd, Joe A, kicked off the open mic with a spoken word poem God has a funny bone, which he had composed right before the show. A graduate of Teen Challenge, a similar program to Teen Empowerment, he felt strongly about teen issues in Somerville and wanted to come and show his support to the youth performers.

As the evening progressed, more people kept walking in greeted by their friends. The room got louder and the sign-up sheet to perform grew longer.

Marco, a sleek fellow in gray slacks and a pressed plaid shirt, shared his take on food security through a surreal monologue of thoughts occurring while he was in the check-out line at Stop n’ Shop.

Leila, an outreach counselor, passionately recited The Bridge Poem by Donna Kate Rushin, peeking into her iPhone. “I made a few changes in the poem to suit me,” Leila acknowledged, referring to a few added lines about her Indian roots and experiencing prejudice growing up in the U.S.

In between the individual performances, library leader Walter Jacobs led the group in the game “Finish the Lyrics.” After a line from a song popped up on the PowerPoint screen, the kids shouted out their guesses of which song the lyric came from. After mild responses to Adele and Miley Cyrus, the teens erupted in unison upon seeing a line from the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and continued to chant the entire song together while stomping and gesticulating wildly. It was an impressive impromptu performance.

The evening reached its peak during the rap battle. In the final round the winner concluded with the lyric: “We are Teen Empowerment, we’re family.” The chairs were no longer perfectly aligned and wrappers of Cheetos and granola bars were scattered on the seats. The atmosphere was informal and warm. Everyone was included and welcome. It truly felt like one big family.