by Emily McKeehan
Staff Writer
The smells of coffee and cinnamon rolls greeted everyone who walked in the door of Harmony House on the evening of Dec. 3. But good luck finding a place to stand, let alone sit.
From about 8 to 10 p.m., the coffee shop in downtown Dayton was overflowing with Bryan College students attending Singer Songwriter. The annual Bryan event, which hosted performers of all classes, was held off-campus for the first time this year.
“We’ve always tried to go for a coffee-house feel on campus,” said senior Elijah Ammen, vice president of off-campus events, “so this year… we thought, ‘Why not have it at a coffee house?’”
Owner of Harmony House John Piatt said that when the Student Government Association Events Council called him about hosting the event, he gladly agreed. Piatt called his shop “a community-sharing place.”
The SGA events council offered a shuttle for those on campus without vehicles and, with the cooperation of Piatt, provided free cinnamon rolls and coffee for everyone crammed into Harmony House for the event.
Ammen said the main goal of Singer Songwriter was to provide students with a place to relax and enjoy themselves while drinking coffee and hearing good music from classmates.
Freshman James Pevahouse opened the night by singing and playing acoustic guitar, which was the main instrument of 10 out of the 15 performances. Guitarists included seniors Abe Roberts and John Moore, junior Kelly Shannon and Olivia Downey, freshman T.K. King and sophomores Stephen Bryan, Kyle Thomas, Adam Coker, Luke Lillard and Jesse Murray.
Piano was the main instrument of other songwriters. Juniors Josh Jones and Alicia Schulze played the piano alone while junior Cami Plaisted played the piano and was accompanied by sophomore Cynthia Wade on the violin.
Freshman Emily Blaising performed with the most unique instrument, the ukulele, while freshman Josiah Newport accompanied on the guitar.
Though the performances were scheduled to run from 8:15 until about 9:40 p.m., the music was delayed about 15 minutes due to microphone difficulties. There were similar technical problems that occurred throughout the evening. This did nothing to stop students from enjoying the night of music and community, though, and each performance was met with applause and cheering.
And it was the new venue that did the trick, according to senior Lindsay McKissick. She said that while past Singer Songwriter events have been held in Rudd Auditorium or the Lions Den of Latimer Student Center, the intimacy of a place like Harmony House created an atmosphere of “life-giving community.”
“We throw the word ‘community’ around so often, but that was quality community,” said McKissick, who has attended Singer Songwriter every year since she has been at Bryan.
Ammen estimated that the crowd that packed into Harmony House numbered close to 200 students with a few off-campus visitors as well.
“It facilitated community across classes and sub-groups,” McKissick said. “At Harmony House, we were all squished together, and it was beautiful.”