Last Friday, the Uptownies held an Open Mic Night – an evening where anyone could come and showcase their talents. The idea behind the event was to initiate our new venue as a place in which we can relax and have fun and be a source of life in our community.

So we declared the mic open and sat back to enjoy what would come of it. It was wonderful to see so many budding artists and performers looking for an opportunity to express themselves and it was great fun to cheer them on: poets, dancers, saxophonists, singers and rappers.  Our venue was packed out with Uptowners, visiting Bedfordviewers and students from the Braamfontein community.

The Life Team put on a dance best described as “mixtape”; Liziwe Fihlani from the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra performed a sax solo; and a young performer known as Kooch, hailing all the way from Cape Town, also put in an appearance. And these were just some of the highlights.

Draco, a rapper that used to work with Andy Sherman and who enjoys radio play was our guest performer. He was supplemented by our own Jonno Warmington and the Christ Revolution Dance Crew.

We finished off a highly successful evening with Jon Hing performing his famous MJ impersonation. It was a super event and we’ll certainly be doing it again!