Love Or Liberation

Chapter 2

The cafeteria wasn't very crowded. Elaine followed Betsy to a table where a very thin student with long, straight blond hair was sitting.

"Hi, Felicity, this is my roommate, Elaine. She's coming along for the open mike," Betsy said. She put her tray down and motioned to Elaine.

Felicity didn't have food on the table. She had a steno pad and a pen. She smiled and waved to Elaine. "Hi, Elaine. I'm Felicity. A few of us go to this bar every week. The open mike is pretty cool. Sometimes I read some poetry. Sometimes people go up with a guitar and sing folk songs. It's pretty informal."

Elaine put her tray on the table and sat next to Betsy, across the table from Felicity.

"Do you have to read something original?"

"You don't have to read anything at all. It's cool just to be there and applaud. There's a lot to applaud. If you have some favorite poetry by someone else, you can read that as well. The folk music is usually sing-a-long."

"You said some other students are coming?" Betsy asked.

"If they're on campus yet. I don't know why they opened the dorms on a Friday. A lot of people won't be here until tomorrow or Sunday. There are about five of us who go to the bar every week when classes are in session. We think it's better than anything on the Barnard or Columbia campuses."

As Elaine and Betsy ate their dinners, the three of them talked about what courses they were taking and who their professors were. Felicity had some favorite professors, but neither Elaine nor Betsy had any classes with them. Elaine planned to major in French Translation. Felicity didn't know anything about the advanced French language or literature courses. Nobody else joined the three of them at the table. They headed directly from the cafeteria to the subway which would take them to the Village, where they were headed.

The bar looked like a dive to Elaine. There was an area in one corner that was cleared out and had a single microphone. The bar room was pretty full. People there reminded Elaine of pictures she had seen of Haight Ashbury's Summer of Love crowd. The place wasn't far from New York University. Elaine wondered if most of the people there were students from NYU or if they were just young people who had dropped out of society.

Felicity and Betsy both got draft beer. Elaine ordered a soda. They found a table to sit at not too far from the mike. There was apparently a sign-up sheet for anyone who wanted to perform. Felicity pointed out the MC. She said he keeps the list and announces whoever is next up.

The first performer was a guy with scraggly hair with a red and black bandanna around his head, an unshaven face, but not quite a beard. His jeans and white t-shirt were threadbare and torn in places. He played a slightly out of tune guitar and sang "If I Had A Hammer." Everyone sang along and applauded at the end.

Several people read original poetry, but to Elaine, it all sounded like prose statements. They were for peace and being "real." They mentioned some of her favorite writers: Herman Hesse, Jack Kerouac, Jean-Paul Sartre, Allen Ginsburg. Elaine could relate to everything they said, except the parts about drugs. It just didn't sound like poetry to her. People yelled out, "Right on!," and "Oh, yeah!" and "Say it!" during the readings. There was generous applause for all of the performers and readers. Some of the folk singers were pretty good. Some couldn't play the guitar with rhythm and sang out of tune. They sang songs people knew, so the audience joined in. Most of the people who got in front of the mike read original poetry, though.

The three students from Barnard didn't talk during the performances. Elaine had to admit to herself that she was kind of bored. She was glad she was invited along for an outing her first night on the Barnard campus, but she didn't think she wanted to do this every week. She had several sodas.

Elaine smelled some kind of sweet smoke. Not everyone who smoked there was smoking tobacco. Elaine's father was a heart surgeon, so she didn't smoke anything. She didn't feel comfortable about the sweet smoke she smelled. She wondered if just smelling it would affect her mind. She felt a little light headed. It was getting late, though, so that could have been just tiredness.

Finally, the MC got to the end of the list of performers and Elaine, Betsy, and Felicity went back to the subway to their dorms. Betsy and Felicity were enthusiastic about the whole event. Elaine just said, "Yeah, it was good." The ride was long to the 116th street stop. Betsy and Felicity were talking about the poetry readings all the way back. Elaine fell asleep along the way. Felicity woke her up when they got to their stop.

Betsy and Felicity talked some more in the lobby of the dorm. Elaine excused herself and was glad to just flop down on her bed. She didn't even change her clothes or pull back the cover. Betsy and Felicity were nice, but Elaine wondered if she would find a social circle on campus that she would really fit into. She thought of brushing her teeth, but then she fell asleep.