Music Monday: Great Entertainment For Free

Music Monday lifts spirits and starts the week off on a high note.

Every Monday, until March 5 there will be a live musical performance in the Student Union building at 12:00 p.m.

“It was fun to watch the performance” said Arthur Mendoza, student.

The Student Activities Board has been inviting local and national touring artists to come perform for our school. Artists come in and perform their music for whoever is sitting in the SU building. This week, local singer, songwriter, and vocal loop artist, Paris Williams performed.

“It went great, it was very encouraging to see people dancing to my music” said Williams

Paris Williams, who goes by her stage name Paris Alexa, is an R&B, soul and pop artist from Seattle. The 19 year-old had planned on attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts but has decided to perform around the country.

Paris Alexa had the crowd swaying and nodding their heads. The singer was really into her music, you could tell how much she enjoys performing.

Although Paris Alexa is usually performing, she rarely performs for people her own age. She loves the idea of Green River’s Music Monday. “It gives some kids something to look forward to,” Alexa said.

Music Monday gives a lot of international students the opportunity to see live music without having to travel to Seattle or Tacoma and having to pay ridiculous amount for a ticket. Many concerts in our region are expensive. So being able to have free entertainment for students is a major bonus for our community. It allows us to come together to have fun and listen to music. It also gives us the opportunity to listen to new music from up and coming artists.

Although Paris Alexa thinks that Music Mondays are a good idea for young adult college students, Mendoza thinks that the shows should be less often but longer. “We should have a special monthly show, when there isn’t classes,” Mendoza said. The performance, being midday, is inconvenient. Many classes go on during the day, which doesn’t allow for many people to attend Music Mondays. If it was during the evening, there would be a lot more students in the audience. We could also have more artists come and perform each of the shows.

If you like performing, or you have performed in any shows, you know that it takes a lot of courage to get in front of a crowd.

“Performing makes me feel like a different person. I don’t feel like Beyoncé, she doesn’t take as many L’s as I do,” Alexa said.

Although she feels like she is taking L’s, Paris is just promoting herself and doing what she loves. She is gaining publicity by performing at local colleges and shows. Music Monday is a great opportunity for aspiring artists to gain more experience.

Next week’s Music Monday performer is Naomi Wachira, a Seattle-based folk singer from Kenya. If you’re interested in performing for your classmates, get in touch with Joy, ychang@greenriver.edu.
Music Monday is a great way for local and national touring artists to get their music out as well as a good way for people to hear new music.