Over Zoom, âCold Openâ Connects Creative Community
May 1, 2020
- Author
- Jay Pfeifer
For the past six weeks, the 91¿ì²¥ community has tuned into Zoom for âCold Open,â a virtual performance space with a decidedly warm, welcoming vibe. EdSurge, a publication focused on innovation in higher ed, recently called it âpart literary salon, part open-mic night.â
Alan Michael Parker, Douglas Houchens Professor of English, and Daniel Lynds, an instructional designer on the digital learning team, threw the idea together in the hectic days immediately following the shift to remote instruction.
Now, âCold Openâ continues to showcase students, faculty and staff, who share their art and voices to create a palpable sense of community in spite of the limits of teleconferencing. Anyone who has spent time on Zoom knows this is no small feat.
Rebecca Koening, the EdSurge reporter, sat in on a recent âCold Open.â
If it were possible to bring down a virtual house, Durwin Striplin accomplishes it,â she writes. âThe chemistry professor plays âYour Songâ by Elton John on the piano, crooning, âI hope you don't mind that I put down in words, how wonderful life is while you're in the world.
Every âCold Openâ ends with a brief highlight reel from the previous week, underscoring the minor miracle of each session.
âThe remembering where we have come from that happens each weekâthere is this way in which the community extends both into the past and into the future,â Parker says. âI think we have lucked into something that manifests some really interesting values by way of community.â
