James O’Brien (‘26) cradles a guitar and strums an upbeat song as he greets performers and audience members entering the Black Box through a booming speaker. The room overflows with excited chatter, laughter, and students ready to kickstart the Performing Arts Coffeehouse.

Coffeehouse presented an opportunity for Bishop’s students to freely showcase their talents. Whether it was karaoke, cultural dances, spoken-word poetry, or magic, all performances were supported by the casual yet enthusiastic community built within the Black Box room.

James, PAC spirit representative and frequent Coffeehouse emcee, explained that part of the “super casual, super funny” atmosphere is because faculty members and adults are not allowed into the room. “[It] definitely makes it a little more fun, and it’s to alleviate the pressure. Performing can be scary, especially in front of your friends, so we just try to create that kind of casual space, a safe space for people who really just want to perform,” James explained.

Zara Zierhut (‘27), who performed a spoken-word poetry piece at The Coffeehouse this year, agreed and said, “No one’s going to judge you in the Coffeehouse. That’s the one place where if you’re singing and your voice cracks, or if you’re acting and you mess with your lines, no one’s going to shame you for it. It’s really necessary.”

This year, Coffeehouse coincided with the Global Potluck, which is usually held later in September. Because the Global Potluck came earlier than usual, Dr. Moseley explained, there wasn’t time to organize its typical lineup of student cultural performances. Thus, Coffeehouse saw a few special cultural performances, which James explained didn’t typically happen in the past. 

One of these came with a bittersweet goodbye — the Georgiou sisters, Ariadne (‘26), Athena (‘29), and Olympia (‘30), wearing embroidered dresses paired with decorated aprons and white headscarves, performed three traditional Greek pieces: an a cappella song, and two dances. It was their last time performing together at Bishop’s, having danced together for almost a decade. 

“Greek dance is all about feeling the music, but also feeling the energy of the people around you. We have a common goal, but we each do our own individual parts to create a cohesive and seamless piece that flows together naturally,” Olympia explained. Throughout each piece, the three sisters cheered each other on continually, giving each other encouraging nods and smiles. “Knowing that someone will always have your back if you mess up, or if your headscarf falls off like mine did, makes me feel like making a mistake is okay,” Olympia said.

Athena reflected, “It was very emotional to be performing together for the last time because it was a reminder that things are going to change once Ariadne goes to university, and we wanted the last time to feel special.” However, Ariadne concluded, “Our last performance at Bishop’s won’t be our last performance together — wherever I go to college, I’ll find or start another Greek dance team. I hope to be practicing these traditions and competing for as long as I can.” 

In contrast with the Georgiou sisters’ emotionally charged dance, the next performance was as “threatening,” according to James, as it was beautiful. 

Sporting crisp white uniforms (known as dobok), Leia (‘30) and Sara (‘32) Park settled into a starting position with a sharp “Start!” before launching a flurry of kicks, sweeps, and slices. Despite their youth, the sisters each hold a black belt in goryeo poomsae, a type of performative taekwondo. They are experienced martial artists, and Leia performed at the Global Potluck last year. She noted that Coffeehouse had a more casual atmosphere than the Potluck, with light-hearted performances. 

Leia admitted that while she did get nervous to perform, she was also incredibly excited to share her craft with others. “I think the most valuable part [about performing] is that both I and the audience feel happy or excited about it,” Leia reflected. “If only I feel happy about it, then there’s no point in me performing. And if I don’t feel happy doing it, then there’s no point in performing, either.” 

The microphone was adjusted to Zara’s height as she inhaled deeply and began to introduce her Spoken Word Poetry piece “I Used to Take Bites Out of Cherry Chapstick”. She explained that she has performed for Coffeehouse since middle school and began her poetry journey in freshman year during a poetry unit in Mr. Radley’s class, where her interest was piqued.

She continued to develop her work in spoken-word poetry this summer, which she explains is “a lot more focused on reading and tonal changes and, like, how you speak and move,” opposed to other forms of written poetry that signal pauses with line breaks and punctuation like other forms of written poetry that signal pauses with line brakes and punctuations. Zara adds, “My poetry is meant to be heard and not seen, which is a little bit limiting because I feel like now with poetry like this, I’m able to expand my horizon.”

In Zara’s words, Coffeehouse is “a really good way to just share your work in a low-worry environment.” As she puts it, it is the perfect space that “helps me get out of my comfort zone just enough.”

With a fond grin, James explained that Coffeehouse is “a good breath of fresh air” for performers. Because most students are involved in an arts discipline, both outside and inside Bishop’s, Coffeehouse performances tend to be unserious and impromptu as students “either experiment outside that discipline, like do something [they] don’t normally do, or try something new, or even do something [they’re] working on that’s unfinished.”

Most of the performances embodied James’ sentiments, including Steven W (‘27)’s magic performance, Madison Gasaway (‘28) and Brady Le (‘29)’s “mock slam improv poetry” (a comedic version of an improv poetry slam), and karaoke acts that included Steven. and Brady singing along to the lyrics of “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters. 

The event ended with a performance from Kat Teyssier (‘26) and Lela Felix (‘26), accentuated by a dim spotlight while singing “I Want It That Way”. As the lyrics “you are my fire” rang out, dozens of iPhone flashlights illuminated the stage and swung through the air in time to the beat. 

The Black Box doors opened and let in light from outside as James regained the microphone. With a happy smile, he thanked all of the performers who took the stage and the audience that cheered them on. With the concluding words finished and the doors open, the crowd clapped and whooped for the first Coffeehouse of the year, ready and excited for the next to come.