By Jenny Wallace
Arts & Entertainment Editor

KU’s week-long homecoming festivities celebration ended with an open mic night via youtube livestream on Oct. 23.

Lakin Saucedo, a musical artist from Los Angeles, hosted and started off the night with an acoustic rendition of her song “Honeysuckle.” She then covered the popular song “Put Your Records On.”

Following Saucedo’s first set, a freshman accounting student, Kadie Tunkara, filled with passion and soul, performed her original song “Seasons” on a ukulele.

“I listen to everything. That’s kind of how I got my style,” Tunkara said.

Math student Isaac Reiter followed Tunkara with a magic act.. In seconds, Reiter shook a Rubix Cube right in front of viewers’ eyes and solved it instantly. As if this weren’t magical enough, Reiter then took the audience through a round of Blackjack, and with four different deals, he manages to make every column, row, and corner add up to a sum of 21. 

“By doing it over and over again, it just becomes second nature,” Reiter said.

Afterwards, cinema student Tim Corrao read off his long list of band names which he has been compiling since his junior year of high school. 

Some potential band names include Approaching Halloween, Five Frames of Animation, Another Tuesday, Unconventional Oatmeal, Twice Upon a Time, Very Nice Shirt, Papa John’s Day of Reckoning and Overwhelmingly Caucasian.

Saucedo then returned to cover “Meet Virginia” by Train and introduced the next performer.

Rachael Garner, a 2018 KU graduate, then performed “Jolene,” originally written and performed by Dolly Parton. Though, her favorite cover of the song was performed by Jennifer Nettles and Pentatonix.

Alice Dzwill then read three of her original pieces of flash fiction, which are very short stories usually told in 350 words or less. “A Book Pitch” parodies parents who overreact to taking care of challenging children. 

“A Date With Destiny” tells the story of a girl who doesn’t want to spoil her future. Finally, “Heels in the Office” is a story based on Dzwill’s grandmother who quit her job because of the wage gap.

Saucedo ended with three songs, two of them originals. She covered Disney’s classic “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Her next song,  “The Perfect Kind of Fall,”  creatively combines the falling of leaves in autumn and falling in love. She finished by singing a song off her latest album “Silent Conversations” called “Blindside.”

Check out Lakin Saucedo at lakinmusic.com.