On Friday night at the Rose Art Museum, SCRAM and BAMCO joined forces to host an after-hours Winter Coffeehouse concert. SCRAM is a group of students that works with the Rose Art Museum to plan events and BAMCO discovers and brings musicians from a diverse set of backgrounds to campus. The performance was surrounded by the magnificent works in Dora García’s exhibit, “Love with Obstacles.”

In an interview with the Justice, SCRAM President Alex Shoshani ’22 said, “We do a concert with BAMCO most semesters. This particular semester, we wanted to focus on female performers because Dora Garcia’s work is inspired by really amazing women.” The audience saw three performances: a Boston-based singer-songwriter called oomph!, Brooklyn comedy duo OLGA and an acoustic set from the on-campus band Sproutfit.

The first act was oomph! Her songs were original compositions, except for her finale, which was a cover of a song by ABBA. The tone of her songs and the acoustic performance created a sense of intimacy and vulnerability. In between songs, she cracked jokes and talked to the audience, making her set more interactive. As time progressed, more people were attracted by the performance and continued to crowd into the room.

The second performance was the comedy duo OLGA. Two millennial women, their set was largely targeted towards women of the same age group and was composed of sarcastic quips about feminism and politics. Nonetheless, the audience — containing people of all ages and genders — was laughing.

Last, but certainly not least, was Brandeis’ own Sproutfit, an indie pop band. In addition to singing original music, the students played the guitar, cello, keyboard and cajón. The combination of these instruments created a unique sound, giving the performance a laid-back mood. During the performance, some audience members subtly tapped their feet to the rhythm and immersed themselves completely in the world of music. 

I thought that the event was an interesting experience. Before Friday night, I had never seen a female comedian live, which made the event a first for me. The novelty of the experience and supporting female comics made the show meaningful for me. Besides, I appreciate the value of exposing myself to local talent — both on and off campus. You never know where people go in life, and I’d like to think to myself, “Hey, I got to see so-and-so before they were famous.” Thank you, SCRAM and BAMCO, for the wonderful opportunity.

I adored the fact that the concert was planned so that the audience would watch predominantly female-led performances in the context of Dora García’s art. In other words, the concert supported female artists in more ways than one. I believe that female representation — women celebrating women — is important and relevant in our current socio-political climate. García’s art made it so that the concert was not only an opportunity to enjoy music but also an opportunity to assess society beyond our college campus. While OLGA directly told the audience about intersectional feminism, I believe oomph! showed it by creating her path in society as a young woman. As members of society, a small but significant thing we can do is support women’s voices. As Shoshani said, “We just really want to be able to work with the progressive work that Dora [García] has done, and this was a really fun way to do it.”