Gold Beams hosts a fire event at West Oakland’s Crucible

Gold Beams founder Tayleur Brown-Crenshaw addresses the Second Monday’s audience. – Photo: Brandon Robinson by Black on Both Sides High energy should be expected when you come to a Gold Beams Second Monday open mic. On March 11 Second Monday was hosted at Northern California’s only industrial arts school, The Crucible, located in West Oakland. The forges weren’t the only thing bringing heat as singers, dancers, spoken word artists and rappers showed up to share their art with the audience. From the moment host and founder Tayleur Brown-Crenshaw takes the stage, she is holding court and roaring in an East Coast brough with “Yeeeeeerp.” Sign ups for the open mic began at 6 p.m. for a 7 p.m. showtime, and were broken into two sections: open mic and closing cypher. DJ LowKii Ree provided the sounds for the night as each performer gave their best performance in five minutes. Judging the competition was BlackCitizen founder Theo Ellington, creative director Daghe Esoimeme and fellow Black on Both Sides cohort member chef Tirzah Love. While the open mic is the signature event the mission of Gold Beams at the core is to support artists looking for their chance to step outside of...