Students react to café closure

After learning that the Ground Zero Performance Café will be closing at the end of this semester, Nina Lu, a freshman majoring in screenwriting, reflected on her opportunity to speak to USC alumnus Alec Benjamin, a singer-songwriter who now has more than 13 million monthly listeners on Spotify, about their shared love of the cafe. Lu told the Daily Trojan that Benjamin had visited the cafe a couple of weeks ago and told her about what Ground Zero means to him.

“He said that [Ground Zero] was his first place where he could perform live and that it was a special place, and that really stuck with me,” Lu said. “I feel like a lot of us can get our start at Ground Zero, but that’s getting taken away.”

In December 2022, two unoccupied residence halls, Marks Hall and Trojan Residence Hall, are set to be demolished along with Ground Zero. Since its reopening in 2018, Ground Zero has been home to a weekly “Open Mic Night” and monthly “First Friday” events that give USC students a space to perform their music, poetry and comedy and share their visual art.

In the past month, many regular attendees of the Ground Zero Performance Café heard through word of mouth that the cafe would be closing permanently after this semester, though no formal announcement was made. When Lu first heard the news, she thought it was a joke.

“I was just at Ground Zero one Monday, and I overheard it from a friend that was like, ‘Oh, they’re tearing this place down,’” Lu said. 

When she realized it was not a joke after a Ground Zero manager confirmed the rumor, Lu immediately created a petition through Change.org titled, “STOP USC FROM TEARING DOWN GROUND ZERO.” The petition has garnered over 200 signatures at time of publication, and Lu suspects it was an announcement in itself to the many students who hadn’t heard the news.

Quentin Dean, a freshman majoring in psychology, heard the news from Lu directly and said he was shocked. 

“[Ground Zero] is really being used by students,” Dean said. “There’s a clear audience for that sort of thing.”

Through the petition, Lu hopes to highlight the level of student engagement the cafe has had.

“I just wanted to show the University that this place mattered,” Lu said. “We actually cared about it.” 

For many students, Ground Zero has served as what Jaren Savage, a junior majoring in international relations, describes as a “safe space to go and connect.”  

“For many, many people, it was an extremely safe space. Nobody judged each other. We’d all just share what we’re working on and just encourage and give feedback,” Savage said.

Since the start of the fall semester, Savage has been performing his music for the cafe and is now working on his first music video, directed by a friend he met through Ground Zero. The cafe was also the first place Savage had ever performed his original music. 

“Without Ground Zero, I wouldn’t have any of the learning opportunities or performance opportunities that I’ve had,” Savage said.  

As both a performer and a regular attendee, Dean similarly shared that when a performer gets on stage, they’re met with a very “receptive” and “supportive” audience that helps get rid of nerves. 

“Everyone’s nervous a bit, but the nerves completely go away once you’re on stage, and you realize it’s not that big of a deal,” Dean said, “Everyone’s there because they want to see what you’re doing.”

Lu said Ground Zero is especially unique in providing a space for students of color to find community and be creative.

“It’s like the first place I’ve seen where a lot of people of color I know have gathered there and are able to show off their art,” Lu said, “I don’t know another space on campus like that.”