By Lyndsay Rinere | Staff Writer
On Thursday Feb. 6 at 8:00 p.m., the Salve Regina University Campus Activities Board (CAB) held The Love Notes Project in the DiStefano Lecture Hall located in the Antone Academic Center.
As you entered the lobby of Antone, four members of the Campus Activities Board handed you a raffle ticket and offered to fill out a card that began with “Love is…” as well as a table filled with heart shaped pizzas. Around fifty students showed up to the event for a night of music and insights on what love means to different people and the different stages of love in relationships and in life.
Overall, the setting was very raw and inviting—the front DiStefano lecture hall had two microphones, two stools, and a rack of three guitars on the stage, as well as a dreamy silver background lining the back of the room. Olivia Gormley ’17 came to this special CAB event because her friend suggested it and found out about it reading posters and advertisements around campus. “This event was really well advertised around campus,” says Gormley. “All of the posters were very informative of what the event was.”
The Love Notes Project is an event that promotes love and positivity with live music and sharing experiences. It is a newly founded organization and Salve Regina University was their first destination that the founders have ever traveled to. Rhei C. Gordon works as a domestic violence counselor and is also a singer for The Love Notes Project and. She wants to share her insights with as many people as possible and help everyone stand for love in relationships and the community and realize what it is and isn’t. Peter Prina, the co-founder of the project, as well as vocalist and guitarist, has worked in the music industry as a collaborator for twenty years, working with artists like Dave Matthews.
As the show began, Gordon explained that the presentation will be focusing on two types of love: romantic love, also known as the first stage of love in relationships which is when the couple makes each other promises that they may or may not keep. Prina and Gordon sang original songs, as well as covers such as “Gone, Gone, Gone” by Phillip Phillips, Prina also contributed with comedic remarks to Gordon’s more serious speeches to lighten up the mood.
Next, they talked about the mentally abusive relationships and how you may love your partner and believe that if you have not been physically harmed, it cannot be called abuse. Gordon also talked about how “I’m Sorry” has many meanings and sides to it, especially in an abusive relationship. After the very insightful and eye-opening discussion about toxic relationships, Mike Bell ‘16 comes to the stage to sing and play the guitar for the audience.
The third and final act of the show focused on the “pay off” of relationships and love, focusing on what happens when you put in the work—you end up with something magical. Prina and Gordon finish the show by singing “Home” originally by Edward Sharpe, followed by “Stand By Me” originally sung by Ben E. King; then went around the room asking people what they think love is. One student replied “love is always bestowed as a gift,” and another said, “Love is caring about someone more than yourself.”
