Lighting of the Commons 2025

Last night was the Oklahoma Christian University annual lighting of the commons. Several vendors and organizations had booths in the pavilion, along with Santa Claus and hot cocoa in the student center. Every year, Soundings organizes the lighting of the commons to raise money for their annual journal publication of student literary and visual arts from the school year.

According to the official Soundings website;

“Soundings is a literary and visual arts journal that serves as a creative outlet for the students, faculty, and alumni of Oklahoma Christian University. We publish annually in the spring through the Department of Language and Literature and the Rho Mu chapter of Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society.”

Evangeline Golden, a junior majoring in English and writing, is this year’s senior editor of Soundings. Golden oversees the organization of lighting of the commons along with all Soundings management and events over the year. The publication highlights the submissions of Oklahoma Christian community members.

“We take photography, visual art, we’re adding a miscellaneous category for sculpture, robotics, that sort of thing, and also written things like poetry and short stories and stuff,” Golden said. 

“I want to amplify students’ voices and give them the opportunity to feel like their creativity is being recognized… and I think it’s really good historically, to capture sort of the tone of that year and what the student body was feeling.”

Soundings partners with Oklahoma Christian to host the lighting of the commons as a fundraiser for their spring journal publication.

“Really lighting of the commons is just how we get our funding. We kind of partner with OC, we organize it, and then each of the vendors pays a fee to have their booths for the evening, and so we get to keep the revenue from all the vendors that evening,” Golden said. “And it’s good for the university just to have it, you get a lot of people from the community, there are lots of local businesses who then have a good relationship with OC.”

Josh Bailey, director of graduate student services, attended tonight’s lighting of the commons as a vendor. 

“The best of Christmas all in one night,” Bailey said. “I’ve worked at OC 14 years now, but I did my undergrad here. I got an undergrad degree in biology. I met my wife here and graduated in ‘99 and I’m so blessed to come back here and work full time. It’s been wonderful.”

The Soundings lighting of the commons is a way that the Oklahoma Christian community comes together every year to celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season. 

“Soundings has been around a long time. It was around in the 90s when I was a student, and yeah, I really appreciate them just kind of working hard to push good academics and development within students to do things that they didn’t think that they could do, maybe, and pushing them to to grow and to be more than they thought they could be,” Bailey said. 

Savannah Mincey, an Oklahoma Christian alum and owner of The Tailgate Boutique attended the Soundings lighting of the commons as a vendor. 

“Soundings has always been a pleasure to work with. They’re always encouraging me to come out, which I don’t need encouragement. I come every time, but it always makes me feel good, that I feel welcomed. I love that it’s a student led organization. I always love pouring back into the Alma Mater that poured into me as for expressing myself. That’s what the whole Boutique is about,” Mincey said “I grew up as a plus size girl, and that’s a really marginalized part of the community, and a lot of people don’t realize that until they put their foot in our shoes. And so I just decided, You know what? Like, I can’t sit here and be in a complaining mindset if I’m not willing to be part of the solution. And so that’s why the tailgate Boutique is here, so that we can offer cute pieces to women of all sizes.”