LaCava-Bohanan said Minecraft stood out as an obvious top choice when members of Brown Esports, a student organization devoted to online gaming, expressed willingness to work with the BAI. Previously, envisioning a virtual space where students could meet up with friends, students in the group had worked with dozens of undergraduates, graduate students and alumni to finish building a three-dimensional replica of the entire University campus in the gaming platform.

For the new series, the students “cut out” the College Green portion of their replica and teamed up with Dolan to transform it into a whimsical concert venue. They laid a stage on the grass near the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, set up a sound booth and even added a giant Blueno statue. They created some eccentric details they think will be popular with concertgoers, including a boxing ring and a porta-potty that transports users to a thrilling roller coaster ride.

“As a performer, virtual livestreams never excited me,” Dolan said. “To go from a concert venue to me, by myself, facing my webcam — the bigness and the spectacle and the excitement and even the intimacy are missing. It turns out Minecraft fills those voids really well. You have the opportunity to interact with others and observe their reactions. At my first Minecraft concert, people were really excited to visit the bathrooms and look at themselves in the mirror. It’s all those little details we used to take for granted that really bring the experience to life.”

Dolan explained that users will get the full concert experience by tuning in to an audio livestream on Twitch while simultaneously exploring the Minecraft venue. While all of the performers’ sets will be pre-recorded, many of them will still be present in real time, moving and “playing” onstage as Minecraft users. 

Lumumba-Kasongo said the series has the potential to make Minecraft more accessible to people of all backgrounds and experience levels. With the hope that events like these might open many more minds to the endless possibilities of gaming, she and her colleagues created a website that walks users through the process of purchasing and downloading Minecraft, accessing the server and moving around the environment. 

“While it’s true that many game environments have been hostile to queer communities, people of color and women, there are ways in which those communities have still managed to thrive and have fun in gaming environments and subvert traditional ideas of power,” she said. “There are wonderful examples of the ways games can bring unlikely groups of people together and bring new perspectives to complicated subjects. Discovering gaming has been empowering for me, and I want others to experience that same empowerment.”

The first concert in the series will take place on Saturday, March 27. The Minecraft server opens and the stream begins at 7 p.m., with performances by Moor Mother, Du Yun, Suzi Analogue and San Cha beginning at 8 p.m. After the show, the performers will gather for a discussion about developing an onstage identity and persona. More information is available on the Events at Brown website.