By Daniel A. Shyti

Before Monday, March 5, I didn’t know very much about Volition, GMU’s art and literary magazine.  To be completely honest, I didn’t even know we had one.  But with events like last Monday’s open-mic night, the magazine staffers are hoping to change that.

“We’re trying to revamp our image,” said Hannah Wing, 21, a junior biology major and co-editor in chief of the Magazine.  “Really, we want to let people know who we are, considering we don’t even have much of an image to begin with.”

Volition tried hosting an open-mic night last year, but only four people attended and they were all on the magazine staff.  This year’s event, however, brought in approximately 50 people to hear original music, prose, and poetry.

After last year’s failure, the staff worked really hard to draw a crowd. Co-editor-in-chief Katherine Morgenegg says that in addition to promoting it on their blog and Facebook page — they made flyers, did commercials on GMU’s radio station and the school’s cable network — and they put an ad in the Broadside.

A variety of acts shared the Johnson Center Bistro stage, from bedroom poets and guitar pluckers to rehearsed musical acts like Scary Mercedes. Now, the magazine is already planning another event.

“We’ve really wanted to do a slam poetry competition,” said Katherine, 20, a junior majoring in Russian Language and Creative Writing. “We kind of gave the idea a test drive with the open-mic night.  We’ll definitely have more events like this in the future.”

Volition is planning to print their 13th volume this Spring.  If you would like to contribute to the magazine, submit your original work to volition@gmu.edu by April 4.  Submission details can be found at volitionmagazine.onmason.com.