The Woove Launch

An open mic on Wednesday, October 19th launched this semester’s first publication by The Woove. The Woove is the literary and art publication affiliated with the student run radio station, WUVT. Julia Lattimer, editor of The Woove, hosted the event at XYZ Art Gallery in downtown Blacksburg.

The newly published edition of the Woove was available for guests. It featured six poems and eight artistic pieces, and many of the contributors were in attendance. Students mingled and walked through the gallery, speaking to the poets and admiring the artwork from the magazine hanging in the gallery. An exquisite corpse (a way of writing in which individuals write one line under the previous person’s line to collaboratively tell story) hung on the wall in one of the small gallery rooms.

Jessica Walker, Layne Mandros, and Aidan Kincaid read their published poems during the open mic portion of the evening, and several others took advantage of the small crowd to read or perform spoken pieces as well. A solitary microphone placed in front of the audience seated on the floor created an intimate atmosphere as these artists shared their work. Two performers rapped, a few read favorite poems or requested poets, and many read what they had accessible off their phones or in their backpacks. The relaxed, friendly attitudes of the audience contributed to the intimate atmosphere – people were comfortable and willing to listen to anyone who wanted to speak.

The theme of the edition was “trash,” and the cover art of the magazine featured an arm pulling a large trashcan into the frame. While the cover art showed literal trash, contributors used the theme liberally and wrote about emotional pain, physical stains, endangered bees, and other personal responses to “trash.”

Donations were accepted for the new addition of The Woove, and the launch succeeded in getting the name of the publication out into the creative community.