Coburn Palmer / Roundup
About 200 people came out Monday afternoon to the open mic event in the Great Hall, to listen to musical artists, poetry readings and watch short films.
Direction Magazine, the Pierce College literary magazine, hosted an open mic event on Monday to raise funds and promote awareness. 24 performers were on stage doing everything from lip syncing and freestyle rap, to acoustic guitar playing and poetry reading.
Prizes were given out to performers, including a $50 Best Buy gift card, a $30 Starbuck card and a $20 Jamba Juice card.
Poet Celine McClurkin started out the event with her quote from the movie “Colored Girls”: “Being black is a metaphysical dilemma”.
Kim Quinn a guitarist who has played at local bars and festivals also stopped by to sing a Bob Dylan cover song.
“I wanted a little more experience,” Quinn said.
Direction magazine is open to anyone who would like to publish their artwork. This includes poetry, short stories, still pictures and short films. Artists and writers are encouraged to submit their pieces to professor Maria Bates by email at pierce.direction@hotmail.com as an attachment.
“We just want people to submit,” said sophomore Eva Murray. “We want our magazine to be filled with Pierce College. Everyone here is so artistic.”
The magazine comes out once a year during the first week of school. The deadline for acceptance into the next edition is Dec. 15, submissions received after this date will go into the next edition.
English 32 is the production class charged with creating this magazine. Students in the class accept, and reject work as well as work with authors to better their submissions.
“We have some very good poetry people,” said editor in chief Heather Glendenning.
