Student Media Showcase
Showing through January 2025
Student media at VCU is big and broad–from legacy publications like the student newspaper that’s been around since the school was formed to cutting-edge digital publications. The Student Media Center houses eight student-run media organizations available on various media platforms — newspaper, radio, literary and arts journals, digital only-publications, video, comics and more. These outlets have won an avalanche of national and local awards for excellence in collegiate work.
The Student Media Center and its organizations exist to unite the diverse VCU community by sharing unique student voices and viewpoints through a variety of media platforms. The student-run media outlets provide public forums where student leaders foster inclusive, respectful, collaborative and creative environments.
A portion of the Student Activity Fee, which is part of the annual student bill, primarily funds the Student Media Center. As such, these publications are free to all students. Likewise, all students are welcome to get involved—there are no year or major requirements.
This Cabell Screen exhibit features work from student media published in 2023-24. A future exhibit will feature student media work from 2024-25.
- Amendment was started in 2004 and is focused on social progress through literature and art. Amendment’s purpose statement includes: “Provoke thoughtful conversation and inspire artists to develop conscientiousness and self-expression regarding issues of gender, sexuality, race, class, power and ability through diverse approaches and genres.”
- Annum Arcanum is an atelier and annual anthology archiving arcane artworks. Annum Arcanum is a new organization founded in the Fall of 2023, publishing its first collection in 2024. The goal of this publication is two-fold. First, it showcases works that are experimental, niche, or otherwise outside of the mainstream. The organization also strives to be a resource for students to develop their skills as artists.
- Emanata, launched in 2014, is a student-run publication dedicated to uplifting the comics community at VCU and the greater Richmond area by providing avenues for comics artists to publish their work in an anthology. It is published annually in print and online.
- The Commonwealth Times is a student-led and student-produced media organization that has been serving the Virginia Commonwealth University campuses at Monroe Park and MCV since 1969.
- The Compass is an orientation guide published annually.
- Ink Magazine was started in 1978 as a Black student publication named Reflections in Ink. In the 1990s, the publication was renamed The Vine. In 2008, the magazine became Ink. Ink’s current mission statement is: “The magazine is devoted to the goals of diversity and multiculturalism that VCU itself embodies. Our goal is to reach the subcultures, the outsiders and those who feel unrepresented in print form.”
- Pwatem is an anthology of literature and art from undergraduate students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Pwatem publishes poetry, prose and art of all kinds from talented undergraduate students of all majors. Pwatem’s title comes from James Branch Cabell’s series of novels and other works titled Biography of the Life of Manuel. The setting of all the works is the fictional province of France, Poictesme (pwa-tem). Cabell lived and died in Richmond.
- River City Fashion Magazine is an online fashion and style website that reports local events but also details style trends while uncovering local design talent.
Artists, in the order their work appears in the exhibit, are:
- Viktoria Fisher; Commonwealth Times, Oct. 2, 2024
- Trinity Bui; Annum Arcanum, Vol. 0, May 2024
- LightPainterr; Amendment, 2024
- Johnnie Watkins; Commonwealth Times, Sept. 18, 2024
- Lily Belleville; Pwatem, Spring 2024
- Marty Alexeenko; Ink Magazine, Vol. 16, Issue 2
- Beck Kallenburg; Emanata, Vol. 11
- Koby McCray; Commonwealth Times, Sept. 4, 2024
- Summer Deciucis; River City Fashion, Vol. 1, Issue 1
- Mallory Laign; Pwatem, Spring 2024
- Cam DiVenere; Commonwealth Times, Aug. 21, 2024
- Reese Cilley; Pwatem, Spring 2024
- Madeline Trice; Annum Arcanum, Vol. 0, May 2024
- Victor Romanko; Commonwealth Times, Oct. 2, 2024
- Isaiah Mamo; Ink Magazine, Vol. 16, Issue 2
- Aiden Dvalidze; Emanata, Vol. 11
- Kade McGrail; Amendment, 2024
- Lillian Prichard; Pwatem, Spring 2024
- Sophia Rahnama; Commonwealth Times, Sept. 18, 2024
- Summer Deciucis; River City Fashion, Vol. 1, Issue 1
- Killian Goodale Porter; Commonwealth Times, Aug. 21, 2024
- Sarah Harvey; Emanata, Vol. 11
- Kirsten Sturgill; Pwatem, Spring 2024
- Aiswarya Anil; Amendment, 2024
- Shannon Fritz; Commonwealth Times, Sept. 18, 2024
- Killian Goodale Porter; The Compass, Summer 2024
- Tessa Coleman; Pwatem, Spring 2024
- Isaiah Mamo; Ink, Vol. 16, Issue 2
- Emily Belson; The Compass, Summer 2024
- Liz DeFluri; Commonwealth Times, Sept. 4, 2024