The Wood is Longwood University’s newest organization, a creative community which serves as a forum were artists, musicians, performers, photographers, models, poets, and any other creator can showcase their work and collaborate to create amazing works of art.

And I am a founding member.

The Wood is the brainchild of my friend Louis, a talented musician at WMLU radio who wanted to create a place for all of the talented students of Longwood University. As a founding member I contributed to laying the groundwork for the organization by helping to write our constitution and spreading the word to friends and classmates until we passed the minimum 8 member requirement. After a month of hard work, the Wood was official.

I have never had so much fun in a creative organization. The Wood’s first event was a free, on-campus photoshoot. Student photographers were invited to come out and take professional photographs of amateur models and their friends. I invited members of the 6 String Society to come out and have pictures taken with their guitars, and I brought my bass. We felt like rock stars posing with our guitars in some of the collect corners on Longwood’s campus. Keep an eye on the 6 String Society’s instagram page to see some of the shots.

In addition to photoshoots, the Wood also hosted a small hangout at Upchurch University Center. Between games of cornhole and giant Jenga we socialized and took more photographs. The best event was the open mic. Once again members of the 6 String Society showed up to sing and strum in what was just the first of many Wood concerts.

To close out the semester we decided to participate in VAMU, a Virginia photography festival which was taking place in Richmond this spring. I attended with my friend Moneá and modeled for some amateur and professional photographers.

Through the Wood I found out that I am surprisingly photogenic!