by Zenobia Harris

Dozens of VSU students flooded Whitehead Auditorium last Friday night as Media Arts Geniuses prepared to host their 3rd Annual Evening of Geniuses awards show.

VSU students arrived dressed to impress for the show which featured a variety of live performances and awards. The show was hosted by David Burdette and Marissa Daniels, both members of Media Arts Geniuses.

Before the show, members of MAG and performers spent hours getting ready backstage, rehearsing and preparing for the show to begin. Catherine Ray, the event coordinator for MAG, was one of the busiest people that evening. However, she kept a level head and was quite eager to see the group’s months of hard work unfold, even though they had less time to prepare for the show than usual.

“We started preparing, I think at the end of January, and it was crunch time after that. We usually have at least 3 or 4 months to work on it and this time it was like a month and a half, and we had to push it out,” Ray said.

Ray says that nobody expected the show to become as big as it has in such a short amount of time, but she has high hopes for the show in the future.

“It all started, kinda like we didn’t know it was gonna be an annual thing,” Ray said. “We were just like ‘let’s do an awards show for students.’ It happens for the Grammy’s. It happens for all these actors and stuff like that. Let’s do it for the students.

“And when we started it, we didn’t know it was gonna be that big. After the first year, we were like we have to go bigger,” Ray said.

The show featured a combination of live and filmed performances by MAG members including two rap cyphers, poetry, dancing, singing, and even a skit entitled “Selfish Wayez,” which was performed by MAG members Carla Paige, Mikey Sanders and Brandon Preston.

Some of the award recipients on Friday night included Collegiate Men of VSU for “Favorite Student Organization,” Hall vs. Hall Stroll Off for “Favorite Event of The Year,” Juwan Andrews and Ashleigh Mansfield for “Mr. and Miss Superlative,” and the award for Humanitarian and Lifetime Achievement was given to Samantha Lewis and Dr. Shirley Hardin, the director of the African American Studies department.

Other categories included Favorite Live Performer, Best Photographer and Cinematographer, Favorite Residence Hall, and Favorite Fraternity and Sorority.

The award show is only in its third year, but it has already grown quite a lot in popularity and has been held in Whitehead Auditorium for the second year in a row.

Tomeisha Williams, sophomore Sociology major, says that it was her first time going to EOG, and she is definitely looking forward to going again next year.

“I loved it!” Williams said. “My favorite part was the second rap cypher. I think Carla Paige is on my list of favorite rappers. I would (come back). It was great this time. I only expect it to go up.”