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Back to Artwork Pop Art Back to Sections Jaylen Lodge - Pop Art By Jaylen Lodge January 14, 2022 Acrylic Volume 2 Issue 3

Back to Articles Art & Culture Back to Sections Turkey the bird and Turkey the Nation By Kubra Beskardes Volume 1 Issue 2 November 24, 2020 Image provided by Boris Stroujko Turk - The word originally means “strength” though it’s not clear where it came from and it changed meaning during the time. To Persians it meant “barbarian,” but now it means “a person of Turkic origin,” so it does not only consist of “Turkish” people. In Turkey, we call ourselves just “Turks” because the direct translation of Turkish would be “Turkce” which is the language we speak, and a fun fact? It’s actually not Turkey, it’s Turkiye , the land of the Turks, so probably not many Turks would know that around the world, their country shares its name with a bird. Turkey the bird originated in the Americas and Turks originated in Central Asia and by the time the bird took this name, they were in Anatolia. This seems so irrelevant, but the story goes like this; Turkish merchants sold some wild fowls from either Africa or India to Europeans, and Europeans called the bird “Turkey (coq) Rooster” and Turkey for short. When they landed in the New World, they saw another bird of a totally different species and called it also turkey because they both looked similarly funny. So it remained “turkey.” Another fun fact? Turks call this bird “hindi” because we thought it originated from India. Eating turkey is not that common in Turkey. Not that we specifically don’t eat it, but because we are foreign to the bird or it’s foreign to us, Turks don’t want to eat something they don’t know. Personally, I only like turkey when it’s sliced and in between two breads; otherwise, I would not prefer it. But this whole story brings a question to the mind: when Europeans came to the Americas during the 15th and 16th centuries, back then Turks were under the name “Ottomans” not Turkey, because Ottomans consisted of many ethnicities so I would be wrong to call it Turkey. Turkey was formed in 1923, and – well - maybe they just went with “Turks Rooster or Turkish Rooster,” then it became just “turkey” over time. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Art Back to Sections Meaning of Lines from Different Perspectives By Nehilah Grand-Pierre Volume 1 Issue 1 November 1, 2020 Original artwork by Nehilah Grand-Pierre What is line? Though seemingly a simple question, the answer may vary depending on whom you ask. To the math teacher, line is the geometric building block of polygons, the diameter of a circle, or y=mx+b. To the English teacher, line is the story, or “story line”, that guides a story from conflicts, through climax, and finally resolving in the end. Yet to the history teacher, line is time, or timeline, that we study to learn from the past to develop our future. It is evident that “line” is awfully vague, but the art teacher truly defines line. To the art teacher, line is defined by the artist, able to bend and flex at the stroke of a paintbrush or pencil. To the art teacher, line has endless meaning, and endless masterpieces that can be brought from it. This is the importance of art… exactly what the artist makes it. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections Black Lives Matter: Effects of Social Movement on Social Media By Nehilah Grand-Pierre Volume 1 Issue 4 January 20, 2021 Image provided by The Pew Research Center June 2nd, 2020 started as each day of quarantine did, resisting the urge to check Instagram first thing in the morning. Yet, this day was different. Unlike the previous days of quarantine posts, there were no whipped coffee or at-home workouts shared. There were only black squares, from classmates and friends to celebrities like Rihanna, and companies such as Apple and Netflix. According to Forbes, there were already 28 million black squares hashtagged “ #blackouttuesday ” by 11:14 am that morning. So, I posted mine, perhaps out of sheer obligation, but asking myself if that really helped. What is Black Out Tuesday? The reason behind this mass sharing of nothing for the day was because June 2nd marked one week since the passing of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man murdered by the white police officer, Derek Chauvin, captured on the viral video which shows Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck. Instagram was not the only platform on which users demonstrated a viral response to the tragedy. However, Researchers at Pew concluded that from May 26th to June 7th, #BlackLivesMatter was used 47.8 million times on Twitter alone. “George Floyd's death was filmed, but he still died” states Sasha Smalls, 17-year-old high school senior, and President of the Black Student Union here at Valley Stream North High School. “The filming hasn’t changed anything other than the fact that more people can see it in real time.” Now, it just isn’t that the world is watching, but also reacting, as on May 28th 2020, 8.8 million Twitter users shared post tagged with #BlackLivesMatter while protests began to emerge across the country, and the globe. The Difference With the advent of social media, movements like Black Lives Matter are able to gain traction fast, and with a larger audience than ever before. “The use of social media has evolved from simple conversations” says Tomi Akitunde, the head writer of MaterMae, an online resource with articles and aids for black mothers, which strides to educate others on the black community; the MaterMae Instagram page currently has over twelve thousand followers. “People are using it to be seen and say things they might’ve thought but never felt comfortable speaking out loud because they didn’t have people in their immediate community who felt like them or looked like the way they did. Now they have the whole world to listen to them”. Instagram and Twitter offer the opportunity for more people to get involved, with news coming in faster than experienced by any previous generation. “These social issues have become a part of our day to day lives” states Akitunde. “Now everything is right there because of social media. Now celebrities are involved, it's in your face”. The video of George Floyd’s death perhaps was the most in-your-face example of police brutality, a key conflict that the Black Lives Matter movement seeks to eradicate. Though the Black Lives Matter movement began in 2016 when the murder of Treyvon Martin occurred, more people have been forced to join the conversation in 2020 because of how undeniably graphic George Floyd’s death video was, whether they agreed it was worth protesting against or not. The Day Everything Changed Though Floyd’s death did not mark the first instance of a black man dying at the hands of police officers, June 2nd marked the first day of the change in atmosphere that has been present on Instagram. #TheShowMustBeStopped , another hashtag shared on Black Out Tuesday, highlights that change needed to be brought to Instagram in order to provide space for black voices and stories, as the hashtag #Amplifyblackvoices went viral as well. This shift in attitude presented on Black Out Tuesday demonstrated lasting effects. Instagram users continue to use their accounts to share infographics, petitions, links and other helpful resources months after George Floyd’s death. Posts from pages like @soyouwanttotalkabout and @chnge appear on Instagram stories, as educating others has almost become the new trend of Instagram, and both pages now have a combined following of over 4.1 million. “If I want to know how I can help out or educate myself, all I have to do is click on an Instagram story” states Smalls. “I was scrolling through Instagram 3 days ago like a normal gen-z teen, and I followed @chnge , so it came up. I stopped and I read the story without having to get up and go watch the news. Just as though I was trying to check up on Kylie Jenner, I could read about something that could affect my community.” There have been negative effects from the educational atmosphere that has seemed to present itself onto Instagram, however, despite its benefits of bringing important social issues to light. “People are finding a community, but at the same token, there’s this really polarized ‘I’m right you're wrong’ [and] no room for different viewpoints. Everything is very extreme because Black Lives Matter is a matter of life or death” states Akitunde. “Those infographics are really good at making people want to tag and share. The dangerous thing is when they are not sourced. I had to educate this woman I went to high school with once, because she shared something saying ‘Hey White People if you want to be a good ally stop saying black lives matter...what you need to say is this:...’. The source was an organization that doesn’t exist”. Allyship Though non-black POC and white allies may have the best intentions, sharing information on any social media platform should be done with caution. “Being a good ally is not something you call yourself, someone in the community has to bestow it upon you and it's also something you constantly have to be working at” tells Akitunde. The importance of allyship, however, doesn’t negate the fact that there still needs to be space left for black voices, though speaking up might be frightening. “I would love to have more white people, and republicans join the BSU meetings” Smalls says. “When I upload something like ‘Black Lives Matter’ to the BSU Instagram, I don’t want to push out potential club members.” The Takeaway Instagram has been a space where users can present the best of themselves (by literally posting their highlight reels), and display themselves through their pictures and captions. However, when the show must be stopped, social movements cause users to respond. Though selfies have been replaced by petitions, and VSCO links by www.blacklivesmatters.cardd.co/ , posting a black square is not enough to evoke change, and shouldn’t be thought of as such. “This kind of performative activism, where some people think that just posting a black screen with a hashtag is enough to evoke change, some of these people only do it because they don’t want to be hated on by those around them and then they go back to doing something that doesn’t help the movement” Smalls states. Therefore, it is not what the screen says that will push social change, but rather the character of that person behind the screen. Instagram may now provide the resources, but it is still the responsibility of the user to want to push the social movement beyond the walls of social media, and truly make the work happen, and the world a better place. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Art & Culture Back to Sections Eid al-Fitr and Ramadan By Charis Hackman Volume 1 Issue 8 June 8, 2021 Image provided by Creative World UK The Culture Society talked about Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, two special holidays for those who follow the religion of Islam. These Holidays are observed through prayer and fasting. Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar, a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. The holiday is a commemoration of Muhammad's first revelation. Ramadan is also regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam and lasts twenty-nine to thirty days. One of the main traditions during Ramadan is fasting or not eating, called swam in Arabic; basically Muslims are forbidden to eat, drink, or smoke during the day and can eat when it is dark out. But Muslims who are or seriously ill, elderly, breastfeeding, diabetic, or menstruating don’t have to fast. The main point behind fasting is that Muslims practice discipline and self-control and is good practice for showing restraint for the rest of the year. On a usual day during Ramadan, families have to get up very early, before the sun comes up, and have a predawn meal called Sahūr . When the sun comes up, they do their morning prayers and the fast begins. Once the sun sets, family and friends gather for a meal called iftar , they then break their fast with water, milk and three dates, a type of sweet fruit and then eat dinner together. Charity or Zakāt  in Arabic, is also an important tradition, while people are fasting, they are encouraged to give as much as they can and a percentage of their income to the poor and do as many good deeds as possible. Eid al-Fitr Eid al-Fitr also called the "Festival of Breaking the Fast", or simply Eid, is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. Since, Islam is one of the largest religions in the world, each region has different ways to celebrate Eid. Eid al-Fitr lasts 3 days where people dress up, preform special prayers, greet each other with “Eid Mubarak,” meaning “Blessed Eid” and with formal embraces, visit family, friends, and family graves, and exchange gifts, like sweet foods, eidia  offerings in money bags, and games for children. Muslim families give donations to the poor, known as Zakat al-Fitr, or charity of fast-breaking in Arabic, normally with food like barley, rice, dates were given, instead of money. In countries where Muslims make up most of the population, the three-day Eid celebration is an official government and school holiday. “Some families even decorate their houses with lights, candles, and colored banners”. Muslims families also hold celebration with friends and family preparing and eating dinner with special dishes, desserts, and other foods together. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Entertainment & Media Back to Sections My Favorite Anime/Manga (By Women!) By Zoie James Volume 1 Issue 6 March 18, 2021 Image provided by Amazon When quarantine first started, my passion for anime grew; I would binge-watch seasons of anime or even finish an entire series in one day. Many teens at our school have an interest in anime like myself, so I decided to write a list of anime and manga written by women since it’s Women’s History Month! Toradora! by Yuyuko Takemiya Toradora! describes the story of Taiga Aisaka and Ryuji Takasu, two high schoolers who have crushes on each other’s best friends. They agree to help each other woo their crushes while dealing with other chaotic predicaments and experiences at their high school. Will Taiga and Ryuji win their crushes’ hearts, or will they end up finding love elsewhere? Kids on the Slope by Yuki Kodama Kaoru Nishimi, the new student, doesn’t have many friends and keeps to himself often. When Kaoru first meets classmate Sentaro Kawabuchi, Kaoru is not too fond of Sentaro because of his bad reputation; however, after meeting Ritsuko Mukae, Sentaro’s best friend, she takes Kaoru to her family’s music store – where they find Sentaro playing the drums to jazz music! Ritsuko asks Kaoru to play the piano along with Sentaro’s drums, but Kaoru refuses at first. However, after playing together, Kaoru and Sentaro develop a friendship, and Kaoru slowly comes out of his shell. Kids on the Slope shows how music can bring different people together and helps others find joy during the toughest of times. Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi Kagome Higurashi, a middle schooler from Tokyo, falls down a well at her family shrine – and wakes up in Japan’s Sengoku Period. Kagome then meets the half-demon Inuyasha after she accidentally shatters the Shikon Jewel, and the shards scatter all throughout Japan. In this anime, Kagome and Inuyasha go on dangerous and mystical adventures to find all the shards of the Shikon Jewel before Naraku, an evil half-demon, snatches the jewel from them. Noragami (Stray God) by Adachitoka Hiyori Iki had a normal middle school life until she got hit by a bus while trying to save a stranger in the middle of the road - but the stranger is not human. He is the nameless god, Yato, who wants someone in the human world to make a shrine for him and hopes that Hiyori will do so when he offers to fix her body. Hiyori’s soul left her body after the bus accident; she can still use her human body, but Hiyori’s soul often leaves her body uncontrollably. After befriending Yato, Hiyori goes on many adventures with him and his friend Yukine while meeting other gods in their town. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun by Izumi Tsubaki Chiyo Sakura confesses her love to fellow student Umetaro Nozaki; in response, Umetaro gives Chiyo an autograph and asks her to work with him. He takes her to his apartment, where Chiyo later realizes that Umetaro is the manga author Sakiko Yumeno and agrees to take the job as his assistant for his latest manga, Let’s Fall in Love, where Umetaro and Sakura use students at their school as influences for the characters. Chiyo sees this as an opportunity to get closer to Umetaro, and hopefully confess her feelings to him once again – will they stay friends, or fall for each other? BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Nightmare on Main Street Back to Sections Nightmare on Main Street- Isabella Mascetti Isabella Mascetti November 6, 2023 Pen Volume 4 Issue 1

Back to Articles Entertainment & Media Back to Sections The Holiday Season and Representation By Alain Deen Volume 3 Issue 2 December 23, 2022 Image provided by Elaine Ching The modern holiday season occurs during the months of November through early January. Most notably, the holiday season encompasses Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Thanksgiving. It is also associated with a rigid increase in shopping, sales, and marketing. Furthermore, the holiday season has faced immense commercialization throughout the years, with industries developing a stark desire for profit. The film and media industry are primary culprits of this concept, often prioritizing profit margin in contrast to producing films which appeal to a variety of audiences, especially in the United States. This is ironic, especially considering the diverse populace of modern United States. With various races, ethnicities, and religions inhabiting the United States, it is utterly crucial to adhere to the representation and portrayal of minorities within these groups In a 2018 Variety article, the Motion Picture Association of America conducted a study to identify the spread of racial demographics in terms of movie-going. The MPPA’s report highlighted that Latinos, which represent about 18% of the U.S population, composed 24% of consistent moviegoers. Additionally, Asians fall not too far behind, accounting for 8% of frequent moviegoers. It is worth noting that Asians represent only 6% of the U.S population, as well. Caucasians, comprising 61% of the U.S population, amounted to 54% of consistent moviegoers. The study also demonstrated the ever-growing popularity of film culture among minority audiences across the United States, with the number of frequent African American moviegoers doubling to 5.6 million in contrast to the year prior. Of particular interest, film culture is only expanding across marginalized audiences within the United States, as the film industry begins to implement representational techniques in writing, casting, and directing to efficiently entertain the U.S populace. Therefore, there seems to be an increasing need for the film industry to represent and depict stories regarding the lesser-known holidays of the holiday season. To properly evaluate the necessity of representational films regarding minority-based holidays, it is best to analyze specific examples and determine their ineffectiveness in providing audiences with memorable content and even nostalgia. Specifically, seasonal films most often involve Christmas with subtle Hanukkah sublots to ensure a sense of “inclusivity.” However, to actually represent and appeal to the Jewish population, it is crucial to include the cultural values of Hanukkah itself. When most people think of Jewish holiday films, their minds might drift to Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights. In short, the film involves Davey Stone, a 33-year-old party animal who finds himself in trouble with the law. For one last chance at redemption, the judge allows Davey to the spend the holiday season performing community service as an assistant referee for a local youth basketball league, or else he heads to jail. With a severely underwhelming IMDB rating of 5.3/10, Eight Crazy Nights proves to be a massive flop for Jewish audiences across the nation. Rotten Tomatoes reviews are no help either, with critics calling the film distasteful, stereotypical, unwatchable, and offensive. This is a prime example of the necessity of the film industry to develop rich, authentic, stories regarding Hanukkah, effectively and sensitively representing the Jewish population. A similar sentiment is present with Kwanzaa, as about 12.5 million people in the United States celebrate the holiday. It is crucial to represent cultures of all kinds, especially through the medium of film. Most modern films regarding Kwanzaa are documentaries, namely The Black Candle (2008). Even so, the film yielded an underwhelming 6.6/10 rating on IMDB. It is also worth noting that I could not find any fictional films with Kwanzaa-related themes, plots, or even sublots, demonstrating the sheer need for films regarding the lesser-represented holidays of the holiday season. Overall, the lack of representational holiday films demonstrates the ever-growing need for compelling, rich, and nuanced stories to be told through a holiday-oriented lens. However, it is not too late. Film culture is always growing among “minority” audiences in the United States. Therefore, young filmmakers, writers, and creatives alike may join forces to create a new, diverse era of holiday classics. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Polaris Back to Sections Royal Annie Diep Volume 4 Issue 3 March 13, 2024 Image Provided by Annie Diep BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Pop Art Back to Sections Merab Fatima - Pop Art By Merab Fatima January 14, 2022 Photography Volume 2 Issue 3