New School Students Dabble in Magazines

By:

Feb 26, 2019

If New School students have been paying attention lately, they might have noticed a spate of posters for independent, student-run magazines being promoted in the past few months. Some of the publications that have been spreading around campus include Alchemy Magazine, Rebelle Magazine, UTOR, and Document 1.

“Everyone’s trying to do it. I think it comes from this divergence from things like Eleven and a Half [Lang’s student-run literary magazine],” said Eliot Sandbach, a second-year student in the Creative Writing program and co-founder of UTOR. “I didn’t want to join Eleven and a Half because I felt like I wouldn’t have full control, and as a control freak, I needed that,” said Sandbach.

UTOR is a workshop-based, mix-media literary magazine created by Lang students Ben Burge, Trina Mercado, and Sandbach. The publication was founded during the Fall 2018 semester and focuses on producing works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, original artwork, and photography. The peculiar name for the magazine is a Latin word, meaning “to consume,” and is a reflection of the objective for the group.

“We wanted it to be a place where you, in a way, eat other people’s work and then spit back out this sort of amalgam of creative minds,” said Sandbach.

Many of these magazines are labors of love, not assignments. From spending hours laying out the design of the magazine in InDesign, to using printing credits from the New School to print their publications, students are working hard to create content they’re proud to share outside the classroom. Most of these students have had prior experience in producing content similar to their magazines, from being a part of their high school newspapers and learning InDesign, to creating online magazines with friends in high school.

Founder of Rebelle Magazine, Lexi Madison, a first-year student in the Journalism + Design program spoke about how she’s taking advantage of the resources the New School provides her. “Here, I get printing credits, which is easier to print a full-designed magazine.”

Rebelle Magazine is a collaboratively-run magazine guided by Madison and Gabriella De Gracia, a first-year Journalism + Design student. The magazine offers different types of features, from fashion and photography to interviews with musicians. Madison didn’t want to follow the traditional norms of what a magazine should look like or how it should be run.

“I’m not going to follow somebody else’s rules of what a magazine should be, where there is a hierarchy that you have to follow,” said Madison. “We let people submit contributions compared to having designated staff writers. Gaby and I also contribute.”

Madison and De Gracia handed out their first issue in January of this year at the University Center lobby, distributing 35 copies in total. Madison said that she only has 50 printing credits left this semester, so the next issue is going to be hard to produce.

“We’ve thought about doing ad contracts from businesses to actually profit from it. For now, our goals moving forward are being able to make money to keep producing it and figuring out how to get those funds,” said Madison.

Another aspect of producing these magazine involves deciding whether to have a print or online presence. For the most part, the creators want to have audiences hooked on either both platforms, or only on print.

“I feel like online is a different ballgame,” said Madison about Rebelle Magazine. “But on print, it’s whatever we want it to be. We can put pictures in just a double-page spread and have it be so nice. I feel like pictures or art would be so much harder to put online. If it grew, we would do web because people go on the Internet, but there’s something about print magazines that’s fun.”

The New School’s student-run Zine Collective promotes independent, student-run publications and distributes them on a stand at the Social Justice Hub in the University Center. They’re described as “an informal collection of free, radical, print publishing through this school,” according to the Narwhal Nation website.

As of last school year, the Zine Collective received $1500 in funding from the University Student Senate to publish 10 to 15 more zines with 40 copies per publication. According to a Spring 2018 proposal, the funding would be applied towards creating more content this 2018 – 2019 school year.

The New School Free Press contacted the Zine Collective on three separate occasions to get a clearer vision of the work they were doing, as it related to this semester. Nolan Kelly was listed as the group’s leader online, but is currently studying abroad. In an email he said, “We are by no means a definitive voice for the community at New School – just a network of resources for people.” The Free Press received no response from the Zine Collective representative that Kelly directed us to.

When Madison and Sandbach were asked if they were aware of the Zine Collective before creating their magazine, most of them responded having no prior knowledge.

Aishamanne Williams, a first-year Journalism & Design student and founder of Alchemy Magazine, said she was aware of the collective but she didn’t hear from them when she contacted them.

“I think it speaks to the disconnect that exists at The New School in general; the fact that people are creating zines is maybe to bridge the gap between them and every other individual here,” said Williams.

Alchemy Magazine is a fashion and literary magazine geared towards having content created by and for black students at The New School. Williams mentioned that this is an outlet to give black students a voice to share their experiences at the university.

“The fact that the Collective is supposed to be making that happen and it isn’t connected to the zines just speaks to that even more. I think that it’s interesting that we’re doing this on our own.”

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If you want to reach out to the magazines to learn more about them or contribute to upcoming issues, here is how they can be reached.

Alchemy Magazine

Instagram: @alchemymag

Email: willa141@newschool.edu

Website: https://www.thealchemymag.com

Rebelle Magazine

Instagram: @rebellemag

Email: rebellezine@gmail.com

UTOR

Instagram: @utorzine

Website: https://utor-zine.com