On a Friday afternoon, over a dozen of students were scattered around the Social Justice Hub, chatting and listening to music, artists like Beyoncé, Solange, and Tierra Whack playing in the background. Some were seated in secluded sections, reading through pages in a sleek, bold magazine. What was the event that brought them together? It was the launch party for the first issue of Alchemy Magazine, The New School’s first black magazine.
Alchemy Magazine is a student-run fashion and literary magazine founded by Aishamanne Williams, an 18-year-old, first-year Journalism + Design student. “It’s the first type of magazine created for and by black students. It showcases art, writing and creativity in general that black students want to produce,” said Williams.
The magazine has already gained an audience online, garnering over 100 followers on their Instagram page.
The concept of the magazine grew out of Williams’ observations of a lack of attention for students of color, especially black students, at The New School in her first semester. She started attending Black Student Union meetings and heard a lot of students’ experiences as black students at the university.
“A lot of classes, especially at Lang, talk about racism as this abstract concept that’s not happening to people here, so I want the magazine to not only empower us [black students], but also create conversation about what the TNS, the university itself, and the people that go here could be doing better to bridge the gap,” said Williams.
Hearing the different experiences of black students in the classroom resonated with Williams and got her thinking about how unique the black experience was at the university. “I wanted to put that somewhere for people who are leaving the university to have a record of the fact they were here, and then people who are coming, like me, to learn more about what it’s like to be black here.”
In her first semester, Williams became a peer health advocate through Student Health Services and decided to pitch the idea of the magazine as her peer health advocacy project. “Your advocacy project is suppose to promote wellness and create community, so Alchemy Magazine was the first thing I thought of. I’m a part of the black community here and we needed something,” said Williams.
The name for the magazine was inspired by Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade. At one point of the album, Beyoncé says, “Grandmother, the alchemist. You spun gold out of this hard life. Conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kitchen. Broke the curse with your own two hands.” This is a process that the black community is all too familiar with, and will serve as an ode to how the magazine will document the black New School community, according to Alchemy’s website.
When Williams started to create Alchemy Magazine, she was shocked to discover this was the first black magazine at the university. She did research on magazines created for black students at the university and couldn’t find anything, and neither could Student Health Services. The New School Free Press also contacted The New School’s archives team to confirm there’s no previous record of a black magazine on campus.
In the beginning of Dec. 2018, Williams reached out to potential contributors for the magazine by using Instagram story questionnaires and hanging up posters on campus seeking black students to contribute. She then compiled a list of everyone who was interested and assigned a deadline for pitches for January 4th, which is also her birthday.
By February 1st, Williams had gathered the final submissions from her contributors and began to lay out the magazine. It was important to Williams that the publication came out in February because it was Black History Month and she wanted Alchemy Magazine to contribute to that history. With that in mind, Williams received helped from Ashley Bernal, a graduation student at the Milano School of International Affairs, to create the layout and publish copies in print.
Williams and Bernal received a grant from the Civil Engagement and Social Justice Department to produce a total of 125 copies for the first issue.
“At first, a lot of people were telling me to just do it online because it’s easier, less expensive, and quicker to get out. But I really wanted it to be print because I felt like it wouldn’t be ‘felt’ at TNS if it was just online,” said Williams.
On Feb. 22, Alchemy Magazine launched their first issue. There were a total of 12 contributors to the print magazine, and three extra people contributed work online, including a documentary film.
There are a diverse selection of spreads in the first issue: including an interview with Blasian Womack, a first-year Parsons student and founder of his own clothing line, Peer Style, a piece discussing blackness in the Latinx community, as well as a Black History Month playlist and information on buying from black-owned businesses.
At the launch party, students supporting the project flooded the space, with some coming in and out to pick up a copy, read a few pages, and catch up with other friends. 20 copies were handed out to the people who showed up to the launch event, and the rest were equally distributed in different departments on campus, such as the Student Health Services office, CESJ office, and the Office of Intercultural Support.
Students at the event expressed their initial reactions to the magazine, and their interest in contributing.
Dashae Roberts, a third-year Fashion Design major, said, “I loved it. I was really inspired because we don’t really have things like this. Black people, we’re constantly being pushed to the side. I really think it’s great that we’re being highlighted in a whole magazine.”
“I think it’s a really cool opportunity for black students to express how they feel about diverse topics without feeling any judgment. It can really help provide insight and combat ignorance from a safe space,” said Nomaris A. Garcia, a first-year undecided student.
Egyptmoyenda Staley, a second-year Psychology and Theatre double major, talked about wanting to contribute to the magazine in the future. “I’m actually writing this poetry / monologue piece about being ratchet,” she said with a passion, before diving deeper into the piece. “I wanted to write about it because ‘ratchet’ and ghetto’ are terms used negatively, when that’s not the case. Ratchet is about being empowered, going against the system, being a real bitch – being THAT bitch.”
Contributors to the magazine who attended the event also discussed what it was like to have students react to their work in the magazine.
“I contributed my photography and I like to focus on dancing. Sometimes, I have moments where I doubt myself and doubt my art and just hearing about people talking about how amazing it was just reaffirms why I’m here and I do what I do,” said Rashad Heagle, a first-year Photography major.
The magazine recently announced that submissions and any interest in being apart of the team are welcome through emailing them at thealchemymag@gmail.com or DMing their Instagram account. The next issue will be released in May.
“Everyone says the sense of community here at TNS is not that strong, so the fact that people came out physically for this magazine meant a lot to me,” said Williams. “I think it just reaffirms that fact that people want something like this.”