Strike Magazine Miami Issue 03

ABOUT THE ISSUE

03 - ELEMENTARY

It’s innate — the way we react.

This issue is a love letter to your past self and the child in you that still needs your attention — just as much if not more than what’s in front of you.

We’re so centered on looking forward, we forget to look around and where we came from. Strike Miami’s Issue 03 “Elementary” is about just that — the roots. Of emotion, of history, of life. It’s about peeling the glamor, the status, the degrees, the wealth, and looking beneath it all.

DIRECTORS

Vianey Ladron de Guevara - Editor in Chief

Alba Lucia Lepe Soriano (Albxlu) - Creative Director

Kimora Miller - External Director

Eugenia Scheuren - Social Media Director

Mia D’Orazio - Casting Director

Eve Espinosa - Graphic Design Director

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS

Isabella Menendez - Editor in Chief Assistant

Isabel Barros - Creative Director Assistant

Kylie Henry - External Director Assistant

SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM

Jose Caballero

Sofia Diaz

Ashely Gutierrez

Kayla Simmons

Peny Santiago

Ashely Torres

Daphna Eldar

Baxter Neal

Fatima Bassaure

Sebastian Colonge

MARKETING TEAM

Michelle Datiz

Vanessa Garcia Hero

Alma Carraro

Chanel Balogun

PUBLIC RELATIONS TEAM

Valeria Silveira

Dimitrios Mitchell

Danielle Olson

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Lidia Delgado Rosa Mendoza Diego Franco Sydney Diana STYLISTS

Rylee Stallings Alessandra Yarleque Cesar Tijerno

STAFF WRITERS

Felipe Tarcinale Ailish Fontanez Elias Ochoa

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Kiana Sein Sophia Bolivar Lilimarie Quintanal Matthew Stember Soren Knippen Marla Chelsea McLeod

Concept Photography Editing Styling Models On -Set Graphics

Vianey Ladron de Guevara

Albxlu, Marla McLeod

Albxlu, Marla McLeod, Sydney Diana Rylee Stallings

Amy Ladron de Guevara, Vianey Ladron de Guevara

Vianey Ladron de Guevara, Isabel Barros Sydney Diana

Photography makes me happy, and I am very lucky to be able to pursue it and share it with all of you. Ten-year-old me would be amazed that I’m part of this magazine, and nineteen-year-old me is too.

This creative journey that I am on wouldn’t have been able without all the people that walked me through it. I want to dedicate this issue to all these people.

First of all, to my parents for letting me grab their camera when I was a kid and start playing with it. Look where it got me. To my friends from Tres Cantos, for letting me take “Tumblr” pictures of them when we were thirteen. To me, those improvised photoshoots in the middle of a park were the beginning of every thing, and none of this would have been possible without you. To my friends from Madrid, Dublin, and Miami for always having my back and supporting me.

Finally, I have to thank my Editor in Chief, Vianey. You are an amazing and very hard-working person, and I love working with you. I’m so thankful for this opportunity to prove myself and thank you for trust ing me. Thanks to Isa for helping me on so many occasions, you are a big part of this issue. Thanks to this amazing team of incredible artists that I have been lucky enough to work with. Each one of you is going to have a super interesting and fun life.

To the readers, I hope you love this magazine as much as we love making it.

See you in the next issue, Alba, Strike Miami CD <3

It’s one thing to create and another thing to create and learn by those around you. Creativity fosters best when shared with others. Collaboration has been the key to setting the foundation this year. And with that comes a solid ground for where everyone is able to rise and stand firmly. My favorite thing about creating is that it takes shape in many different ways. Sometimes it is linear and other times it is curved; more than once. This semester alone I have learned so much from the external team and I am so grateful

To my external team, I love you all so dearly. Thank you for trusting me and for being you. PR… you already know but y’all are the best. Social you all have an eye that strikes. And to EVERY staff member… I give you all the warmest thank you. How beautiful is it that we get to share and collaborate in times like these? Moments that pave the way to our future as we continue on the journey of life. Keep shining that spark that ignites as we crave to create. No matter what anyone tells you. No matter what you may tell yourself. What you have inside of you is good and it shall be enjoyed by others.

Thank you and with lots of love, Kimora, Strike Miami EAD

This project means a lot to me, for many reasons. It represents the first of many: first time spearheading such a passionate initiative, first time working alongside talented individuals, and first time working from the ground up. This issue specifically is more than just a collection of talent, but it’s the foundation of a community that we get to partake in growing — right here in our home.

It’s a testament of the last couple of months, binded together in a gloss cover.

I am incredibly humbled to sit and write this letter because it’s foremost a huge Thank You to the ones in the team; who believed in the vision and made it their mission to execute it.

Throughout this project, I’ve learned to look at the passion and drive at play, and how it’s a whole new level of beauty. Without each of them, this wouldn’t have been more than an idea on a PowerPoint slide.

Thank you to my fellow directors, Alba and Kimora, who’ve been the arms that hold my sanity together in all of this — and my assistant EIC, Isabella, who pulled off a new level of resilience.

When first introducing the idea of this concept, I had based it on what was thought (at the time) to be a complete crash of all I had known. However, if I’ve learned anything from Life herself, it is that there is always more. Life takes you in directions you may not understand in that moment, until you do. It’s fascinating.

All to show you that the answers you’ve been frantically searching for, have been within you this entire time. There’s something uniquely raw about the you that shows up when no one is watching, and how it’s simultaneously a ‘you’ that is universally relatable — and that is the beauty of being human.

So, I invite you to read this culmination of experiences, to connect, and to rediscover on your own terms what ‘Elementary’ means to you, because in order to build upon, we need to check the ground on which we build on.

To Growth, Vianey Ladrón de Guevara, Editor in Chief of Strike Miami

LIFE AFTER LOVE

Concept: Liliana Quintanal, Marla McLeod Photography: Soren Knippen, Kiana Sein

Editing: Soren Knippen, Kiana Sein, Diego Franco Styling: Marla McLeod On-set: Albxlu, Vianey Ladrón de Guevara Models: Iyo Aghedo, Danielle Olson Graphics: Diego Franco

A Stroll

By Eli Ochoa

I want to like Uhm

You know just like, Go to a park may be?

We could get ice cream

Stare at some leaves, bugs Hug trees, or each other

Take our shoes off, sit worms in our toes gross

Leaf on your neck shoo

Moonlight on skin warm

That’s a planet? Yes. Can I ki—

What did you say? Oh

The Vital Beginning

By Isabella Menendez

The memory

The youthful night attracts a river of people. Though the lavish room echoed with pretentious conversations, forceful laughter, and fake smiles, the sense of loneliness lingered. She waded through walls of insincerity, and a realization struck: attendance is not a presence. It was then where she decided to achieve vulnerability and intentionality. However, being drawn to the comfort in the room’s corners, forming human connections seemed unfeasible.

Her wandering eyes relinquished when she saw him, as his eyes asked “have we met?”

Bashfully avoiding eye-contact, she continuously felt his gaze over her. Blood quickly rushed to her cheeks as his silhouette began to make its way to her from across the room.

A playful conversation soon emerges as she combats his swift and sly remarks. She began to notice the small details such as the wrinkle on his nose when he laughed and the anxiousness in his voice when her eyes shifted to check the time on the grandfather clock.

Once filled with opaque muttering, the room became entranced. The complexities of life became obsolete. The people once surrounding them faded away. It was them, alone.

The conversation dwindled as the night aged on.

“It was lovely meeting you,” he said while gently placing his hand over hers. Her mind was filled with lingering questions and she could not compute her next words, only a light smile. When she looked up, he walked into the crowd.

Break

Memories are life-lines. The butterflies fluttering about when two hand’s first meet should be caught and kept dearly. It is in these initial memories where lost love could be found.

Crack in the glass

The same youthful night years later attracts a river of people. Yet tonight she has a body next to hers. A body that is now wrapped around hers by the golden strings of vows that sing “in sickness and in health.”

He would greet people with a hoax smile. Perpetually failing to peek her direction, her heart grew cold. The encircling mumbling sounds heightened. His hand would not graze over hers as they used to. The attention of his glare became a contest and she was not victorious.

At their home, her indignant voice pierced through his ears. The question she desperately wished to avoid all night slipped out of her lips:

“Do

She bit her lips acknowledging the depth of the question she asked. The silence screamed. Seeing the pain in his eyes, as the liquid drops began to form, her regrets consumed her body. How could she evenShe suddenly felt a warmth engulfing her. His arms wrapped around her and she felt his heart accelerate. The embrace was lasting and when he pulled away she saw tears threatening to spill down his eyes. It was then where she saw him.

you still love me?”

Break

When love appears obsolete, retreat and recall its initial birth.

The remembering

His nose wrinkle

His nervous voice The quiet It’s us

We fell in love once more

THE STAGES OF GRIEF

Concept: Isabel Barros, Eve Espinosa

Photography: Matthew Stember, Isabel Barros

Editing: Matthew Stember, Isabel Barros, Eve Espinosa

Styling: Cesar Tijerino

On-set Production: Vianey Ladrón de Guevara, Soren Knippen, Albxlu

Makeup: Albxlu, Vianey Ladrón de Guevara

Model: Matteo Orezzoli

Graphic Designer: Eve Espinosa

Nostalgia

By Felipe Tarcinale

As my eyes traveled through these pictures, Youthful memories began flooding the room I perched up at the edge of the bed, Consumed by this portal of nostalgia

I still feel the warmth of those sun-kissed days, And gentle whispers of the beach’s tune The sound of the waves crashing against the pier, Combined with the contagious laughter of children playing

The salt-filled air was all I could breathe While the scent of sunscreen perfumed my nose, The sand was soft and pliable, molding around my feet As I kicked it with every stride towards the gleaming water

The ocean was a calm beast that day, Its therapeutic waves swaying me side to side My stress left like a swift sailor, The world stood still for a brief moment of time As I looked towards the horizon I can see the Sun perched up just like me on this bed Its bright rays fractured into colorful prisms For a moment like this will not go away

Running Backward, To Fail Forward

By Vianey Ladrón de Guevara

The romanticization of progress through our individual and collective consumption of media has greatly impacted how we live our day to day lives. Many of the narratives that we’ve come across have been linear, happy, fulfilled and completed.

And yes, intellectually, we can come to an understanding that it takes time, effort, dedication and perseverance to get there — but the constant exposure of the arrival to said end goal, and your lack thereof, stunts what you thought you had going for yourself.

Progress is not linear. It is the building of a foundation and adding floors only to realize that the foundation was not structurally sound. And it does not care about how structurally sound you wanted it to be, how beautiful the couches you placed inside those floors were, or the amenities you’ve added along the way. Because at the end, every night, you return to that foundation — and whether you choose to check in and switch out the building blocks with something stronger — is where your choice lies.

That’s where the difference between seeing things as you want it to be and seeing things as they are is. The reality, the truth, will always make its way through. We have a tendency to avoid and hold on to those rooms, to those details within our building, and neglect the work that comes with keeping it up. The taller you build, the harder the crash.

And it will crash. It always does — it shows up in the moments where it feels like everything and anything around you ceases to be.

We treat the crash like an isolated issue, when really it is the culmination of all that you are and you have been throughout your life. We fall into a rabbit hole and hold that individual experience like the experience. And although there’s truth in that, life has also been a cycle of experiences revolving around you . You are the epicenter of all the experiences, and it is you who rebuilds that tower when we decide to continue living.

And that is a difficult feat to overcome. It is a frustrating, debilitating, hopeless and solitary track at first because of the fact that the ball will always return to your court. When these things happen — there’s a clear choice:

You’re out or you try again.

Emotions play a heavy role in progress, and oftentimes our lack of control over them. Impulsive decisions, gut wrenching repetitive thoughts flooding the mind and causing us to worry about everything but exactly where we are. Media consumption and the rewarding quick fixes drives us further into a place where agency doesn’t matter.

Mimi Zhu put it beautifully in her book, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection , “[s]ocial media encourages us to avoid the messy, unpalatable, and unpostable portions of our existence by making everything presentable.” We do not desire to place much attention on the areas of life that are not appealing, and we don’t need to.

They’ve found a way to turn attention from the structural integrity of our building — it does not matter anymore. They’ve created a false sense of safety in mindless consumption and it allows you to further suppress the very things we are meant to confront. It’s one of the strongest opposing forces we have to overcome in this day and age to achieve peace.

Unfortunately there’s no way around it, except away from it. Social media was designed with the

idea in mind that they can promote or sell anything to the general consumer — from the comfort of our phones. It was also designed that if the service is free, you are in fact the product. It was made to divert our attention from very human conversations, the ones that allow for the biggest change and growth. It’s also simultaneously the biggest connecting disconnector created by humankind.

You have access to a world of people, resources and content, and yet people have never felt more alone. But although sounding ridiculous, there is an outside world. The world in which you decide to simply open your phone or not.

The concept hardest to process about progress is the fact that it is not a one-size-fits-all, but there’s a common denominator: your agency. There is no designated timeline, tools, and tribulations that one must complete, you just start.

However, there will be an experience or a moment that occurs that causes you to stop and there will be a point where you’ll realize you’re not checking progress as maniacally as before — and you’ll find your own rhythm.

There’s no timeline for progress, but there’s certainly a timeline for you. Getting the hang of this “trying again” concept, is sickeningly enticing.

To relearn, rebrand, re-do.

And there necessarily isn’t an end, because there’s always something new. I think, intrinsically, that’s worth a try.