YOULIT
Poetry
Photography
Fiction
Graphic Design
VOLUME 2 : ISSUE 1
CONTENTS ________________________________________
Sometimes... By Kailah Lee Illustrated by Sekani Kenyatta
Knees By Kush Thompson
Bad Water November Quiet Katherine !
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By Ethan Doris
Weave !
By John McNamara
Photography By Kali Johnson
Essay: Patriotism By Matthew Byrd
Contributing Design / Photography By Katie Klema
Contributors Acknowledgements
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YOULIT Magazine Teen Editors ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! !
Briana Matthews!! Kali Johnson! ! Alisha Stalling! ! Christine Jordan !!
! ! !
Kailah Lee Ethan Doris Jasmine Kirby Sekani Kenyatta
Managing Editors Marcus Lumpkin Stacy Allen
YouLit Magazine:
Volume 2 :Issue 1
When my best friend and I first decided to create a comic, we automatically knew that we wanted to key in on a subject matter that REALLY effected teens today. It would be the farthest thing from something like "Degrassi" and those Lifetime movies because that just wasn't the reality that we experienced. However, our comic took a turn toward cliche when we started to include cliques, social statuses, popular and unpopular people, making the rest predictable. Although this issue's comic is about two vowels shy of unique, we are going to improve the diversity of subject matter in next month's issue. So, if you have any topics that you would specifically like to see covered in one of our comics, feel free to email us your ideas at: youlitmagazine@gmail.com
Sometimes... By Kailah Lee Illustrated by Sekani Kenyatta
POEMS
Kush Thompson Knees. There are places my knees have visited on nights when my teeth couldn’t grit them out of buckling knees don’t know no better don’t remember hard pavements skinning dignity off of them scraped palisades collapsing like the bone in them falls in love with my ankles every time my waist finds your fingers in promise and my knees find a promised land in the ground beneath them embracing like forbidden lovers separated by legs and pride knees don’t know no better don’t remember how they’ve hurt just two fools rushing into your feet to worship the ground you walk on not because they are weak they’re just not afraid to surrender don’t know no better my knees don’t forget the discordance in breaking but remember the bravery in it because they found the symphony humming in the floor and scramble to press ears to it because they’d rather give in to the gravity breathing down the backs of them and know the scrapes than suspend in safety there are places my knees visit when they want to be foolish and rush into falling unafraid of the breaking because there’s a louder song beneath them
Ethan Doris
November Quiet A sky brings snow softly today. For this i have prayed. Everything now has fallen into chaos. Even from him i have been led away.
An etude escapes my loveless soul. It has soothed me, those sounds so warm. I close my eyes and listenTo a grater falling serenade outside. The snow falls and falls, pure innocence from the dark. I pass by as lights light up lights from the sky And it snows on Marilyn's bare shoulders. The snow falls, no wind to carry it. The buses have stopped. The cars have disappeared. Even the wind dares not open its mouth in the face of the falling, sparkling innocence.
Ethan Doris
Katherine I once knew a woman who was quite lonely. Her brown curls fell gently upon her shoulders. Her skin was smooth, her face was tender and streaked with flowing tears.
She was kind, this woman who sat before us. Her friends tried to comfort her, tried to ease her woes. They even tried to use that sadness for their ends. I watched from afar trying to think of ways to heal the heart so clearly shattered. In a dark room I saw the white door, her heart closed to so many. Even I, the shadow who wished to heal what he did have. Even I, the shadow, just a seat away from her. Even I, who wanted to hold her. For all my banes and cardinal vices, I wanted to heal this one woman in the world. I felt a tugging in my chest -absent a heart-and almost let despair overtake me and admit to the world my desire. In the quiet stillness of that dream room, I could even almost hear her laughing again, and see us together. Once upon a time.
Ethan Doris
Bad Water Blue noise, screams, more shed tears. Marching, the legions do damn the innocent in the eyes of the autumn night. Grim and cold eyes fall upon a star. End. Bad water drunken, rats chewed on. Shells of men become men of falling shells. Voices cry out but fall silent upon entering the naked heap. Tonight is no night for the rose. Water of man dries up the earnest hearts. Tempest and taint have taken all. Innocent eyes, innocent days. Water drips bloodied form the pipe. Bad water drunken, it blackens their insides. Send them on the train send them to the room. Stay out of the room, the wish of all. Bad water fills the pit of life. Calling on a memory, someone in mind sees the red coated girl. Or the lone man at night who seeks death. Eyes fall upon a star grim they fall upon the defenseless, cold.
Weave Books are just patchwork, her mother used to say. She was a quilt maker, sewing patches all day.
John McNamara
Yarns are just that, her sister added on. Her needles would knit together 'til all the yarn was gone. But She found no comfort in warm, cozy shrouds. She decided then, to make something of which she would be proud. She retreated to her room. Scavenging for one thing. A tiny little needle, which She would use to guide her string. Happening upon it, She took a moment to think.
Her dreams began spilling over, She was on the brink. Softly, She spoke of hopes, of worlds far away. From Her mouth came the string, and there it was content to stay. She thread her needle, and moved with care. She smiled as She worked. The web She made was fair. It began to grow, encompassing her room. And people began to notice, And walked right towards their doom. For little did they know, She knew how to sew, and for all those who enter it, the web would surely not let go.
It was a tale of awe, a tale of the people, a story for the low-downs, and for those in the steeples. The girl had made a lovely yarn, as pure and white as day. If people wanted to get out of it, they surely had no say. For She made a blessing, but also a curse. But, She would keep on weaving, for better or for worse. A story can ensnare people, or lift them up high. However, at the end, the people will always sigh. Perhaps She's a devil, or an angel sent on down. But for now, She sits on her web, wearing her prideful crown.
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Kali Johnson YouLit Magazine Photography
I始ve been making art since the 1st grade. I remember one of the first pictures I drew. It was a picture of some guy in a hat and it was nearly photorealistic. That same picture helped me realize my natural talent in drawing; which grew into painting, photography, graphic design, and film. Creating art is a way for me to make the images in my imagination a reality. massproducer.tumblr.com
Road Streaks
The Grey Field
North Side
Dead Roses
China Tower
Butterflies
Night Street
Train Tunnel
Hijacked Perverted... Patriotism. To a large section of the American populace, the words patriotism conjures up images of the American Revolution, the stars and stripes, 4th of July picnics, and baseball. However, it also elicits a very partisan portrait of America; one which includes hard-core pro-life advocates, jingoism, militarism, the nuclear family, homophobia, radical fiscal conservatism and overall the party platform of the Republican Party. In order to understand why patriotism evokes these images, one must trace the history of America in the post-Vietnam era. One of the famous slogans of the anti-counterculture movement that began formulating in right-wing America in the early 70’s was “America: Love it or Leave It”, bluntly stating that anyone who didn’t agree with everything America was doing (in that era Vietnam), was unpatriotic. Mainstream
America, left feeling disillusioned and cheated by their country and consoling a lingering sense of collective national guilt following the end of the Vietnam War, was quick to adopt this attitude as it gave them a sense of pride in their country, pride sourly lacking following Vietnam. Nixon called them the “Silent Majority”. They helped the Republican Party dominate Washington for the last 30 years of the 20th century, they also helped imbed the idea of patriotism as synonymous with conservative values with Generation X, who then passed it on into the current generation. The beginnings of this attitude are quite corrupt as they were a reactionary response to the counterculture’s protest of the way American institutions had failed us in the 60’s. The counterculture was attacking conservative values, not American values. To counter this protest however, conservatives blended the two in order to polarize the country in a way which would benefit them in an election. This was made worse by the reluctance of liberal politicians to attack this notion in a way that hit home with the broader American public. Since patriotism was now aligned with conservatism, liberals played down the patriotism in order to differentiate themselves from conservatives, paving the way for the “patriotism equals conservatism” idea that exists to this very day. The first problem with this idea is its very origin. The “America: Love it or Leave It” creed which lies at the very heart of the saying “patriotism as conservatism”
Matthew Byrd
suggest that dissidence is un-American. This idea is means), or some common political goals; but rather completely farcical and runs contradictory to by a single principle which this country was founded everything that America was founded on. America upon, freedom. The freedom to choose your religion, was created in an armed revolt, the very extreme of political values, where you lived, how you lived etc. dissidence. The constitution was written in a way that As opposed to the exclusionary definition of was antithetical to the way patriotism which blackballs governments had been structured anyone who isn’t a right-winger, That idea of patriotism for thousands of year. Most of the this definition includes anybody major reform movements that are who believes in freedom. can be reclaimed, but universally regarded as positive Liberals, atheists, pacifists, only if enough Americans today (the civil rights movement, feminists, and gays are just as of all backgrounds stand child labor reform, unionization, patriotic as hardcore rightwomen’s rights, abolition of slavery wingers. The founders would be together and say, “I may etc.) were all running against the rolling in their graves to know not agree with you, but tide of the American mainstream at that patriotism in America has the moment. Anyone who thinks become desecrated in the way it you’re just as much of a that patriotism is correspondent with has been. patriot as I am”. a particular set of political beliefs has likely never picked up a history While the idea of patriotism has book. been hijacked by opportunistic right-wingers, it is not lost to the ages. American This idea that patriotism equates conservatism is a patriotism, or the belief in freedom, is the backbone cynical perversion of the ideas of the founding of this country. It is the reason the first amendment to fathers. The framers did not design the constitution the constitution is entirely devoted to listing our and America to reflect a particular ideology. To the freedoms. It’s the reason the Declaration of contrary, the framers intended for America to be a Independence maintains that “all men are created pluralistic society, one in which many different beliefs equal” and it is the reason, since our inception, no came together to debate, discuss, compromise and constitutional amendment has been passed that has come up with ways to better the country. These inhibited the freedom of the American people (with groups would be united by a common value. Not the exception of the dreaded 18th). The ideals of this religion or “family values” (whatever the heck that country lie not in liberal or conservative ideologies,
Matthew Byrd
but rather in the majestic idea of freedom. The confiscation of patriotism by the American Right-Wing only serves to polarize and alienate a population rather than unite us, it has created a Disunited State of America. That idea of patriotism can be reclaimed, but only if enough Americans of all backgrounds stand together and say, “I may not agree with you, but you’re just as much of a patriot as I am”. When that day comes, America will truly have regained its patriotic soul back.
Matthew Byrd
Contributors
Kush Thompson is a 17 year old poet and spoken word artist. She has performed in Chicagoʼs Louder Than a Bomb competition and is a member of Youmediaʼs spoken word performance team. John McNamara is a writer and actor attending Jones College Prep in Chicago. He was recently in the school theater production of Urinetown. Break a leg John. Marroz F. and Lucy O. are two teens who should be thanked for their project managing skills and eager participation in Youlitʼs editorial process.
Kailah Lee is a writer and editor for Youlit magazine. She is currently a member of the notorious Cookies and Cream faction. (A small group of harmless teenage girls.)
Sekani Kenyatta contributed Youlit magazineʼs first comic illustrations. She is a member of Youlitʼs editorial staff and is sadly a member of the Cookies and Cream faction.
Kali Johnson is a 17 year old who attends Kenwood Academy High School. He loves to create pictures that express his feelings and loves to make landscapes. He is Youlit magazineʼs lead graphic designer.
Matthew Byrd is a junior at Jones College Prep in downtown Chicago. He is a writer and contributing host/commentator for the Library of Games Podcast and blog in Youmdedia. Yo u ʼ v e g o t t a c h e c k i t o u t : www.libraryofgames.org
Katie Klema created the cover for this issue of Youlit magazine. She is a teen photographer, designer and artist of the highest caliber. Thanks Katie.
Ethan Doris is a poet and artist who has created images for projects in Youmedia. He is an editor for Youlit magazine.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
YOULIT MAGAZINE is created, edited and contributed by teens. We are a magazine where teen writers and artist come together to promote both their work and their identity. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this issue of YouLit Magazine, the Chicago Public Library, YOUmedia, Digital Youth Network, and the MacAurthur Foundation. For more information about YOUmedia please visit www.youmediachicago.org Visit Yolitmag.tumblr.com to find out about our teen group and how to submit your work.
VOLUME 2 : ISSUE 1