The Liberator Magazine
The Official Publication of the College of Liberal Arts
Written by Shae Carey.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – In her essay “A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf says, “for my belief is that if we live another century or so—I am talking of the common life which is the real life and not of the little separate lives which we live as individuals—and have five hundred a year each […]
Written by Emma Robinson.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – My vintage camera collection spans across different eras, types, and models. From the 35mm film variety to digital cameras, and most recently, I added an authentic Polaroid 600 Square from the 1980s. My Polaroid camera is the product of a four-year long search for first, a vintage Polaroid camera that works, and […]
Written by Jennifer Dong.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – From her sugary, upbeat synth-pop tracks that dominated the radio in 2008 to the somber ballads featured on the soundtrack of last year’s A Star is Born, Lady Gaga has undoubtedly taken the music world by storm. While Gaga is mostly known for her operatic vocals and bold lyrics, her impressive, wide-ranging discography […]
Written by Shini Meyer Wang.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – Ripe with relevance, symbolism, and nuance, director Jordan Peele’s second horror hit holds a mirror up to us, prodding at our neglected awareness of the monsters within as individuals and as a society. A theme of duplicity not only saturates the story, but also its structure. Two narratives make up the […]
Written by Maggie Chadwick Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss Selena Quintanilla, hailed the Queen of Tejano Music, is known around the world for her songs, fashion, and, unfortunately, her untimely death. Even though her life came to an abrupt and heartbreaking end, her name and legacy live on. Selena continues to have such an impact on pop culture, especially in the […]
Written by Dila Sarikaya.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – What if your favorite star sent you a letter inviting you to visit them? Would you go? Joyce Maynard was faced with this decision in 1972 after her first article, “An 18-Year-Old Looks Back On Life,” was published in The New York Times magazine. In this article, of which she says the […]
Written by Caroline Rock.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – Growing up as a daughter in a military household, packing up my possessions to move every two years made me very aware of everything I owned – and everything I didn’t need. It was my dad’s idea to do a purge before each move so we wouldn’t bring unnecessary items with us. […]
Written by Yulissa Chavez.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss – What is maturity? How does an individual know they have reached the age of maturity, and that they are not simply playing into imposter syndrome? The United States of America seems to be indecisive of an age that clearly marks when an individual is mature enough to handle the consequences and benefits […]
Written by Allison McCarty. Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. Thinking back to my childhood, my most nostalgic and familiar memories are of the early morning commutes to my grandparents’ house in my father’s pickup truck. The melodies of AC/DC and Kiss pulsing through the speakers as we traversed the stop-and-go traffic of Austin. I remember swaying to the beat with my […]
Written by Hans Barrels.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. “[People] iffy, uhBlicky got the stiffy, uhGot the blicky, uhDrum it holds fifty, uh” This is the introduction of 6ix9ine’s 2017 breakout hit “GUMMO.” The song itself spurred the creation of memes online making fun of his many 69 tattoos, rainbow hair, and scream-style rap. His appearance, however, is intentional, and the media’s […]
Written by Sam Chavez.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – “Keep Austin weird.” Austin is one of the stranger metropolitan areas around, and it definitely has the sights to prove so. I decided to challenge myself and gave the city a bit of a walk-through for a day, aimlessly wandering and letting the streets guide me. Initially, I was struck by the […]
Written by TL.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – Bloomberg podcast host, Michelle Fay Cortez, asks her audience “what if the cure to a lifetime of mental illness is really just a party drug from the 1980s?” She is referring to ecstasy, a psychedelic drug known as MDMA when in its purest form. Recently, many promising studies indicate that MDMA can be […]
Written by Jennifer Dong.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – A modest and poignant portrait of the human experience rendered through inequality, nostalgia, and love, Roma has established itself as one of the best films of 2018. As the winner of the best foreign language film at the Oscars, the narrative is centered on Cleo Gutiérrez (Yalitza Aparicio), a maid for a […]
Written by Shini Meyer Wang.Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – “Looking is not seeing” describes precisely how we are before having the “aha” moments. It’s how we naturally observe the people in our lives, not thinking twice. But suppose one day you were to flip open the pages of a psychology textbook. Then, these familiar moments might unlock to tell hidden […]
Written by Hector Osegueda. Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – It’s often the seemingly innocent ideas that cause the most damage. Ancient alien theories are among those ideas. We’ve all encountered one in particular; that immemorial and monumental structures, such as the pyramids at Giza, the Nazca lines in Peru, or the Moai of Easter Island, are products of extraterrestrial contact […]
Written by Shae Carey. Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss. – Every Friday, I make the long drive down IH-35 to my hometown to work at my beloved job at a luxury cat hotel. The drive is inconvenient, but I know it like the back of my hand, and I often zone out as I barrel down the far left lane. As […]
