Category: Past Staff

  • Techno-Paranoia and the Allure of Black Mirror

    Techno-Paranoia and the Allure of Black Mirror

    Written by Hayle Chen. Graphic by Quynhmai Tran. – **Content Warning: Graphic Content** Envision this: You’re gazing into a black void. There’s haphazard electronic humming and stark white letters emblazoned across a pitch-dark background. Then—the unnerving crack of the void, the screen, as a sound akin to a distressed heart monitor pitching higher assaults your…

  • Malleable Metal

    Malleable Metal

    Written by Harrison Fernelius. Graphic by Emma Robinson. – “After all, very few musical genres are able to contain the sheer force of sentiment and anger that metal can accommodate. It simply has an enormous capacity for emotion. No anger is too great, and no sentiment is too dark. It is the musical mouthpiece of…

  • Train of Thought: Laowai Reflections on the Railway

    Train of Thought: Laowai Reflections on the Railway

    Written by Varun Hukeri. Graphic by Emma Robinson.  – The hustle of Beijing West Railway Station is a common sight no matter the day or the hour. Serving almost two hundred thousand passengers everyday, it’s a rather unglamorous scene of crowded walkways, confused passengers yelling and pushing through, and of course, a McDonald’s — a…

  • Reflecting in the Tetons

    Reflecting in the Tetons

    Written by Hector Osegueda. Graphic by Emma Robinson.  – And there we were  The air, how brisk and free as it flurried past                                                                …

  • Hot Takes from the Hot Shop

    Hot Takes from the Hot Shop

    Written by Peyton Cabaniss. Graphic by Peyton Cabaniss.  – As ten glass blowers don their safety goggles and sweat bands to enter a dark industrial warehouse, Blown Away introduces the Netflix peruser to the fine art of glass blowing. Unlike some forms of art that can be undertaken with a quick trip to Michael’s, glass…

  • Ramona

    Ramona

    Written by Luisana Cortez. Graphic by Emma Robinson.  – I cannot detach my cousin Ramona from the memories of my flesh. Through the darkness, she surfaces, baring the sun-lit mesh of my childhood: crooked teeth, feral eyes, my lumping chest, the curvature of a rib cage. I blink, and just as the familiar strain of…

  • Analysis of Golconde

    Analysis of Golconde

    Written by Shini Meyer Wang. Graphic by René Magritte, Golconde (1953). – their separations exact a rising or falling echelon  plotted on a triple axis world their expressions placid faces emptied like the people on subway trains who carry a sacred anonymity mornings I crack open my kitchen window  to breathe or to be greeted…

  • Proud, Driven, Leading: The Experience of First-Generation Students

    Proud, Driven, Leading: The Experience of First-Generation Students

    Written by Christina Lopez. Graphic by Emma Robinson. Originally published as part of the Spring 2019 “Challenge” Issue.– For Antonio Limon, college was never a question of if, but where, he was going to go. He remembers his mom always encouraging him to achieve A’s in his classes and volunteer to boost his prospects of…

  • The Almost-Christmas Spirit

    The Almost-Christmas Spirit

    Written by Dila Sarikaya. Graphic by Emma Robinson. Originally published as part of the Spring 2019 “Challenge” Issue.–  As my Mom and I did some casual window shopping, I looked over my shoulder and saw a big Christmas tree– one of the extravagant ones shopping plazas put up during the holiday season. Its lights, sparkle,…

  • American Refugee

    American Refugee

    Written by Brooke Quach. Graphic by Emma Robinson. Originally published as part of the Spring 2019 “Challenge” Issue.–  The volleyball struck him in the head so hard that he only recognized the impact after his scrawny body fell on the floor. His ears rang, but he could still hear the big white boy with the…