Art

 

When you see Detroit and Ypsilanti in the news at all, it’s usually for something negative. People who don’t live here only see these cities as the media portrays them—violent, impoverished, and ruined. This narrative is what the world has come to expect from my city. The smaller presences are easily lost when no one takes the time to notice them. I suspect part of why we often walk right past places that embody tenderness in “bad” cities/neighborhoods is because our bias holds us back. We don’t expect beauty from such destinations, so we are blind to it. I felt the need to capture all the places you’ll never see on a screen. The unconventional wonders I see everywhere when I walk around. I want to elevate these spaces to the status of monument. Monuments are usually thought of as state sanctioned statues of “heroes” or war scenes. Stone structures that seem to speak down to you. My monuments reflect the collective mind of the people living here. They embrace juxtaposition where the natural parts of the city meet its industrial side. This overlap creates some of my favorite new monuments. 

 

Juna Hume Clark is a sophomore at Washtenaw International High School in Michigan. She is a passionate artist and activist who has had art and writing published by Black Ink, Root & Star, Pank Books, and Stone Soup. She is currently working with Claudia Rankine on a Young Person’s Citizen.

 

 

The father and the daughter shot is actually my dad and my sister. I have a lot of pictures of them walking hand in hand in forests and parks. It just warms my heart because I think their relationship is just adorable. This one especially held a lot of significance because my sister learned about Abraham Lincoln at school and has been wanting to visit the Lincoln Memorial since. She was really excited and was pulling our dad with her. Along with that, my dad was often traveling outside of the country due to his job during my childhood so I didn’t really get the chance to do a lot of the “dad-daughter” things others did so it’s nice to see my sister get those moments with our dad. 

 

Vyshnavi Viju is a sixteen-year-old girl who enjoys photography and writing. She is a huge fan of traveling to new and exotic places and loves adventure once in a while, even though she would rather read about it if she can. Her favorite part about traveling, besides getting to experience new cultures, is being able to capture the weird, the beautiful, the awkward, and the downright funny moments on her favorite camera.

 

Keep Moving Forward” though these words were originally made famous by the great late Walt Disney, Skylar Stewart a twenty year old from rural Ohio and an Illustration major studying at Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida still believes they ring true. She focuses on aspiring to that quote everyday of her life whether through her artwork or just living through the pandemic. Her art cherishes all the good in the world and emphasizing valuable lessons. Each work usually starts with the good ole’ graphite sketch but she explores different medias no matter how foreign they are to her. Her family, life experiences, and upbringing are her main inspirations for her work. Growing up, it was a family tradition for her to watch movies every night while eating a bowl of ice cream. It is these moments in her youth she truly cherishes and relishes as she traveled with her family to different worlds where anything was possible. It is her dream to instill this idea of family and possibility into every child or the child within us. She would like to be able to say her artwork made a child laugh, a mother cry, or even a grandpa smile.

 

 

 

Afresh Frankincense is twelve years old and in Class 7th. He’s a child art-prodigy and writer from Odisha and lives in Hyderabad in South India.  Though he loves math and science so much, art has a special place in his heart. His work appears or is forthcoming in The Elephant Ladder, Moonchild Magazine, The Celestial Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Kids 4G and elsewhere.