Ava Hendrickson ‘22 | Mia Cabral ‘22
In reaction to a chaotic and tumultuous year, Epolitan’s staff plans to embrace the pandemic, publishing a magazine that features works related to the events of 2020. Although the 2019-2020 Epolitan publication faced many setbacks, the staff was able to create a digital magazine to feature student artwork. This year, the staff hopes to produce a physical copy in addition to a digital copy.
Photo courtesy of Ashley Kennedy ‘22
Editor in Chief, Kathleen Mark ‘21, discusses the creation of Epolitan, saying, “What we do is collect the pieces of literary works from either Creative Writing Club or that other people submit, and visual art, both that people are doing outside of school and especially from when staff see pieces from their own art classes that they think are really good.” William Sargent ‘22, Epolitan Layout Editor, adds, “We’re trying to highlight the creations of students so sometimes we’ll feature submissions with kind of a different angle than you get through other publications, that highlights specifically the arts and all of the amazing things people have created each year.”
As an art and literary publication, Epolitan includes a vast array of artistic categories. Sargent shares, “We’ll do photography and then we’ll have some sculpture, some short stories or poetry, and then some visual art. It really just depends on what’s available.” He explains the reason for the diversity in art forms, stating that “any art creation we’re willing to put in because it’s really important to see all the cool things people made.” Regarding Epolitan content, Mark adds, “The good part about Epolitan every year is that we get to choose and have a creative liberty with how we want the book to look and what theme we want to pursue.”
Like many other activities, Epolitan staff had to adjust its plans as a result of the past year’s circumstances. Mark explains what this year’s final product will look like saying that, “this year we don’t even know if we’re going to do a print or not.” She adds, “the main reason why we don’t know is because we don’t even know how we would distribute it.” David Sigel, Chair of the Art Department and Faculty Advisor to Epolitan, further explains the dilemma regarding Epolitan distribution, explaining, “Typically, we produced this collective of literary and visual art submissions or collections of our community and it’s distributed during Arts Fest, but since we are not going to have a gathering like Arts Fest, we’re still making it accessible but we’re also going to make it accessible digitally.”
Sargent explains, “We’re changing the overall theme of our magazine. We’re going for a more chaotic theme, indicative of the chaos we’ve all been through, sort of responding to the pandemic.” Ashley Kim ’22, an Epolitan literary editor, talks about how the magazine will be affected because of this year, reiterating that “the theme for this year’s edition seemed clear: in these unprecedented times, we wanted to capture the loneliness of the pandemic in juxtaposition to the chaos of the election–and everything in between.” Sargent adds that, “I think it’s not just the structure of the magazine that’s going to be different. I think a lot of the artworks might be different because first of all we had all this time during the quarantine to reflect and also make art.” Additionally, Sargent explains that Epolitan and its art will “hopefully be responding to the current situation in some way,” explaining, “it would only make sense because art is a response to current situations.”
Mark discusses why the Epolitan is a valuable publication for the EA community, saying, “I think the best part about Epolitan for the community is that they get to see some of the pieces that you might not see in the hallways all the time, because some people don’t go upstairs, some people don’t see all the pieces, which is somewhat disappointing for the Art Department because sometimes people are overlooking some of the really great pieces.” Kim speaks about the importance of a magazine, like Epolitan, which celebrates the projects and works of the community, saying that “I love that Epolitan collects amazing art into one cohesive piece, but I think its greatest impact is the connection it builds within our community. Art allows us to express what is closest to who we really are and gives us a space to connect on a deeper level. If nothing else, it sparks the joy that we need more than ever in these challenging times.” Mark adds that it’s not only important for the community as a whole, but that, “for the people that submit, I think it’s pretty powerful to be able to put yourself out there and show your work and be somewhat vulnerable.”