editor’s prologue

Halfway into the school year, the chilly air has punctually arrived at our doorsteps and with it comes 5 PM nightfalls and a kind of cold exclusive to Massachusetts — but along with it also comes snowfall, hot chocolate, and break. We collectively trudge through the end of 2023 in front of this icy backdrop, facing the inevitable bite of winter. Red Ink writes to our audience bearing in mind these shifts we share as a community.

If we rewind just a little, however, the commencement of the 2023-2024 school year has welcomed new members and readied those who will soon take flight. We see this not only in our general population, but also in clubs, sports teams, and friendships. As a student body, we are constantly changing others as we change ourselves. The diversity here gives us prosperities and hardships that we may have in common, such as the frigid winter we have all started to acclimatize to, yet our individual lives are also constantly changing and shaping the versions of us we will grow to become. At these times, we will, or perhaps some of us already are, wondering and preparing for the ever-imminent question – who am I becoming? This issue of the Red Ink newsletter explores the facets of the inescapable for every teenager.

off the canvas

Who are you becoming and why do you think it is so? What is uncomfortable about this or what do you enjoy about this process?

Don’t Choose Dare in Pre-K: Audrey Sau

Q: Was this poem based on a personal experience? What inspired you to write it?
A:Yes—this poem was based on a personal experience that I still dwell on and regret to this day, even if it was such a short moment. I wanted to challenge myself to capture complicated, relatable childhood emotions in a brief snapshot, leading me to write “Don’t Choose Dare in Pre-K.”

Q:Why did you choose to title the poem “DON’T CHOOSE ‘DARE IN PRE-K”?
A: My tenth-grade English teacher (shout out to Mr. Bennett!) was very, very enthusiastic about unique and impactful titles. I crafted this title in hopes of meeting those standards and I hope that readers can have fun analyzing it.

Q: We noticed the very prominent use of past tense. Is there a reason why you chose to write about this moment from this perspective?
A: To be honest, I didn’t think too much about the tense I was writing in. Because this poem was based on a personal experience that happened in my childhood, I slipped into the past tense very naturally, which I think fits with the theme of regret I was trying to convey.

Dying: Anson Richman
Two seconds later, the door issues a muted thump. The whole mall is about to close—it’s 6pm on a Sunday night—and Jordan has the decency not to find her way into a locked bathroom with me in it.
“Blake?” comes her voice from the other end.
“Were you trying to kill me?” I ask plainly.
“I thought we were having fun,” Jordan replies. We were having fun just minutes ago, like we always do. No one’s looking for us. No one even wants to look at us. So for the last eighteen months, we’ve been messing around at Trade Square Mall until dusk. We bounce around to blasting music, keep tabs on the increasingly defunct state of the place, and spend hours talking in dim halls untouched by cleaning supplies for years. Jordan remembers things: Sears left in 2019, Hot Topic left in 2013, her last friend left in 2009. Her stories are sad, but they’re better than mine. “You looked like you wanted to hurt me,” I say. “Like you—god, this sounds crazy—you wanted to Transform me.”
“I’m the only one here, Blake.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Stop saying that.” Jordan’s voice has turned from pleading to glum.
I told her yesterday that I got into Williams College, early decision.
I sit down on the stone-tiled floor, sagging under the weight of what I know she’ll say
next.
“I don’t want you to go.”
I reply.
“I don’t want to go.”
A moment passes. I take a deep breath of artificially-freshened air.
“I am going to die,” says Jordan. “This place is practically dead already, and nowhere else will have me.”
“So you wanna make me into a vampire so we can die here together?” I ask.
Jordan lets out a sigh. “I don’t know what I want. Just don’t come out right now, for your
own sake.”
Her breathing emanates from beyond the door. I hear it pulsate alongside my own at half
my rate.

A: Tell us about your creative process. What inspired the usage of immortality in this storyline?
Q: The primary inspiration behind “Dying” was a rundown mall I once visited in Florida. (The story is not specifically set in Florida, but I imagine it taking place in a suburb on the East Coast, somewhere south of New York.) The mall was described as “dying.” Although it was a single-story building, it had many near-empty halls. I felt like it must have been a popular hangout, but that the world had moved on. My decision to center the story around an immortal character stemmed from the idea of a person who had not moved on and the concept of a dynamic between someone from that bygone era, who feels isolated from the world, and someone from the present day, who also feels isolated from the world. I also just felt like the mall needed a vampire.

Q: “Dying” has an ambiguous ending. Is there an ending you envisioned but left out of the text?
A: “Dying” has an intentionally ambiguous ending. I have no definite vision for what happens at the end of the story, in part because I am too attached to both Blake and Jordan to imagine what would happen to them in any possible scenario. I do, however, want to leave the reader with the certainty that the two have come to a tenuous reconciliation.

Q: How has writing this piece changed how you interpret death? How do you think readers should interpret death after reading this piece?
A: “Dying” helped me explore the idea that a person can be alive, but “dead” in the eyes of others. For people who experience this, it is their responsibility to reestablish a connection with others, but it is also the responsibility of others to connect with them.

Continuum: Zoe Huang

Q: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received in regard to your art?
A: Something that my art teacher told me a lot (especially when I was younger) was that I couldn’t “climb the mountain halfway”- in the sense that I can’t give up on a piece halfway through. While it wasn’t really a tip specifically for art, she helped me persevere through many tough times when I felt like giving up on certain pieces and slump periods.

Q: What is your biggest struggle with art currently?
A: Definitely trying to find the motivation or time to draw–my motivation usually comes in small bursts every now and then, which is when I typically draw. Moreover, I went through a period of severe burnout due to my completing my entire college portfolio within the span of 8 months, which has led to other motivation issues.

Q: If you could tell your younger artist self anything, what would it be?
A: Don’t throw away the old pieces, even if they look horrible in the moment.

Q: Between these two pieces that you submitted, which is your favorite and why?
A: Even though I think that the cats are technically better, I have to say I prefer the skeleton probably because of the sheer amount of time that it took me to finish.

Q: Is there any specific teacher, artistic or not, that influenced your art at WHS? in what way?
A: My art teacher in Lexington for sure–she has held my hand through the entire art learning process and has facilitated my growth within the studio.

Q: If there’s one thing you could change about yourself as an artist what would it be?
A: My motivation issues and my tendency to get bored or burnt out easily.

Q: What medium are you most comfortable using?
A: Graphite–I have the most control over them.

Q: Who’s your art teacher and why do you like them?
A: My art teacher is Zheng 老师 from Luckie Art Studio in Lexington. I’ve been drawing under her for around a decade, and she is definitely a sort of mother figure to me.

Clarify: Valé Sanchez

Q: How did you come up with the idea of contrasting pixelated and HD?
A: I wanted to emphasize how modern day nature, technology, and nature are interacting, and how technology becomes part of nature. There is potential for both to benefit from each other, although modern technology is constantly clearing out nature. There can be technology that mimics and helps nature, but there is also technology that people exploit.

Q: We noticed that there was little to no transition between the pixelated and rendered portions of the painting, and thought that related to a change or transition from natural to unnatural. What do you think about the current climate around technology?
A: It represents how nature is responding to technology, there’s no adjustment for how nature takes over technology just like how nature is not given buffer time with industrialization and expanding technology. Especially now with the rise of AI, we are always looking for shortcuts.
The focus on a train in the painting symbolizes how technology can provide some sort of clarity even when it’s pushing limits.

celebrating international trans day of visibility

Red Ink is honoring Trans Day of Visibility (March 31) by inviting the student community to reflect on and remember art by people on the trans spectrum. Our prompts were based on works by Claude Cahun, H. Melt, and Yishay Garbasz.

Untitled (Claude Cahun in Le Mystère d’Adam) by Claude Cahun (1929)

Claude Cahun (1894-1954) was a French sculptor, writer, and painter. Though the language of pronouns and gender was not available at this time, Cahun likely considered themselves to be nonbinary and transgender. For this reason, we are referring to them using the singular they/them.

Cahun’s works are primary self-portraits focusing on gender expression and exploration. What do you think were their intentions in how they presented themselves in this image?

Knowing Claude created their own outfits for their shoots, what do their chosen props/clothes tell you about their perception of gender?

“In this image, I think they were trying to show how their gender identity might clash and be totally unique but makes sense to only them. They never tried to feminize their face, but chose to wear pearls and heels to portray femininity. The wing, looking like foil, likely implies that there is no point in trying to make sense of gender, instead becoming something more conceptual like faeries.”

“I feel like maybe the casual kind of “ruffled” appearance of the costume and props were meant to challenge people who might feel uncomfortable by Cahun’s choices. Almost Cahun’s way of saying “You don’t want me to present myself this way, and I still will and I won’t try too hard and it will still be valid”. The open palms and kind of daring glare into the camera communicate a similar thing to me.”

“I think they wanted to portray themselves freely with the choice of outfit and facial expression. Their props and clothes are neither masculine or feminine. It’s fluid, not confined by certain boundaries of gender.”

“I appreciate how they present themselves as both unorthodox and proud. Their use of seemingly flimsy and/or found materials to make something functional and beautiful shows their love for themself even through hardships.”

“I wonder if they aimed to portray the direct confrontation of the self and the outside world/society when existing as transgender. In my personal experience, shame heavily influences the internal process of acceptance and conversations about gender with other people. The costume is made of a bold and shiny material, their stance is open, and their gaze is sharp, directly addressing the attention of the viewer. I’m not too sure about this, but the costume also covers their hair— hair is a form of gender expression (traditionally long hair is for women and shorter hair for men, so deviation from that is a deviation of gender and gender presentation & expectations,) but the same material of the wings covers their head.”

Melt, H. “Intensive Care | Tinderbox Poetry Journal.” Tinder Box Poetry Journal, Mar. 2019, tinderboxpoetry.com/intensive-care. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

H. Melt (they/them) is a poet and educator celebrating trans liberation, specifically documenting Chicago’s queer and trans communities.

Intensive Care

River woke up
with their name
on the whiteboard

a crucifix on the wall
their parents straight
from new mexico

we talk of poems
of estrogen, who
sent the flowers

when the nurse
asks me to shave
their beard, I do

when the nurse
slips a she in
my direction

I don’t correct him
River does, despite the
difficulty of speaking

I wish we woke up
in a different world
but we’re here

together
holding hands in
intensive care.

What is the tone of this poem? What conflicts/relationships do you see at play?

How do you feel after reading this poem?

“The tone is close to reluctant acceptance. You can see the relationships of those in the intensive care and the doctors, the parents and the author, and the loyalty and closeness between patients. The poem makes me feel bittersweet, because it’s all about the closeness and love between two people while being put through hell. It paints a story of the endurance and devotion people can show for each other when they want too.”

“This poem for me communicates how important gender-affirming care is: it’s not just a matter of appearance, it is LITERALLY life-saving. I think the fact that the speaker and River, their friend and protector, are both trans in an ICU communicates this impact mentally and physically. I feel like it’s also sadly ironic that the intensive care unit seems to be exacerbating their sense of disconnect by misgendering them.”

“There is a sad and exhausted tone. Exhaustion from having to put up with the unfairness of the world. There is a strong sense of sadness about society’s mistreatment towards them and people like them. It’s sad, and I think any reader would be able to feel the tiredness of the poem.”

“I find this poem very melancholy because while the two characters find solidarity in each other, people outside of their bubble do not accept them. Their dreams of estrogen and other forms of gender-affirming care conveys a sense of hopelessness because it seems that it will not become reality.”

‘untitled’, C-Print from ‘The Gender Project’, 2002 by Yishay Garbasz

Yishay Garbasz (she/her) is a transgender artist specializing in photography, performance, and installation with a particular focus on trauma and identity.

Along with looking at her photo, please read this excerpt from an interview with Garbasz where she elaborates on this piece:

An Interview with Yishay Garbasz | Berlin Art Link

“I was interested in using negative space and the minimal amount of visual cues that trigger our brain to assume gender. It was really about how our brains work in terms of recognizing gender. It takes very little visual information for our brain to denote gender. I wanted to know: how much data does it take to have this binary view? My interest, for this project, was about certainty and how little it takes for us to be certain about something. It’s a shame because uncertainty is really powerful, not knowing is a form of intimacy and we cherish that when we receive it.”

Do you agree with Garbasz’s perspective on recognizing/assuming gender? Does the image endorse her points?

What might have Garbasz wanted this photo to say about implicit bias? How might this bias affect social conduct in regards to gender (and vice versa)?

“As soon as I saw this image, my brain filled in the rest for me. I saw a woman in a silky dress, and imagined what the front looked like. This surprised me- I’ve spent so long trying to break down gender norms and my own implicit bias. 80% of this image is negative space, yet we make assumptions, decide what it is before we see the full picture. A lot of people act on their assumptions of others based off their looks without trying to understand them beforehand.”

“I agree with Garbasz because the idea of not knowing someone’s gender until we are close with them promotes this level of trust and “intimacy” that shows once you know this person enough for them to be this open, you really know all of them and how they see themselves when they look in the mirror. Maybe Garbasz wanted to say that we as humans miss out on so much of a person just because we look at them and make assumptions because of a social construct.”

“I love Garbasz’s explanation of her work because I feel like it truly gives this photo meaning. I also think it’s notable how little Garbasz could expose of the human body without triggering gender clues, which to me indicates how saturated our world is–and our bodies–with artificial signposts of gender.”

“I think society has made everyone believe that some things are automatically put into social constructs of masculinity or femininity, which is not true. Nothing truly belongs in either “category,” it’s all subjective and personal.”

“The excerpt about Garbasz’s piece stood out to me as she said “uncertainty is really powerful, not knowing is a form of intimacy and we cherish that when we receive it”. When I saw this work at first glance, I instinctively assumed that the person in the photo is a woman because of my implicit bias. Being given a limited amount of visual details—yet that are conventionally associated as feminine characteristics—can make people easily fall into the trap of creating automatic conclusions about the person in the image. As Garbasz says, we hold onto the superficial facts and visual cues that we know and don’t think to question what we don’t know (or what we’ve been misled by) before drawing inferences about other people. I think this piece is a good reminder of how it’s important to acknowledge your implicit bias and learn how to recognize it as well as reconsider your impressions of other people rather than always sticking to your initial beliefs about them.”

“I agree with Garbasz’s perspective. I’ve heard of instances where a detail as meaningless as a strong jawline is enough to assume the gender of someone, even if they have always presented themselves as something else. Implicit bias is prevalent in everyone and hard to get rid of, but this should not change how one treats other people. This image only shows part of a head, a sliver of arm, and a section of torso, but for some people this is enough to construct an entire identity of the subject.”

“I feel like the fact that humans exist so much in public/social places means that many visual aspects of culture throughout throughout have been closely tied to gender— for example, fashion has been created and sold on enhancing accepted/celebrated parts and hiding undesirable shapes for thousands of years, and people have made entire careers off of making clothing that subverts the popular fashion of that time (ex: coco chanel.) In the past, strongly communicating and adhering to societal gender expectations might have been a source of power (whether or not it was actually empowering), so gender expression was so rigid and binary and that has definitely affected how we see gender today. This is a very Eurocentric/American view of how gender is communicated visually though!! So many cultures have different understandings of gender that don’t follow the traditional European/American understanding, but those have been suppressed and aren’t widely recognized in popular culture.”