BLARM 2021

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BLARM

Battle Literature & Art Review Magazine 2020-2021, Volume 8 This issue is Battle Uncovered, Unveiled, Exposed, Revealed, Confessed

This issue of BLARM was made using Adobe Creative Suite The font used throughout is the Minion Pro Family Cover artwork created by Kaela Belmore -2-

Contents 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 23 24 25

Growth by Liam Schrader Unnamed by Kaela Belmore Unnamed by Ana Ciza Flower and Memories by Allie Easton America is by Robert Lee Self-Portrait by Amariah Talley Woodson Marionette by Georgianna Giliam Cloudy Adventure by Jenna Collier America is opportunity by Tre’ Richardson Unnamed by Jasmine Sam Photo Session by Kaylee Faddis Still Small Voice by Sarah McMurry Face by Kaela Belmore Art for me by Kaela Belmore With the blood of my enemies by Jenna Collier Santa Unmasked by Ada Chapman Great Grandma Dorothy by Joceyn Calhoun Movement 12 by Angel Sun Unnamed by Kaylee Faddis Unnamed by Kaela Belmore A ‘Lil Bit Sleepy by Amariah Talley Woodson

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Staff Not Pictured:

Catherine Arnold

Addison Gish

Mya White

Lauren Wright

Savannah Bridgeford

Henry Bridgeford

Allie Easton

(working on this magazine)

Liam Schrader

Jody Spriggs

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Anne Borgmeyer

Editor’s Note

This school year has stood out in the changes it inflicted onto everyone’s lives. All these changes we confronted made this year memorable by redefining our new normal. It brought forth new challenges to our values and unity as a country through major events like January the 6th riots or Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. It has also brought new appreciation to previously mundane tasks and routines like going to school each day or even going out and about without a mask.

While the pandemic may have been torturous, bittersweet, or enriching, it endlessly proved to have a huge impact on us by exposing us to new perspectives, highlighting our weaknesses as a society, inspiring change that helped communities grow and unite with each other, and helping us better connect with ourselves and learn how to express ourselves, whether it is through artwork or activism.

We see this with the artwork in this magazine that showcases our theme of “Unmasked.”

Students express their feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, and feelings of loss through their artwork that effectively reflects the attitudes we all faced throughout the pandemic.

Pieces like Liam Schrader’s “Growth” mirror our society’s attitude and feelings towards the pandemic, where we were all faced with uncertainty, fear, and nervousness about the outcomes of our future and how long our new normal would last.

Amariah Talley Woodson’s piece “Li’l Bit Sleepy” is a visual representation of chaos and stress that cause those awful sleepless nights we all despise, as the character tries to reach away from these stressors. This piece symbolizes those same feelings we all felt after we lost our routines, or when we didn’t know what was going to happen with school, or became lonely and were forced to replace in-person interactions with facetimes and zooms. This piece signifies a lot of complex emotions in a nuanced way.

Having seen all these pieces or read them, and having worked with my fellow peers to review them and create this magazine - has been an incredibly enriching experience where I’ve been able to form new relationships, new appreciations for art and literature, and realize the talents of fellow students. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to help showcase all this fantastic work and to have worked with Mrs. Borgmeyer and our BLARM members who were all incredibly kind and passionate about BLARM. With all this aside, I hope you the reader find as much joy in reading the magazine as we did making it! Enjoy!

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Growth

Liam Schrader

With a resounding snap, the deep blackness is illuminated. The sharp click of the light jolts me to attention and quickly switches my focus back to the task at hand. Cones of light begin to slowly survey the walls around me. I follow suit and carefully look around. The boundaries of an unfathomably long cavern, untouched by the hands of man, are revealed to me. I can clearly see a smooth entrance, opening up into a vast tunnel. The area just beyond is covered in a cluster of unusual looking shaggy plants. All of similar height, around knee high, piled in small mounds of elongated shapes and covered in a peculiar moss. They rest on the dusty brown bottom of the cave, all forming curiously similar positions. Like bulbous, fuzzy caterpillars, curled up on their backs from a freezing cold. Soft and grey, the plants blend in among the bleak smooth walls of the cavern. Had I not been looking for them I might not have seen them at all. The air, exposed by the wide beacons of light, is clouded by a blanket of spores, lazily drifting in swirls of fuzzy clumps. The spores seem to gather and dance around the piles of moss as if they were catching some twisting breeze radiating out slowly from their surface. I look again to the large opening. It should easily allow for the passage of myself and the others into the site. With a glance forward I see the vast black emptiness that continues on for a millenia. I can feel the gargantuan weight of it compressing my shoulders, turning my heart to ice and my legs to rubber. Pushing aside my anxiety, I move into the opening.

As we enter the cave, the others begin to perform their duties. Slow and scientific analysis drags into motion. Every inch of the opening is painstakingly surveyed and noted by the researchers around me. I wander a few feet into the cavern and spot what I was tasked to study: a large patch of the untamed grey plant. The moss is foreign and unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Thousands of thick sprouts of compact stalks erupt from a skin-like membrane of moss covering an exceptionally strange silhouette. Odd protrusions press outward of the membrane like sharp cliffs jutting out of miniature hills; every inch of which were carpeted in a blanket of lush stalks.

The membrane itself is rigid, its unusual form unable to be moved even by my most forceful attempts. A layer of the fuzzy spores lay gently on the grassy exterior, brushing off into the air with my slightest touch. With each discovery, a squirming feeling rises further from my gut into my throat. The cave suddenly feels much smaller, the mass of plants much more violent in their unmoving arrangement. I can feel the slow drip of sweat fall down my brow, my hands grow moist and cold. But ignoring my anxiousness I begin, reaching into the leather satchel at my waist and retrieving a light pair of steel tweezers and a small, cylindrical capsule designed to hold specimens. The tight, black mask gripping my face clouds from heavy breathing. As my vision dulls This is an excerpt to a longer piece, read the rest here - https://tinyurl.com/sr4ykmfb

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Unnamed

Kaela Belmore

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Flower and Memories Allie Easton

I see them smile I like it when they smile It’s what I look for whenever I see them That’s not what they look for in me though They see the persona that I have created to make them happy Knowing that if they saw who I really was What I really was They would leave me like all the others I just want to have a friend that I can be around Without having to create this shield of false promises To hide my face and actions But there is no stopping it No matter if they love me or not They will eventually move on Join the others in this garden of those lost Hopefully I can still see them smile for many more days to come But for now we can stay here together In this field of flowers and memories

Accompanying Drawing:

Unnamed Anna Ciza

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America is Robert Lee

This is the America of the past Past generations came to America with hope Hope that here they would have a brighter and better life Life that is safe from the violence or threats of wherever they came from From every corner of the globe, like birds they flocked Flocked to the populated cities, small towns, quiet neighborhoods, and “safe” streets Streets and blocks where they found that America can remind them of home Home where violence and death caused fear Fear that drove them here Here where they weren’t welcomed with open arms but with closed minds Minds that viewed them as criminals Criminals that brought their problems to America America where our statue of liberty says “​Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” “Free” as long as you don’t look threatening and you look like you belong Belong to the idea of how we think an American should look Look like you are oblivious to the world and only care about what’s going on here Here, where our nation was built on the backs of immigrants Immigrants that throughout our brief history, have fueled the engine that drives our growth Growth towards a dream that together, like the architects of our democracy, we will build a better tomorrow Tomorrow could be the start of a better America America of the future

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Self Potrait

Amariah Talley Woodson

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Marionette

Georgianna Gilliam Everyone has a person or dream That helps them to keep going Like a puppet on a string It could be anything Everyone has that dream of the promise that lies ahead And that’s why most of us don’t walk back and walk forward instead But what about those who don’t dream?

Have they never had one?

Or did someone cut their string?

It’s hard to predict what anyone could be When we can’t see the memories That make up the sun of insecurity Masked with the clouds of narcissism That follows them to the sea of broken dreams The flower grows upwards against the overwhelming pressure of gravity With the challenge, there is some sense of security In reaching a peak of overcoming an opportunity Why stay comfortable in formality When you can learn to thrive in reality

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Cloudy Adventure Jenna Collier

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America is Opportunity Tre’ Richardson

America is opportunity Opportunity is something that is new to me Only new because it was something my young eyes couldn’t see Right in front of me like the tip of my nose But opportunity doesn’t wait on anyone, it comes and goes

America is opportunity Opportunity is sacrifice, flushing your pride for something better Something better that can cause a change, a change like the weather Choosing what’s best instead of what you want Once you get that opportunity you shouldn’t flaunt

America is opportunity Opportunity is being all in, all in like I put all my chips on the table I swear good opportunities are rare so whenever it comes take it when you’re able When you take it be all in opportunities are real, not all fable

America is opportunity Opportunity is omnipresent, it’s everywhere like the virus, but instead it’s for the better It’s like darkness to light, no end in sight If you give it everything you got, then you just might Catch all the blessings, so hold em’ tight

Accompanying Drawing:

Unnamed

Jasmine Sam - 14 -

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Photo Session Kaylee Faddis

Rewind.

Ignite. Feel the light.

Dig deeper. Find what’s inside.

The light burns.

Why does it hurt?

Look deep into the lenses.

Zoom in closer. Tear down the fences.

Trapped in a world of yesterday.

Make me the centerpiece of today.

Capture the moment. Live in the past.

Soak in it and make it last.

Let the photo trap you in a little bubble of memories Hit play.

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Still Small Voice Sarah McMurry - 17 -

Face

Kaela Belmore

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Art for me

Kaela Belmore

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Blood of my Enemies Jenna Collier

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Santa Unmasked Ada Chapman

Santa Claus is a criminal. From supporting child slavery to unfair labor regulations, animal cruelty to stalking, Mr. Claus has shown himself to be quite the dangerous fellow over the past hundreds of years. With such blatant disregard for the law, it is obvious that this man is a danger to the society around him. Though, it is less commonly known that Santa, at one point in time, violated another American value. Old jolly Saint Nick has for years supported the controversial idea of communism, going so far as to move to a hostile, ungoverned land in order to practice it legally, though his prior crimes hint to ulterior motives.

Before properly judging Mr. Claus’s motives, one must understand his criminal record.

Claus has a history of animal cruelty, enforcement of child labor, and most well-known, stalking.

For years, citizens of the world have cowered in fear, many songs detailing his atrocities. For example, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1932, details several horrors that the average child would face at his hands. “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.” This clearly displays the terror instilled by Mr. Claus globally, after many children caught the man red-handed -and red-suited- watching them sleep.

Beyond his stalker-like tendencies, Claus has additionally displayed a string of abusive behaviors, and a disregard for human and animal life. The film Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer displays this perfectly. The movie opens with the scene of a young doe and her child, though when it is discovered that the deer has a deformity, he is isolated from others of his kind and shunned by Santa. Soon after, the young deer meets an underage escapee from a prison-like work camp, where he was forced to make toys year-round in order to feed Claus’s dark and twisted child stalking fantasies.

Throughout the story, more and more victims are met, displaying the wide span of Santa Claus’s reign of terror. During the film, multiple scenes of reindeer can be seen pulling the obese man’s sleigh, being forced to haul thousands of pounds of redistributed goods across the globe with no hope of escape due to their chained status. His disregard for animals’ well-being does not end at back-breaking labor. In fact, it extends much deeper, as seen in the propaganda tale of T’was the Night Before Christmas, which states that on Christmas eve, “he was dressed in all fur.” Fur is often recognized as cruel, causing many to favor faux fur due to the numerous lives that must be taken for just one coat, often resulting in endangerment of the species. According to the United Federation of Teachers’ article on endangered animals and the fur trade, “Some animals, even those that existed in tremendous numbers, have been threatened with extinction and endangerment as a result of the fur trade.” Some of these animals include fur seals and vicuna.

Despite the danger posed to the animals he wears, many believe him to be.

This is an excerpt to a longer piece, read the rest here - tinyurl.com/yjjcjunm - 21 -

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OPPOSITE IMAGE:

Great Grandma Dorothy Jocelyn Calhoun TOP IMAGE:

Movement 12 Angel Sun BOTTOM IMAGE:

Unnamed

Kaylee Faddis

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Unnamed

Kaela Belmore

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Li’l Bit Sleepy

Amariah Talley Woodson

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