Lit by Design presents
The New Design Times December 2023 Issue | Vol. 2.2
INSIDE STORIES! Going to the Graveyard! p. 2-3 Lit x Design Showcase p. 4
Sophomore vibes: a sample of Kamilah’s playlist
Shameless Teaser “My ankle lives for another day and I won’t have to be stuck with the ghosts! Yay!!” “And then there were none left behind in the cemetery…. No nevermind, I lied.” (Thoughts on a cemetery trip, pp. 2-3)
NEW DESIGN NEWBIE of the MONTH December’s focus is on the school’s new DFL teacher, KAMILAH FRASER. Interview by Xin Ping Chen New Design Times: What was your first impression of New Design? My first impression was that it was a very cool and chill school. It looks like students here are able to express their own identities without any judgement and the classes are Kamilah’s 1st impression: “Very cool and chill” different compared to other schools. What inspired you to create a weekly sophomore playlist? I do it personally on my own Instagram. I ask people for a theme and add songs to a playlist. So I thought it was a cool idea for the sophomores to do it. Though, I might stop because there aren’t many song requests nowadays. (Add more songs sophomores!) If you could teach another subject, what would it be and why? Maybe knitting and crocheting because I overheard some students wanting to do it and I thought it was a really good idea. I think knitting and crocheting is a really good stress reliever, so it would be a class that can relax and chill while creating fun stuff! What’s something a student did that you can’t ever forget? It was the other day when I felt upset about something. And one of the student advocated for me and went to a teacher and told them “I think something is wrong with Kamilah, can you go check up on her?” And that made me feel really happy that someone cares about my feelings.
Temporarily Or permanently
Exploring with Ghosts By Xin Ping Chen
Around the end of October, sophomores and some freshmen went to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn in search of 12 unique symbols. We were separated into 6 groups, each headed by a sophomore teacher who led us up steep hills, got us lost, and let us discover extraordinary architecture. It was unreasonably entertaining for a cemetery field trip.
Photo Credit: AJ Roman
Going to Greenwood Cemetery by the D train was enough to make me laugh. Why? I played tic-tac-toe on Meg’s forehead using a photo and the markup feature the phone offers. After that, we got off the subway at 36th Street and circled our way into the cemetery. Here’s when the trip officially started, as we’d be “interacting” with ghosts in search of the 12 symbols. Minutes into the cemetery, every group found an urn (symbol 1) and separated into different areas. I dragged Julie’s group uphill and we quickly found an hourglass, another symbol! Hell yeah, 10 more to go. At some point, my group ran into Meg’s and we went into the Tranquility area and saw incense stations and a pond filled with koi! We were told by a sign to stay quiet while being in there, and that’s what we did! The one and only time I heard a high school class be so quiet. It was great.
After that, we went uphill and found more symbols. I was thirsty, so I drank my milk tea while everyone else kind of… got dehydrated, except for my friends who also had milk tea thanks to my lovely barista skills! As everyone was thirsty, we all went to lunch. While Meg was leaving, I snatched her hat (see photo) and ran to my group as fast as I could. Once we bought food, our goal was to eat near the entrance, but as we walked past a statue of Medusa’s head, someone kissed it and we trudged down a hill. I got really tired from walking down for 2 hours, so I sat on the ground. Then everyone started sitting down, and we started eating our lunch there. I gave out snacks to everyone, and we all just talked to each other. After about 10 minutes of sitting on the ground, a few people ran away, got lost, and Emmy appeared out of nowhere trying to find those in her group. Minutes later, a car stopped in front of us, and 3 people got out of and it was those in Emmy’s group! We all laughed and imagined a kidnapping in a cemetery because that’s what teens do!
After that very lovely occurrence, I saw a rocket ship in a distance and screamed, “There’s a girl inside with 100 tampons available!” It sounds random, but it was a little story Emmy and Meg told us of how sexist the space force was then. We got up and went uphill yet again. We wanted to show Emmy and the others the Medusa, so we did. After that, we wanted to explore a new area. But as we started up, I twisted my ankle. I almost fell, but thankfully I got a hold of someone’s shoulder and lived. I wouldn’t have to be stuck with the ghosts! Yay!!
Up the hill we found an aristocrat’s grave and talked about finding it and wondering if any other group found it too. Going downhill we saw Melissa’s group and said hi to each other and walked away. Amazingly enough, my group all thought Melissa was Meg from a distance… I guess we were all blinded from the sun. Haha…. Anyway, we went into a chapel and saw some writing by people to their dead relatives. Nothing interesting happened after; we had found all the symbols and there was still time before we had to leave. We sat outside of the chapel, and saw Kamilah and Rob passing by. That’s when I realized, my playlist was playing songs that were somehow related to the cemetery. I had about 1.9k songs in my playlist, but at the time it played “Shoujo Rei (Ghost Girl),” “Ghost City Tokyo,” “DREAM PLACE,” and “Rolling Girl.” Out of everything I could have listened to, I got “DREAM PLACE”?! What is that supposed to mean? I didn’t want to twist my ankle and forever live there…. Remember Meg’s hat? I carried it most of the trip in my hand, it was great. I had to return it when we saw each other again though, so that was unfortunate. I got a call from my friend that was in another group and she asked where I was. How did I reply? “In the cemetery.” I didn’t know what else I was supposed to say. Neither of us would know exactly where we were even with the street signs that appeared every so often. We found each other, and she dragged me to Meg to return her hat in my possession. After all of that, I still had snacks, so I fed the geese some crackers. Thankfully I wasn’t attacked by any of them, but I almost got chased by one. And that was the end of the trip. I went to Costco and took their free samples, plus we found a really friendly stray cat that we pet for a bit!
Lit x Design Showcase Art & Writing selected by Lit by Design –NDHS’s Literary Magazine
what if i was you and you were me? By Janylis Difo what if i was you and you were me? you would see the world through my eyes and my mind. you would see my overwhelming pain throughout the years of being in a family full of bullies. you would see why i let things hurt me and why i care so much. why i never let anyone fully in and why when i tried i never wanted to again because when i did i was told to keep quiet while i wanted to die. why i always call anywhere home because i never felt like there was a home to stick to. why i hate being in the middle because my parents don’t know how to grow up and leave me out of it. why i write because i’ve always felt like everything i thought and wanted to say out loud was unimportant, who cared what i had to say? why i’m scared to be alone because the one person who was supposed to love me the most outplayed me. although i was never really alone in a family with 11 grandkids, it always felt like i was playing by myself. someone was always better and it showed. i’m everything and everyone i don’t want to be.
A Butterfly By Athena Phillip
From the Photography Elective: photo by Brianna Bancroft
THE LIT TEAM
Xin Ping Chen / Isaac Gomez / Sherlynn Flores Guevara / Lexy Frye Yanos Send your work to:
LitbyDesign@newdesignhigh.com The Lit Team meets Wednesdays in Rm. 432 during lunch. Join us!
I wasn’t always this awake Before I was in a deep sleep Stuck in an endless nightmare, hell Fearing the next steps Dwelling on the footprints Dreading every day that comes I was weak minded I let my feelings & emotions overcome me. They controlled me I was the puppet The day I woke up wasn’t just a day It was a process, a journey Just like a butterfly I was a caterpillar entering my cocoon So I can bloom into the person I am today I know I had seen the lowest of low so I can see the highest of high & I’m grateful for waking up Now I can fly.