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Creation    

Sophie Fyfe

IS

ACTIVISM

      Mercy Benefit Concert 2023, a fundraiser for:
 
 The Community Solidarity , was a wonderful success!!!
                                                                                       Thank you! 

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Congratulations to the Xanadu community!!

We are 2022/23 Crown Award Recipients. This is an honor presented to our digital publication by the Columbia University  Scholastic Press Association. 

 

This award honors the top online student galleries chosen from those of its members. Xanadu was one out of two online magazines nationwide to receive such prestigious recognition.

Xanadu is the  only gallery in New York selected. Much thanks to the many hands and hearts who contribute to the magazine.  

Want to know more? Click here.

 

August Marmalade 

Eliana Kazin

 

Typically orange, but today a sour lemon.

A sour lemon, with a whisper of banana Laffy Taffy.

 

Lucious golden locks, urine is trickling.

Silent snickers 6:47, saffron horizon peeping ahead. 

 

I appear as the daffodils sprouting when the air turns to spring. However,

faded. Faded ancient paper, disintegrating with every fingerprint. 

 

A flashing traffic light— slow down or speed up? Double highway lines

a forcefield 

of sight

 

I am scribbled on post it notes, shoved between pages

sticky from August marmalade.

 

Baby's buttons splashing in a pool of honey.

AMC butter popcorn, greasy like the trusted 

Maybelline mascara tube.

Window
Ciara flores

I am windowed.

People walk past overlooking me

While I'm stuck in a holder unable to move

Or feel anything I’m feeling.

 

But you saw me,

You made me feel seen by you.

But what I didn’t know was

You were using me the whole time

To fill your cup of happiness.

Using me until-—

I was out of my own happiness.

 

Now I am locked, facing the people walking by

Studying them,

Looking at the tile floor and  nice lighting, 

But trapped in the mall 

Being used to see what the manikin behind me

Has to offer.

Other stores surrounding me

Knowing that I should have known better.

Mercy 2023 Poster
Cecilia Lee

 Photo by Cecilia Lee

Sky Rocket    

Juan Quintanilla                                                    

 

I have fireworked  too long for you. 

I have been  floating materials of sulfur, 

the carbon monoxide and the carbon dioxide

 just filled with excitement to explode 

 30 feet in the air  shining  with colorful lights. 

Then from the ground you can feel the excitement  

gone when the ashes have come down.

 I, the firework, have given you too much entertainment 

 now to see you  just using me for your happiness.

Ava Hedstrom

 Photo by Ava Hedstrom

The Green of my Nature                                    

Kate Pratt

 

The lush of the ground of giant over grown forests

           and in the same forest are the leaves on top the same over grown trees.

 

The frogs in the marsh hiding in the lily pads they blend

all too well in

           and in the same marsh are cattails, cultivating along creeks.

 

The tall grass at the beaches, preventing sand from straying too far from the sea

and at the same beach are the metallic trash bins collecting soda cans.

 

The flowing sea weed sprouted deep below the waves

           and in the same ocean are sea basses swimming along.

 

The sounds from the grasshoppers and crickets conjoined

           and in the same song is the melody

           of the night.

 

The nature that is found in every single walk of life,

           is the same nature within my roots and soul, shining a beautiful and bright

           Green.   

Judy Reilly

 By Judy Reilly

Katie Mondry

Photo By Katie Mondry

Dark Hallway

Madelin Saravia

 

I walk down a hallway. 

I walk alone.

I’m hallwayed and there is no one to hear me. 

The stairs are breaking down

and the posters advertising events

I will not attend are falling as I move 

past lock doors.

I fall and get up 

but there is no one to help me 

or at least give me their hands. 

I break down 

but there is no one to comfort me. 

I’m depressed 

but no one notices.

I walk down in a black hallway— 

The lights are all off. 

The Comfortable Web

Sardara Singh


In a digital abyss, we often dive

where pixels sway, real emotions hide.

The weight of sadness, like gravity's pull.

It's tempting to sink, to let it fully rule.

 

With every scroll, the melancholy grows,

A feed of despair, where the darkness shows.

Yet in that void, a strange comfort we find,

As if chains of sorrow, our hearts do bind.

 

Creativity and passion do thrive,

But only for those who try.

The real shall pry, as the rest will cry

Curiosity is key, as long as the cat doesn’t die.

 

Knowledge blooms, as we all gloom,

In a shadowed room, thoughts are consumed.

Doomed are the clickers, or that is what’s said,

But who are we, except bugs that are webbed.

Kaite Mondry

 Photo by Katie Mondry

Ode to a Razorblade
William Iemma

 

A weapon of sculpting, indispensable 

in a war of thoughtless, bloody scars

and scarred, bloodied thoughts.

 

A tool of creation, gracefully cleaving

through cardboard and cardstock

and mending misplaced paints.

 

A utensil of nurturing, a protective flame

born from its shredding of fibers and twigs

or a wound treated by the hastily severed bandage.

 

I thank you for your precise, vicious separation— 

the necessary restructuring responsible for creating

 

a blossoming, beautiful being. 

Featured Artists

   Our Dear Cool Father. 

Walt Whitman_edited.jpg

   Thank you for arriving!

                 
Wonderful to see you.

Our magazine prides itself on diversity amongst its artists. We are a publication run by students, for the student body. Here you will find lifetime creators and students who have built and shared something for the first time. We like to include all things that might inspire more creation. More voices.

 

Just take a walk around our gallery and you will be dazzled. Truly dazzled. Read a few poems and prose pieces and reflect on the voices and craft. Visit the art section and disappear into the oils and acrylics, the water colors and charcoals. Imagine the eyes of our photographers and love what they have shared. Go to the media page and  listen to the TSDC  live performances.  Enjoy the raw, softly produced spirit of those musicians and spoken word poets.

 

This is a good place. A place that believes creation is activism. That the more we create, the more we exist. Walt Whitman wrote that a "kelson of creation is love." Yep, we agree. We are steered by it. We believe that a community of thoughtful sharing is a strong and beautiful place.

 

Want to read more about our team here at Xanadu? Head on over to our about page where we discuss our history and talk about our plans for the future.

 

Kate O'Phelan
Art by Kate O'Phelan

   2022/23 PTA Reflections
   The PTA Reflections is an annual contest that honors the creativity and arts within the Whitman community. Students were encouraged to write and submit poetry based on the prompt: "Show Your Voice." Below are the  poetry winners for this year:

 Award for Literary Excellence                 Shelly Chen
             Sarah Cruz
    Award for Literary Merit
         Samantha Regalado
           Julia Crapanzano

   
Award  Literary Achievement
          Aleena Ashgar
          Madeline franz
          Chris Ramire
z

          Emily Szwedo
         
        
Sofia Hudak

 By Sofia Hudak

            Congratulations!

     2023 Walt Whitman Birthplace                  Poetry Contest Winners:
             
         
Adelrhany Georges

    Candida Villalt
a Meza
     
                &

        Paige MacPherson

    Walt Whitman

 

    Over 200 years and there is  plenty of evidence that Walt Whitman is very, very alive. And yet, there is plenty  to reveal he is sadly absent. These days, we need his spirit and his funk more than ever. 200 years. Pick up Song of Myself  and read one section a week (there are 52 sections) and we will bring him back- To Stay! 

    The "Father of the Free Verse,"- our town's very own Walt Whitman was an extraordinary essayist, journalist, and poet. Whitman was a controversial humanist who brought aspects of both realism and transcendentalism into his works. Whitman struggled to receive both recognition and compensation for his works when he first began writing, specifically his most famous work, Leaves of Grass.  His writing was considered to be extremely controversial due to his mentioning of sexuality and broad thinking. Whitman fell in love with the written word at an early age through reading classic works of Shakespeare, Dante, and Homer, along with the Bible. Other than just being a writer, Whitman made a living through teaching and journalism. He continued working on his writing within newspapers, constantly developing his unique style. Whitman was praised for his non-conformist way of writing, as he was known to have little to no form, meter or rhyme. However, we know now that he did indeed have a wild new exciting and free and democratic way of exploring the human experience.  We are so, so proud he is our father. 

 

 

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