All posts by Natalya Crespo, News Editor

Arts and Entertainment, Slider

Time for creativity

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This is an interesting time for creatives, and I would know because I am a photographer, writer, and a graphic designer. As a student and a big sister to 3 girls, times have been tough, and my family and I have had to adjust. Everyday for the past 4 weeks, I’ve had to commit to being a homeschool art and spelling teacher, and a student with all my courses online. But somehow I’ve had more time for my art and writing. It’s hard to find inspiration to create when life is less adventurous and you can’t experience much while sitting at home and just trying to stay productive.

 As a photographer, it’s been hard to find new ways to take pictures, and new subjects to have for those pictures. But last week my sister and I came up with the idea of experimenting with my camera skills and her modeling skills. We share a small room and we have a bunked bed, so we set up a white blanket under the top mattress, coming down to be our backdrop. We also use a lamp for our light that I moved around while taking the pictures, to get different affects on the quality of the photos. I used moved around to many sides of the room and used props like a book, and my big winter jacket. Although we just did this for fun, these came out to be some of my best portrait photos. Here’s a little look:

 

 

I do believe that I would never get these pictures if we weren’t quarantined and always home. I also have more time for writing my poetry and I wrote a good poem a few weeks ago when this all started, inspired by social distancing and everything I’ve been personally going through so far. For me, the only positive to come out of this crazy pandemic, has been my time spent on writing and art. I’ve also learned a lot and I’ much better with time management. Before this happened, I was almost never home, between work, school, business, my friends and my boyfriend, so when I was home I’d relax and procrastinate and I’d use the fact of me never being home as an excuse to not get much done while I was home. Since I’m always home now, there are no more excuses and I’m always trying my nest to stay on top of things and keep moving forward.

But I will get through all the negatives that come with these positives, because I have my writing and art.

Here is the poem that I wrote:

 

Opinion

Home learning, teaching, and appreciating

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All around the world, teachers have been learning to teach remotely, and adjusting to the “new norm.” Parents and guardians must also adjust to the way their household has to be now. This may be an easier switch for younger moms and dads, or families with teenagers to help. But most parents and younger children are having a hard time trying to figure out all the technology that’s now required to be used daily for education to continue and for teachers to ideally teach. However, nothing is ideal right now.

 In my household there are five children that normally attend public schools in Haverhill. They are ages 7, 9, 10, 12 and 15. The 15-year-old is my sister Laylani and she is in the age range where she knows what she’s doing for the most part and doesn’t need much guidance. Also, Laylani goes to a technical high school, where everyone has already been using iPads and learning more technologically so she just has to adjust to the Zoom calls. Zoom is a video conferencing app that schools are using to have some sort of face-to-face class and to give students a chance to ask questions, and teachers a chance to explain concepts better. I know of Zoom and “Google Meets” and both are ways of communicating with a full class of students now until the end of the school year.

 Since there are so many students in my house and not many rooms, when all of these class meetings happen, it gets hectic. The video calls happen around the same time, if not at the exact same time, and all of the kids in my house will sit at the kitchen table, some with headphones, and some without, and there will be four to five different classes going on at once. With these calls, comes a lot of technical difficulties and not much time for one-on-ones between the student and teacher. So, when “class” isn’t going on, my grandmother and I still like to focus on their education. I’m their spelling, art, and music teacher, and my grandmother is the science and gym teacher. This makes it interesting because although we do things differently from their teachers at school, what really matters is we’re keeping them busy and educating them at the same time.

 Although there have been many complications and adjustments when it comes to this new normal of homeschooling and cooperating with technology, this has been a great learning experience for me. During this time, I’ve grown to appreciate teachers more because of how overwhelming it can be, and I learned how hard it is to create assignments and projects for a group of kids with different ages and separated interpretations. But if we just try our best, as parents and guardians, to give our children a stress-free environment to keep learning, I think we will be well prepared for what the future holds. Education is so important, and we should all be teachers of something.

Lawrence, News

Keeping creative with Professor Victor

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Marquis Victor is a new professor at Northern Essex Community College who teaches Intro to Film Studies and Communication through Film. He started teaching spring 2020, not only as a way to scratch that teaching itch he’s had, but also to contribute to the college’s education offering in the city. He wants to “expose Lawrence youth to the structure, ideas and forms of film and why it is such a powerful art medium,” Victor says.

Although Victor is just getting started with teaching, he’s been a leader for some time now. He earned his Master of Arts from Lesley University in Education and he is currently getting a doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership at Northeastern University. On top of getting his master’s and starting to teach, and continuing his education, he is also the Founding Executive Director of Elevated Thought. Elevated Thought is a social justice based curriculum that serves as the foundation for the creative youth development curriculum, based in Lawrence. Victor leads ET’s mission: to develop various arts.

Art is important, and staying as creative as possible is important to open your mind, especially during times like these. Though art may not be quite for everyone, both art and film play a huge role in Victor’s family. “I create every day with my 3 year old daughter (a lot of painting) and I make sure to write poetry everyday. Me and my wife watch a couple films a week,” he says.

News, Uncategorized

United in isolation: A story of creativity through heartache

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Serai Bogran of Haverhill is an 18-year-old Journalism student in her second semester at Northern Essex Community College. She has had a hard time adjusting to her new routine of completing her courses online, while dealing with all the distractions that accompany the use of technology and living with four other people.

She has three younger siblings. Two of her siblings, ages 9 and 13 are also adjusting to remote learning. She has been helping them in addition to trying to stay on track with her own school work.

 Bogran works at a grocery store but has not been able to go back to work after her family was directly affected by COVID-19. A relative passed away from the virus, causing her family great distress.

Her family is trying to take advantage of this time by keeping busy. Bogran herself is spending more time on art which is one of her passions.

“I’ve definitely got to work on my art more, like drawing and sewing. Even though it’s pretty hectic, there’s definitely more bonding time and time to declutter the house.” Bogran says.  

The biggest lesson she has learned through this is how important it is to appreciate everything. “I’ve never realized how much I would miss school after not being there for so long, and as I’ve said before, I personally have to be in an actual classroom with real teachers and classmates. I really miss my friends, too, so I appreciate their friendship a lot more. So, I think the biggest lesson for everyone is to appreciate the little things,” she says.

 Bogran believes that even though a lot of bad has come with the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a lot of good as well. Many people are coming together and trying to make a difference.

Many students going through hard times can relate to Bogran’s story and personal experience. I know I can relate with a lot of what she has been going through and what she has taken from this all.

 In the end, what matters is to stay positive and grateful for having the gift of time, to bed creative, or just work on yourself or your family. Right now, we’ve never felt more isolated, yet we’ve never been more united.

During this pandemic, we are all going through new experiences without much time for preparation, or any type of familiarity. Worldwide, this is something we all must adjust to and learn from. However, a lot of the time, we forget to appreciate the little things, and this crisis might just be our biggest wake up call.