Author Archives: Zenerations

Stigma on Youth

To the people who dislike our generation: as young people, the cycle of life eventually will give us the future responsibility to govern and steward the world.
We are told by our parents, our teachers and even by the general society to “act mature”, yet, when we state our own opinions, “you don’t know what you’re talking about”
WRITTEN BY: Vienna Kwan

Teenage Dream – Nixi Waleska Fuentes

What is the teenage dream?
Is it roaming street lit cities, with nothing but cell service and beat up doc martens
endless adventures with old friends as nostalgic as the smell of crayola paint
Or is it racing hearts when he finally reaches her skin tight jeans
If anything it sounds like a fever dream
Forbidden drinks stinging the backs of virgin throats
Girls with butterfly printed crop tops
And bodies closer to you than your own sober thoughts
Where a game of spin the bottle could be the night’s make or break
And even though 1 in 4 teenagers have stds
Whose lips one’s will land on seems to be the most out spoken risk
Relief coursing through your body the moment you see your friends
As quickly and powerfully as the smoke that fills up baby soft lungs
THC so strong it turns you into a character,
with no repercussions besides the morning after
Each red solo cup sparks curiosity wondering what concoction could be in each
one
No wonder why they call it liquid courage
Substances you could chug down in case you didn’t have any courage of your own
And in these situations, there was somehow always more to go around
Especially in the hands of someone drinking away their problems about a life that is

BIPOC Excellence Passed Over For White Mediocrity: Golden Globes 2021 – Op Ed

When the Golden Globe Nominees were announced this month, many took to the internet to express their outrage at the disappointing ‘snubs’ and the outrageous nominations. A common theme that most found in the nominations was that many excellent BIPOC-led movies and TV shows were ignored or not given enough attention, while mediocre white-led ones were nominated instead. Among the 40 acting nominees for TV, only two Black actors were nominated, while only two Black women were nominated across all TV and film categories. Perhaps the most shocking of the nominations was the fact that ‘I May Destroy You’, a Black-led TV show that blew up last year and explored sexual assault in a helpful and deep way, was completely ignored by the Golden Globes, while ‘Emily in Paris’, an overdone chick flick, was nominated for two awards. This is, of course, not a new phenomenon – just a few years ago, the Oscars were criticized for not having sufficiently diverse nominations, with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite trending. But why is it so common for excellent works of art by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to be ignored, while mediocre projects by white artists are excessively celebrated?

WRITTEN BY: Elisabeth Hoole

Disney’s Iwájú: The Power of Afrofuturism

In 2017, Tolu Olowofoyeku, Hamid Ibrahim, and Fikayo Adeola, three friends from Nigeria and Uganda, found Kugali Media. Their vision was to create a pan-African media company aimed at telling stories of the African continent by Africans. They created a sci-fi Afrofuturistic comic-book called “Iwájú,” which roughly translates to “the future” in the West African language of Yoruba. 3 years later, in December of 2020, Disney announced a partnership with the company; it will be adapting the comic book into a science fiction animated series for Disney+ coming out in 2022. The show is to be set in Lagos, Nigeria and will explore issues like “class, innocence, and challenging the status quo”–themes all too relevant today.

WRITTEN BY: Lucy