Amber Sadiq
@asadiqcourant
Few were prepared for the trying month that closed the 2019-2020 school year. Online school, cancelled sports, and so much more headlined the quarantine. But, for the NCHS Spectator, New Canaan’s Literary Magazine, writers were able to find comfort in sharing their art with the community.
Senior Elena Unger, the managing editor of the Spectator, has been a part of the club since she was a freshman, however she didn’t start attending meetings and auditing submissions until last year. “We used to meet every week, Monday night, 7:30-8:30. We would all just hang out and read poetry together and share art,” Elena said. “We all got to witness that vulnerability of an author.”
Aleena Nasruddin, the Spectator’s Website manager, who is also a part of the Courant, expresses the difference between the club and the Courant. “The Courant is very heavily focused on production. There are so many deadlines you have to meet because we’re really trying to get the newspaper out almost every month. You have to really go out and interview people and write a whole article, so I think it’s much more work focused,” Aleena said. “The Spectator, however, is a lot more laid back and relaxed. We usually just meet once a week and edit poems and share art. There isn’t really any pressure or commitment to it.”
The Spectator has been publishing the work of NCHS students since 1961, as stated on the club’s website. “Every student has been eligible to submit work and always has been. The magazine has always been a curation of all student’s work; we’re open for submissions all year,” said Elena. “The kids in the club, their responsibility is to read and edit. They curate what will be published into the magazine and what will not.” This year, with COVID on the rise, it has been increasingly difficult for clubs like Spectator to have the same influence they used to. “It’s a different experience when you’re reading and sharing student work out loud rather than over the phone,” said Elena.
When talking about the Spectator’s presence within the student’s this year, Elena explains their luck with newer members. “We’ve been very lucky and had a really good presence this year. In the beginning of the year it was a lot more enthusiastic because we had been meeting in person. Surprisingly, we’ve had a very large upperclassmen presence, but we also have a few new underclassmen as well,” she said.
The constant shifts to Zoom, however, has certainly caused setbacks.“It really decreases the amount of people that attend our meetings.,” Aleena said. “The big reason people come to our meetings is to meet and to enjoy the environment. That’s kind of taken away when we meet over zoom.”
Attendance at meetings has unfortunately dropped for the club as the school year progressed. In the beginning of the year, the club was able to meet in-person, but new Covid restrictions this Winter have limited such opportunities.“It’s a lot harder to garner as much excitement when you’re over zoom as opposed to in person.,” Elena said. “We are planning on publishing a print magazine this year, although, we’re not exactly sure what that process is going to look like.”.
Regarding the Spectator’s annual print published magazine, in previous years they have had their very own magazine. This pandemic has unfortunately set them for a digital publish. “With COVID, I think last year was the hardest year on the editors. This all hit in March, right around the time we were finalizing submissions and doing layouts, so we had to quickly transition from the normal print-publishing to an online format,” said Elena. “Heading into it this year we were a little more prepared: we had a layout editor who’s prepared for publishing online as well as in print, and a website editor. We’ve been trying to be more virtually present.”
Aleena believes that the Spectator’s recent improvement of virtual advertising has made a large impact, “We started promoting ourselves on twitter and this is really the first time we’ve actually had a website editor, so we’ve really started to post on our website more and engage people more,” she said.
The Spectator is a prestigious and well-respected program, one that has also allowed students to proudly publish their work to the student and teacher community. The relationships writers make through sharing their writing has brought many back to the comfort of Spectator. “The social aspect of Spectator is what makes it so appealing. Kids who have been doing it in the past and are part of the community continue to do it,” Elena said. “The relationships you form within the clubs are what keep you coming back.”
