Pufferfish Magazine (First Edition)
Art from the cover of Pufferfish Magazine by Olivia Comai
"Dear readers,
I love our generation. I love our honesty, our activism, our ruthless and unapologetic questions, and the answers we create for ourselves. I know the importance and the vitality of our words, our art, and our voices. Ann Arbor knows this too. It is a hotbed of opportunities for young teen artists. Every year there are poetry slams, art shows, music festivals, and concerts. No place in Ann Arbor is this more apparent than the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s teen center, and the home of Red Beard Press.
The Neutral Zone trusts teens. It believes in what they can make and teaches them the importance of creating responsibly. Perhaps I am biased. This is the place where I grew up, after all. I’ve watched myself and my peers accomplish things no one thought any teen should be able to do. We serve on boards. We record and produce our own music. We organize, we plan, we fundraise, and, most importantly, we learn. We even publish books.
When the idea for Pufferfish was brought to us back in September, we immediately fell in love. What better way to showcase all the Neutral Zone and RBP has the power to do then through an Ann Arbor wide literary and visual arts journal? We brought out our sticky notes and created timeline after timeline, vision board after vision board, until finally we decided on what you now hold in your hands. Seldom is the occasion where a group of teens get to create something fully comprised of and aimed for teenage use and so we made sure not to waste the opportunity.
Here, in this journal, teens show what they are capable of doing when allowed to create art honestly and thoughtfully for themselves and their peers. It is genuine. It is striking. Sam Kass writes, you can always go inside a thunderstorm and that’s exactly what this journal is: a mess of rain and electricity. There are poems that investigate: fear, mental illness, race, and love. There are essays that tackle finding your passion, stress, and growing up. There are photos and paintings that frame ordinary things in fresh and loud new ways.
So here it is, Pufferfish: an arts anthology from the teens of Ann Arbor. I, for one, am beyond excited to unleash this new tiny and powerful gem of teen art into the world. I am tremendously proud of what my peers and I have created and as you turn each page and witness what these teens have created, I think you’ll see why. "
-Clara Kaul
Red Beard Staff
I love our generation. I love our honesty, our activism, our ruthless and unapologetic questions, and the answers we create for ourselves. I know the importance and the vitality of our words, our art, and our voices. Ann Arbor knows this too. It is a hotbed of opportunities for young teen artists. Every year there are poetry slams, art shows, music festivals, and concerts. No place in Ann Arbor is this more apparent than the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s teen center, and the home of Red Beard Press.
The Neutral Zone trusts teens. It believes in what they can make and teaches them the importance of creating responsibly. Perhaps I am biased. This is the place where I grew up, after all. I’ve watched myself and my peers accomplish things no one thought any teen should be able to do. We serve on boards. We record and produce our own music. We organize, we plan, we fundraise, and, most importantly, we learn. We even publish books.
When the idea for Pufferfish was brought to us back in September, we immediately fell in love. What better way to showcase all the Neutral Zone and RBP has the power to do then through an Ann Arbor wide literary and visual arts journal? We brought out our sticky notes and created timeline after timeline, vision board after vision board, until finally we decided on what you now hold in your hands. Seldom is the occasion where a group of teens get to create something fully comprised of and aimed for teenage use and so we made sure not to waste the opportunity.
Here, in this journal, teens show what they are capable of doing when allowed to create art honestly and thoughtfully for themselves and their peers. It is genuine. It is striking. Sam Kass writes, you can always go inside a thunderstorm and that’s exactly what this journal is: a mess of rain and electricity. There are poems that investigate: fear, mental illness, race, and love. There are essays that tackle finding your passion, stress, and growing up. There are photos and paintings that frame ordinary things in fresh and loud new ways.
So here it is, Pufferfish: an arts anthology from the teens of Ann Arbor. I, for one, am beyond excited to unleash this new tiny and powerful gem of teen art into the world. I am tremendously proud of what my peers and I have created and as you turn each page and witness what these teens have created, I think you’ll see why. "
-Clara Kaul
Red Beard Staff
