Rhea Chandran ’19, Alice Keller ’20, Anna Maniaci ’19, Violet Enes ’21, and Amy Chew ’20 took photos with rose-gold streamers at the launch party of “The Courant.”
“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!” The attendees of The Courant’s Fall 2018 launch party chanted in unison at 9:26 p.m. Immediately, horns blew, “Year of the Pig” signs floated around, and balloons bobbed between participants, all in accordance with the launch party’s theme of New Year’s Eve.
The most recent issue of “The Courant,” an Andover literary and arts publication, emphasizes the diversity and purpose of the pieces using an epigraph from John Berryman, an American poet. The board selected the quote from one of his books, “The Dream Songs,” to exemplify that all the pieces chosen for this issue stand together without a specific theme.
Susan Lee ’19, Co-Editor-in-Chief, said, “[The quote] says something along the lines of, ‘These are dream songs. They’re meant to be consumed rather than understood.’ We feel that a lot of this eclectic mix of submissions we got and which got printed into the copy are so diverse and all so interesting in their own merit and taken together, and we really wanted to frame them as the framework of dreams songs. These are [the] dream songs that we’re putting together in this copy called ‘The Courant’ and we want people to consume them and really enjoy them rather than to pry them apart and pick at them.”
Minji Shin ’20, an artist featured in “The Courant,” echoed Lee’s sentiment of consumption over criticism. Shin commented on the freedom of personal interpretation that the work provides its readers.
Shin said, “I think the meaning [of artwork] can always transform depending on the person who views it, especially in ‘The Courant,’ with how it gets juxtaposed with another piece of text. The meaning can always change.”
The launch party also included performances by various student speakers who read their poems that were published in this issue.
“My friend wrote a poem and she is performing a poem so I wanted to come to listen to her speak. I think [the party is] really fun: I came with a group of friends, and there is good food, and I signed up for the email list,” said Kiran Ramratnam ’22, an attendee.
The launch party also featured singing acts, including a performance by a capella group Keynotes, who sang “Down” by Marian Hill.
Lucy Grossbard ’19, Executive Design Editor for “The Courant” and Co-Head of Keynotes, said, “[Keynotes has] done a lot of performances before, so I think we just wanted to pull something together that was more relaxed in this setting. We had an arrangement and just learned it and did something that was less tight.”
According to the board, the launch party proved to be a success. 145 students attended the launch party, which was a larger turnout than the board had initially anticipated.
Lee said, “We’re so blown away by the support and we really hope that people will stay tuned with what ‘The Courant’ is doing for their spring issue.”
