By Amy Liu, founding president of Franklin Lit Society
Franklin is known as a STEM school, and for good reason, too, with our robust extracurricular programs and course offerings that stand out within the under-resourced city of New Orleans. However, less is known about our thriving literary culture as well– which, if you take a look at our students, is quite unsurprising, as I have never seen a student body as diverse, unique, and to put it frankly, brilliant as the peers surrounding me. They have so many stories to tell and share; we just need to shine a light on them and give them a platform where their voices can be heard.
Over the past four years, I’ve had the privilege of reading dozens of works and subsequently, being able to hear dozens of voices, from being reassured as a freshman by the advice of the graduating seniors; to relating to quarantine fears; to watching writers’ voices blossom into maturity. While reading, I would be taken on an emotional rollercoaster– sometimes I would feel provoked (in the best way), other times I laughed until my stomach hurt, and at others I would be left breathless by the talent I had just witnessed. But with every work, I felt comfort, knowing that in a space like literature, everyone has the courage to listen and the reassurance that our voices will be listened to in return.
In other words, the literary arts promote empathy: a willingness to share your story and respect your neighbor’s. It promotes reflection, in its daring act to challenge boundaries and at times, your own deep-set beliefs through reading and writing. It is literature that moves and rouses a willingness to listen about an issue you weren’t aware of before, and to even take action to change it, and it is literature that allows you to respect different experiences and perspectives, and even be able to validate your own. Because it is only when we engage in conversations like these, where we share our own experiences and listen to others, can we truly realize that we are not alone.
Riverbend is at a crossroads, and this issue represents the three paths that our annual literary review will pursue going forward.
First, in part one: the award winners. This year, Franklin seniors won several Scholastic Art & Writing awards, and we are reprinting in full their pioneering work in journalism, critical essays, and creative writing — including Lyric Hoover's masterful collection Autobiography of a Poet, which won a Silver Medal at the national level, as well as a special spoken-word performance by Sean Michael Perry.
In part two: a stunning three-part feature in collaborative writing, created by over a dozen Franklin students and edited by the founding president of Franklin Lit Society, Amy Liu.
In part three: a return to the traditional showcase of student work, mixing this year's submissions in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and several shades in between.
This was also the year that the editors of The Riverbend Review successfully launched three new titles: Addertongue, a book of poems edited by Maya Kelly; Mirrors & Windows, a journal of nonfiction edited by Rei Chapman; Thunder Gust Electric Fire, a space for experimental writing edited by Hannah Nides. These new, innovative collections reflect the dramatic increase in literary output at Franklin over the past few years and reveal the course that the Riverbend editors are currently charting for the future: more books, more voices, a broader vision, a wider horizon.