A few weeks ago, a representative from Voices, Swarthmore’s anonymous student-run news and media collective, reached out about a collaboration between Arts and Phenomenal Creations. Over the past three years, I have submitted work to Voices, Small Craft Warnings, and The Review. I admire their work, artistry, and distinct communities. We need mutual journalistic and artistic respect, which can only begin through open dialogue.
The Phoenix, an independent publication, aims to “report on the college, not for the college. We pursue journalism freely without restrictions or review from the administration or any individual or organization.” Similarly, Voices “tell[s] stories that too often go untold or unheard, as we remain grounded in radical love for the communities of which we are a part, keeping in mind the ever-important notion that journalism is a critical form of activism.”
To my understanding, The Phoenix and Voices had a fraught relationship. Despite our differences, we both aim to cover and critique Swarthmore College while celebrating our peers’ life experiences. Needless to say, I was eager to form a relationship with Voices. The more collaboration among artistic outlets, the better.
Moreover, the more media publications, the better. After talking to several of my writers, I learned that many first-year students are unaware of Voices’s history. In September 2017, The Daily Gazette, which merged with The Phoenix in 2018, published the article, “Kaepernick’s Well-Intentioned but Ineffectual Protest.” The day prior, two varsity volleyball players, B ’20 and A ’20, knelt in protest during a match. Simply put, the opinion piece was insensitive, poorly received, and horribly timed.
In one of many offensive sentences, the article reads, “While Kaepernick’s concerns are valid, his actions have been ineffective and counterproductive.” Blatantly dismissive towards Black protest, the piece prompted the Swarthmore African-American Student Society (SASS) to call for the publication’s boycott. N ’18, then-assistant arts & features editor at The Daily Gazette wrote, “Silenced No More: The Danger In Policing Black Bodies in Sports.”
Among many crucial points, N ‘18 states, “Often times this vision glosses over a tarnished history. Their blind patriotism is the love of a country that has never existed except in the minds of those who have never experienced what it’s like to be a marginalized person of color in America.”
Listening to others’ voices, perspectives, and lived experiences is a crucial part of understanding our positionality and privilege in the world. Perhaps most importantly, it helps us realize how we want to change our observed environment. It’s the primary reason why many of us chose a liberal arts education. In response to this incident, N ’18 founded Voices to amplify previously marginalized voices with a commitment to journalistic integrity within our community.
I will directly admit that this history reflects poorly on The Daily Gazette and, therefore, The Phoenix. I’m grateful that Voices exists and continues to challenge our publication. It forces us to question our outward and inward philosophy. Most significantly, it deepens our position to the campus community. Our individual lived experiences, perspectives, and interests necessarily affect our journalism. Therefore, we should be in constant dialogue, collaborating and complicating each other’s perspectives. Is that not how publications grow, learn, and change? Is that not why we write?
Criticism facilitates effective discourse. Many of us assume that debate cannot mean collaboration. I disagree. Debate is a crucial aspect of communication across communities. In holding open dialogue, we’re attempting to understand one another.
Recently, I overheard a conversation about the status of various arts publications on campus. They predicted which journal would triumph above the others, as if Phoenix Arts, Phenomenal Creations, Small Craft Warnings, The Review, and The Orpheus Review were gladiators in the Colosseum.
If you are unaware, Small Craft Warnings is Swarthmore College’s oldest continuously published literary magazine. It is the college’s only exclusively in-print literary journal, publishing prose, poetry, and artwork each semester. In a cacophonous digital landscape where Jacques Derrida’s “Archive Fever” becomes increasingly relevant, physical media remains a touchstone of humanity. Moreover, Small Craft Warnings allows writers to celebrate their peers in a highly selective environment. Their editorial board carefully peer reviews and curates each submission the journal receives to highlight some of Swarthmore’s greatest writers.
As Swarthmore’s quarterly in-print and weekly digital literary and cultural magazine, The Review accepts long-form journalism, arts, creative writing, reviews, and digital arts. It’s the all-encompassing arts magazine on campus, accepting submissions from poetry to music reviews. With their sleek, colorful print and website designs, The Review speaks to our generation’s careful attention to aesthetics. Their physical publication itself is an art object.
Similarly, The Orpheus Review, Swarthmore’s first online music publication, highlights local and worldwide musical work. Though Phoenix Arts rarely covers Olde Club concerts, Orpheus picks up the slack and offers intimate interviews with performers, like Humanitarian and Best Bear’s Charlie D’ Ardenne. The publication provides a careful analysis of various releases from popular and niche artists alike.
The conversation I overheard is one of many comparing arts publications. These moments spurred my interest in writing this statement.
Let me be clear.
Once one of us falls, all of us fall.
We have to advocate and uplift each other, but not blindly accept injustice when it is blatantly presented in front of us. Continue to challenge, discuss, and collaborate with us.
The form to submit to Voices is here, and The Review here. Read The Orpheus Review here.
Finally, please attend the Small Craft Warnings reading at Kitao on May 7, 2025, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Signed by: The Review, Phoenix Arts Editors, Small Crafts Warnings, The Orpheus Review
This article will also be published in Voices.
