Central’s ‘Duct Tape’

‘Duct Tape,’ Central’s literary magazine, is upping its publicity which has many Central students excited.  

Duct Tape is a student lead publication. The four honors writers who run the publication are seniors Claudia Richwine, sophomores Daniel Graham and Chineme Ekeh and freshman Isabella Mitchell. 

 This publication has been up and running for quite some time, but these four students are reinventing it.  

“It is a literary art magazine, so we feature both works of poetry and prose as well as two dimensional drawings and stuff like that,” said Richwine, “It is basically just a collection of the best works that kids at Central have to offer.”  

“It’s different collections of writing from people who come from different backgrounds, have different thoughts, are different people,” Mitchell said. 

Any student at Central is eligible to submit their work, including short stories, poems and artwork. Students can submit their physical work in the box in the library or to room 240 and can submit digital copies of their work to [email protected]. “If you have any questions or want advice on your writing you can totally email us about that too,” Richwine said. 

Any student can submit as many times with as many different pieces as they wish. The first issue releases in October, with a horror theme. Submissions will be taken no later than Oct. 4.  

The publication is student run, so these four have say over every issue. “Students will be less likely to censor someone’s artwork,” Mitchell said. “[The teachers] are more likely to control it to the point where kids can’t be as creative as they would like to be.”  

They want to encourage every student who is a writer or an artist to submit their work. “It means a lot to be able to share something you are passionate about and something that you spend a lot of time creating. If it’s like art, if it’s poetry, whatever it is,” Ekeh said.  

“It gives students a place to express themselves that’s safe,” Graham said, “And it’s not high stakes but it’s somewhere they can put out their work and get experience writing, drawing, or whatever they want to do.” 

Mitchell explained that since Central is such a diverse school, the students create such diverse work. 

 “One of the biggest things I’ve noticed in my past three years here is that basically the entire student body is insanely talented in all sorts of ways, especially in the arts, like every branch of it,” Richwine explains. 

The four also expressed that students needn’t feel as if their work is not good enough because they are more than willing to help make corrections. The magazine wants everyone’s views and ideas. 

“Just submit, it doesn’t have to be perfect,” Graham said, “We can help edit; we can help meet your needs.”