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Spring 2015

YAP MAG

!Young Author Playlist!Chicago City of Learning!Digital Youth Network!DePaul University !!!Copyright April 2015!!!Cover Image by Noelle McGee!Chicago High School Student

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YAP MagazineA teen literary journal of the !

Young Author Playlist

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!Gillian Koptik! ! ! ! !! Why I Write ………………………………….. 5!! Stop ………………………………………….. 7!! After Dali …………………………………….. 9!!Cameron Barrett!! Why I Write ………………………………… 11! I Love the Way She Loves Me…………… 13!!Lela Sommerio!! Why I Write ………………………………… 15!! Justice ……………………………………… 16!! POV of Apple ……………………………… 17!!Nathaniel Velasquez!! Pop …………………………………………. 18!!Stella Bonasera!! Why I Write ………………………………… 19!! After Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles …….. 20!!!!

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Table of Contents

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!I write to release. !!I write to let all the bubbled closed up held in anger come out. !!I put words from my mind and let out characters to speak them, talk them and live them. !!I write about happiness, about the one time I was picked first to be on your team. !!I write about that time someone betrayed me, stabbed me in the back and ran away from it.!!I write about when I went to a concert for the first time and how exciting it was. !!I write about things I want, questions I want to ask. !!I write for school, about science and math and about what the preamble is. !!I write because I read. !!

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Why I Write !Gillian Koptik

!I write because I want people to say, “She is a great author. Have you read her book?” !!I write to inspire people. I want to inspire the people who don’t like to write.!!I write about the silly things, about the time I ran outside in snow with shorts on. !!I write about how hopeful I am, and how happy I want to be. !!I write about how I am sad. How people hurt my feels and made me cry. But then..!!I write about the true friends who saw me cry and came and gave me a hug. !!I write about how they stood by me and told me it was gonna be okay. !!I write about how loving my friends are and how there is no one like them. !!I write about my family and how they love and care for me. !!I write about how brave I am for doing things I never thought I would do. ! !!!

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!walking down the street you hear horrible things !

stop !you always hear people talk about others !

stop !you hear hate spread !

stop !words read !

stop !you don’t know what to do !

it needs to stop !the hate needs to stop !where is the positivity !

where is the non-stop love !where is the non-stop happiness !

where are the non-stop hugs !where are the non-stop smiles & laughs !

where is the non-stop support!where is the non-stop imagination !

where is the non-stop anything is possible attitude !where is it? !

because here in this world i do not see it !we need to set that example!

as the younger people!the people who can be the change !

we need to step up !

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Stop !Gillian Koptik

!we need to stop the hate !because it’s not worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!when you are me,!all you hear is the constant!ticking!and!tocking.!in a room full of clocks you would!think we are all the same.!tick tock at 12 o'clock.!no.!we are all different.!the clock will strike three, three times!but yet time stands still.!we are always at the peak of sunset,!but yet sunrise never comes!the next day.!the only thing that’s different!are the people.!the people that stare!at the clocks.!their eyes will melt into us,!stare blankly at us!wondering.!those eyes making us!feel like we are going to slip away into!the blackness underneath us.!

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After Dali !Gillian Koptik

!we all feel!that the places we are held in!are semi-permanent,!that at the end of the day!we will be washed away!from the hand of an artist!and that it will all begin again,!that is what it feels like!to be me, a clock!simply ticking and tocking!ticking and tocking!the time away.!!

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!I write because I need to share my feeling with the world or the words will eat me alive.!!I write because the voices will tell me you can't do it, you will never be famous or have a job because you're just a lost boy waiting for the windy city to destroy you and blow away your dreams.!!I write to prove the voices wrong, and let the words go because this is not the end of my life, but it is the end of the little boy waiting for the windy city to destroy him and blow away his dreams because now I’m a new boy and my life will keep going and nothing can stop me. Nothing will make me quit.!!I will grab the city by the balls and tell him that I will not quit because I will write.!!I will get a job to provide for the kids I will one day have and give them the life I never had.!!I will be famous. So I can share what I've learned with the world so they won't have to go through what I've been through.!!

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Why I Write !Cameron Barrett

!I will help the needy and tell them to write because it doesn't matter where you are from, it doesn't matter what struggles you've been through just write and say.!!I will.

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!I love the way she loves me but she has an odd way of showing this.!!I love the way she leaves me alone with strangers that I've never met while she goes out to smoke pot do crack and dance but not as a professional but as a pole dancer.!!She calls it work but I think it’s an excuse,!an excuse to get high smoke pot do crack.!!But she loves me.!!I love the way he left me and she doesn't remember him.!I love the way she doesn't tell me who he was what he looked like and where he was from.!!I love the way she was to high to look at him to decide if he was the right father.!He wasn’t. He was a terrible father because he left us.!I love the way that she thought that her ‘new man’ would take care of us unlike my father did when he left us.!!I love the way that I've never seen his face or known him. He just left.!!

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I Love the Way She Loves Me !Cameron Barrett

!I love the way she thinks that sex is a tool,!a tool to get money and drugs.!I love the way that every time she is doing good she just stops and falls down the hill of life,!thinking that Prince Charming will save her, but he never does.!!I love the way she thought her new man would take care of us but he didn't he just let her fall down the hill even deeper until she quit and left me.!!I don’t know where she is, but I do know that she loves me.!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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! I write because it opens up a new world filled with wonder and imagination.!! !! I write because it helps me express my feelings. Writing is like a whole new emotion. I like to think of writing as some sort of mega emotion, basically all of the emotions combined to make one big emotion.!!! I write because it helps me release energy, positive or negative energy. Writing is always a good way to help express it.!!! I write because I read. I’ve always loved to read even as a small child. Reading has opened up a window to writing for me. There have been many times where I was inspired by a good book to write a book of my own. One of my dream jobs is to become an author. In fact, I’m co-writing a book with my father.

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Why I Write !Lela Sommerio

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!Lawfully living out life.!Taking the preferences of others into thoughtful consideration.!Respecting the privileges you have and the privileges of others.!Can you guess the word I’m describing?!People like Rosa Parks have fought for this and still do.!Is it clear now?!This word, !Filled with so much pride and hope, !you can almost taste its glory.

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Justice !Lela Sommerio

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!I set off on a journey with no intention of return.!The beast picked me up,!Wide mouth filled with violently sharp teeth.!It bit me, as hard as it could.!The pain was indescribable.!It chewed!And chewed!And chewed, then swallowed.!Its throat so cold, dark, and wet.!Hours had passed before all of me had traveled through its esophagus.!There was a steep drop!Followed by a burning sensation.!I was being digested. It hurt so very badly.!Just then I thought aloud, “Why?”!Why would I force myself to this pain and sacrifice?!Just then it was all over.!Some people talk about seeing a light.!There was no light.!!!!!!

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POV of Apple !Lela Sommerio

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!Cunka cunka cunka: his neighbors couldn’t stand itl!Cunka cunka cunka: his neighbors couldn’t stand it.!!HE rides in a gang as if he was a king pin.!HE goes and POPs and flips bodies as he rides off in the sunset.!HE goes and pops the nasty aerial, varials he married to 180 aerials.!HE goes pop as the kickflip lands as clean as a new drug dealer’s Benz.!HE goes pop as he hears the streets talk to him as they connect him to the scenes of crime HE wouldn’t do for a dime. !HE goes pop as he rides down the streets, as he falls off a board because he looks like a thug.!HE goes pop off the board. Cars riding off, you hear scurr around corners. !HE goes pop as the doctors try and revive the boy that died on arrival.!HE goes pop into the casket. HE goes pop in the hole. HE goes pop as they bury him. !HE will never go POP again.!!

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Pop !Nathaniel Velasquez

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!I write because it takes me to a different and better place.!!I write because writing is learning.!!I write so that my voice can be heard, no matter what.!!I write so I can express my feelings on paper.!!I write because paper is blank, and it needs to be filled with words.!!I write because I am passionate about writing.!!I write so I don’t forget important things in life.!!I write so I can make up whatever I want to.!!I write because I love to.!!!!!!!!

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Why I Write !Stella Bonasera

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!I am a painting sitting on a hook!above the bed.!I feel loved when someone looks at me!and admires the work the artist painted on my skin.!I look back and admire them too.!I can hear all conversations going on,!and I am never lonely.!Somedays,!I long to be on display in a museum!but I would never be able to leave this room.!Sometimes I wish I had a mouth,!I would then be able to taste!and speak my mind too,!but the picture painted on my skin already does.!I am sad no one touches me,!I want to feel their hands, !and I want to feel like more than just a painting.!But I am still just the painting,!sitting on a hook above the bed. !!

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After Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles !

Stella Bonasera

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YAP Magazine is a quarterly journal of the Young Author Playlist. If you are a teen interested in

submitting to YAP Magazine, you can submit your work after completing the first Level of the Young Author Playlist. See details below! YAP Magazine

accepts fiction, poetry, essays, memoir, articles, reviews, scripts, art and photography.!!!The Young Author Playlist is a 5-genre writer’s journey

on Chicago City of Learning, designed for young writers of Chicago to develop their interest in and passion for creative writing, build community, and

access opportunities to further their pathway in writing such as workshops and internships. !!

For more information about Chicago City of Learning and the Young Author Playlist visit, www.chicagocityoflearning.org/yap.!!

For questions on YAP Magazine or the Young Author Playlist please contact us at

yap@digitalyouthnetwork.org, or visit us on Facebook!!!�22

About the YAP Magazine and the Young Author Playlist

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