Juicy: A New Publication by JMC Students

December 19, 2014

     Juicy. It’s not just a famous brand name or a well-known hip-hop song. When hearing ‘juicy’, the American University of Central Asia community will now imagine something else. It is now the title of a magazine publication by students from the Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) department of the Cultural Reporting class, taught by Laura Kelly (a visiting teacher in the JMC department and editor of Juicy). Juicy is a collection of completely student created works, woven together under the framework of 3 major themes: personal essays about the cultures and contours of their own lives,

snapshot profiles of people in the culture of the American University of Central Asia, and people who work and play in the subcultures of Bishkek (taken verbatim from the introduction of Juicy).

So what kind of stories will you find in Juicy? Inside are stories about tattoo artists, pick-up artists, growing up where you don’t feel welcome, vegetarianism, a Kyrgyz female Sambo champion, and so much more. From the comfortable to the unknown and everything in-between, these are no fluff pieces. We talked to Veronika Bezumova, an AUCA Junior, who wrote a piece entitled ‘Mom’ that has been featured in the collection. 

In a piece about her feelings and actions after leaving her parents, who live in Taraz, Kazakhstan, 

Veronika speaks to the reader in a way that is easily relatable but intimate in a way that is unexpected. “I am the only child in the family, and my mom took my departure as a betrayal,” she writes. She told us, “It was difficult. My parents and relatives paid too much attention to me! I wanted something new for me. It was a risk, but now I can learn new things by myself…I guess my children after their schooling will leave somewhere too!” But the essay is still light-hearted, she writes of learning to ditch her high heels in favor of comfortable boots and shoes; without her father driving her everywhere it is simply not practical anymore so sacrifice for fashion. She ended her piece with a mention of a picture of her mother hanging over her bed; when asked whether it was really true, she said “It’s a small thing, but always I remember her before I go to sleep.”

Laura Kelly, who has just returned to the United States, will also always be remembered fondly here at AUCA. Having worked in countries ranging from Albania to Mongolia, the experience and energy she brought to the classroom made her a favorite among her students. “She believes in us, and always tries to find new ways of writing,” said Karina; “It was impossible not fall in love with her…she was more than a professor,” said Veronika. If you ask nearly any student in the JMC department, you will hear those sentiments echoed. We interviewed Laura Kelly about her involvement with Juicy and the process of its creation, as well as its possible future (and with a story about female bodybuilders not making the current issue, there is certainly no lack of creative pieces for the future).

Why did you decide to create a student magazine, considering there is already New Star?

New Star is a newspaper produced independently of the work students create in class. I wanted to make a showcase and publication site for the work that the students produced in my Cultural Reporting class. I think it is important for journalism students to have their work made public and I tried to create those opportunities for the students while I was at AUCA. We had a public viewing of one of the projects created in my digital storytelling class; students from Cultural Reporting also published their work on the site medium com so they could have an audience. When we were talking about the idea of Juicy, we debated whether we should make an online magazine or a printed version. The students really pushed to make something they could hold in their hands and pass around to show their friends and family.

Is it a one-off for your Cultural Reporting class, or was your plan for it to continue?

Yes, it is a one-off, but it doesn't have to be. I am certain the students would welcome other publications if professors would be willing to secure the funds and shepherd the process. I also think it is good for the department and the university to have something tangible that shows what the students are doing. I also wish the department would consider making New Star a for-credit class so that the work students produce for grades would end up in print. It is crucial and invaluable for student journalists to open their work to the public. It also helps to instill a sense of pride, professionalism and purpose. The students feel as if their work is going somewhere into the larger world rather than just to the hands of the professor for an assignment. Juicy was almost entirely student created. A student did the layout, students wrote the stories, students took some of the images. I selected the stories, did some minor editing and oversaw the process, but I wanted it to be as student produced as possible so that the entire process became another opportunity for learning. 

On the creation of the magazine….

In my cultural reporting class we had three themes for the work the students produced during the semester; it is the way I conceived the class: the culture of their own families (thus the personal essays you see in Juicy about their own lives), the culture of AUCA (students wrote snapshot profiles of some of the lesser known people in the university culture and those either have been or will be published in New Star, and a story about some aspect of subculture. We spent some time in class talking about subcultures and reading examples of stories about subcultures and I let the students move toward the topics that interested them. I had final say as their editor, but most of their ideas were right on target. Shaadat wrote about tattoos because she is interested in them. Grana is toying with the idea of becoming a vegetarian so she reported about that topic.

The ‘subcultures’ of Bishkek is written as a topic in the introduction. Why did you choose to include them as a major topic?

I liked the idea of counter culture or subculture because it gave the students the task of looking more deeply at the dominant culture and then the smaller cultures and it also gave them room to explore some aspects of subculture that attracted them. Subcultures have a certain gravitational pull as well because there is some element of tenacity and trailblazing associated with them. The students had no problem generating ideas about subcultures and then finding interesting people within them to interview and write about. I thought they did a terrific job with their choices.

Congratulations to all who worked on and made Juicy a reality, any avenue of self-expression and publication is something to be celebrated; and everyone at AUCA wishes Laura Kelly the best of luck in the future, and we thank her for all of her contributions to her students and to the University!

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