HYCIDE LAUNCHES THE NEWARK ISSUE

By Carrie Stetler and Nick Kline

September 2, 2014

HYCIDE magazine celebrates stories and images of Newark, by Newarkers, with a special print issue. The city-based photojournalism and arts journal collaborated with Rutgers-Newark students and faculty on a project that explores the lives of residents whose authentic voices and images rarely appear in mainstream media.

The issue presents an alternative narrative of the city from the first-person perspective of gang members, public housing residents, the LGBTG+ community, homeless residents and others. But it also includes stories on Newark’s thriving cultural scene, along with people and organizations who work to make the city a better place.

The Newark issue was created to document a city on the cusp of potential transformation as redevelopment plans are realized and many see signs of impending gentrification.

It was born when HYCIDE Editor-in-Chief, Akintola Hanif, a photographer and filmmaker, was invited by Newark issue Guest Editor Nick Kline, a Rutgers-Newark assistant professor in the Department of Art, Culture, and Media, to co-teach his advanced photography class. Together, with photography and journalism students, they created vibrant portraits of people in the city. The Newark issue also includes a project by Kline, a photo-based artist who drew from old municipal PR images from the City of Newark Archives and Records to reflect upon Newark's history, self-image, and its relationship to the past.

In addition to work from Newark writers, students, and photographers, the issue includes a foreword by Christa Clarke, the Newark Museum's senior curator of the Arts of Global Africa, and an introduction by Mark Krasovic, associate director of Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience.

Rutgers-Newark Chancellor, Nancy Cantor, praised the collaboration between HYCIDE and Rutgers-Newark. “It should be no surprise that it is our artists and scholars at the vanguard of the search for understanding and a way forward,'' she said. "It is precisely at the intersection of such diverse perspectives—from faculty, students, community members, artists, and professionals such as our friends from The Newark Museum—that we find our best hope to heal.”

On Sept 6, 2014, HYCIDE held a launch party for the issue at the Newark Museum attended by more than 500 guests. It featured an art installation by Hanif, Kline, and their students. The exhibition combined a mixture of street photography, documentary portraiture, and photo-based art. It also showcased a selection of images by Newark-born artist Manuel Acevedo, whose work appears in the issue, and by Rutgers University Newark photography students.

About HYCIDE: HYCIDE magazine, based in Newark, is a unique hybrid of photojournalism and art that provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of marginalized people around the world. It also features the work of cutting edge emerging and established artists, both local and international. Created in 2011 by Newark resident Akintola Hanif and journalists Carrie Stetler and fayemi shakur, HYCIDE has featured many city residents in its photo essays and stories. The entire collection of HYCIDE was recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas J. Watson Library and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and has won many other accolades.

For more information, contact Carrie Stetler, managing editor at stetler735@gmail.com.