Breaking “Muse”

After 10 long years, Dearborn High School teachers Mary Kubicek and Niki Cassidy have taken a stand to reinstitute the DHS Literary Magazine, The Muse. This time, the goal is to broaden the magazine to be inclusive of all forms of artwork, coming before December 2022.

Kubicek explained how she and Ms. Cassidy went about starting the magazine again.

“Cassidy and I were both talking about how there used to be a literary magazine and gosh, wouldn’t it be cool if somebody did that again? And then we kind of looked to each other, and I think we went, ‘I guess we should do it since you’re an art teacher and I’m a language arts teacher,’ and I think that’s how it happened,” Kubicek said. “It was just kind of Ms. Cassidy and I going, ‘Yeah, someone should do this. I guess it should be us.’”

Kubicek said there aren’t many restrictions as to which students can submit to the magazine.

“LiAnyoneould submit. Anyone who’s a student at Dearborn High School. The audience can submit poetry, short stories, essays, photography, line drawings, paintings, anything,” Kubicek said.

Cassidy stated that all kinds of art are appreciated by the Muse and is excited to work with students who are hoping to be featured in the magazine.

“I am excited to be part of reestablishing ‘The Muse’ as a DHS tradition. The link between Visual 

and Literary art is well known and respected,” Cassidy said. “All types of visual art will be welcome: traditional, digital, and 3 Dimensional. I am looking forward to encouraging and supporting students who want to have their art published.” 

Kubicek said that the magazine will only be available online upon release.

“We’re going digital, mostly for financial reasons at first,” Kubicek said. “But even when we do have the resources to publish a physical copy, we would like to also have the digital available because the physical copy is great for students to see their work in prints, but we also want people outside of Dearborn to see the amazing writing and art that Dearborn students can create.”

Kubicek said that the magazine will be mostly student-led.

“We have a beautiful editorial board of people,” Kubicek said. “We have an eight-person editorial board, it’s a good number, and Ms. Cassidy and I plan to sit back and watch the editorial board. We are just there to guide the process.” 

Regarding the first publication, Kubicek said t will have a central theme.

“We are deciding on a theme that people would use for their submissions. We haven’t chosen it exactly yet, but we want it to be something related to mental health,” Kubicek said. “The idea of us coming out of COVID, emerging from all of the stress and the anxiety of the last couple of years, and just that whole awareness of taking care of ourselves, and our mental health. That’s our plan.”

DHS English Teacher Christopher Grodzicki stated that he is thrilled to see the opportunity of admiring the arts given to students once again. 
“I am very excited to see The Muse is coming back.  For decades, it was a great way for students to express their love for poetry writing, storytelling, and drawing,” Grodzicki said. “I have relatives and family friends who attended DHS in the early 80s and their writing is in some old Muse copies we still have laying around.”

Kubicek said that the editorial board is still deciding on whether students can publish anonymously.

“The editorial board has to decide on that still,” Kubicek said. “They cannot submit anonymously, but we might be allowing anonymous publications.”