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The Boar Magazine: Creative Submissions

A selection of poetry, prose, photographs and artwork submitted as part of The Boar Magazine.
 
Playing Cards, Katie Bevan

Sitting in the kitchen
Playing cards, Kings and Queens with their
Coronas
Caught in a rapid fire round.
“Are you still with your boyfriend?”
“Did you finish your essay?”
“Hey, it’s your turn!”
“For graduation, I’m thinking…”

You’ve been holding all the aces
On the dawn of a new round
Cards are dealt, the path set
And you think back to the faces
Of jokers, smiling
In that sticky kitchen
Where you were just playing cards.
The Boar •

‘We probably don’t see Warwick campus as a culture, but it is’: Warwick Clothes Circuit on What’s Warwick Wearing

Armed with a smartphone, tiny mic, and a keen eye for second-hand style, the exec of Warwick Clothes Circuit have taken on the guise of the modern-day hunter: the street-interviewer.
Inspired by the YouTuber, Not So Blonde, and her series What Are People Wearing in Paris?, Haneefah, Circuit’s Head of Social Media, saw an opportunity to showcase Warwick’s own sharp and sustainable dressers. 
“You really get a taste for somewhere, a destination, and a lot of inspiration and vulnerable bits of huma...
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Generation style: Style icons through time

Physically, we have many tools to gauge something: thermometers, rulers, and beakers are just a few. Socially, we have less. In fact, to gauge the inner minds of those whose company we are gracing, there is a rather reliable social gauge that we often find ourselves turning to in times of faltering conversation: the dinner party. If you could have a dinner party with any three people, dead or alive, who would you pick?
It is a question of limited success, with an equal capacity for ice making as...
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Trump and Harris' economic showdown

In the patchwork blanket of our lives, choices are the thread. From the seemingly inconsequential – ‘What do I wear today?’ – to the very consequential – ‘Who do I vote for?’ – each choice, and the subsequent decision we make, patches together the trajectory of our lives. And right now, the American people are hurtling towards a crucial fork in the road: on Tuesday 5 November, they will head to the polls to vote in this year’s presidential election.
For some, the choice is clear. Most of those i...
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Why did children take part in the English riots?

On Monday 29 July, a ‘Taylor Swift Yoga and Dance Workshop’, aimed at children aged between 7 and 11 years old, was held in Southport. Intended as an all-singing, all-dancing, friendship-bracelet sharing, Swiftie safe space, the class should have been a chance for children to let off some steam in the endless stretch of summer that is the six weeks holidays. But unfortunately, this wasn’t to be the case.
At approximately 11:50am, Merseyside Police were called to reports of a mass stabbing. Liken...
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The Dogue days of summer: When Vogue transformed into Dogue

In a Changing of the Guard that only fashion could envision, the blood-orange bikinis of August become the burgundy-red overcoats of September. Whilst this seems to be done in one swift action, the 31 August melting into the 1 September, the calendar page being ripped out to reveal leaves the colour of flames, there is, in fact, some liminal space between the two.

I like to call this space ‘Pre-Fashion Month’. Far from the black-coffee-fuelled marathons of creativity that are September, or fashi...
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Gracie Abrams pours every emotion into ‘The Secret Of Us’

Rushing into your friend’s bedroom, a story bursting from your lips, its glorious yet embarrassing details reverberating around the room, whilst your friend sits there with an expression that is equal parts shock as it is bemusement and support, is a precious moment. The physical distance between you and your friend the blank page in a journal, your soundwaves the ink unfurling across it. It is a moment of frenzied confession, infused with a level of honesty, and insanity, that only a true best...
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Couture Culture: 2024 Met Gala review

Once upon a time, in the dystopian and post-apocalyptic world fashioned by J.G. Ballard in 1962, there lived a Count and Countess. The Count and Countess enjoyed a decadent life in the lap of luxury, with rare books and rare paintings filling their Palladian villa, with the villa itself situated within an extensive and exquisite estate. Forming part of the estate, was a garden. This garden was filled with unusual blooms, with the most peculiar being the crystal time flowers.

One day an angry mo
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Couture Culture: Yves Saint Laurent

If you successfully follow the dust-orange trails that criss-cross through the souks of Marrakesh, embracing the sights, sounds, and smells with certain joie de vivre, until you have left the walls of the Medina, you may stumble upon Le Jardin Majorelle. In fact, it is pretty hard to miss. With striking cobalt blue buildings rising out of an oasis of orange trees and towering palms, the garden is a place of vivacity, tranquillity, and inspiration, and it is located on Rue Yves Saint Laurent.

In
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Couture Culture: Harry Styles

“Bring back manly men.” That was conservative commentator, Candace Owens’, response to Harry Styles’ history-making Vogue cover, in which he donned a ball gown and custom Gucci jacket, becoming the first solo male cover star in the magazine’s 127-year history.

His cover was well-deserved: there is no denying that Styles’ has style – sparkly jumpsuits and retro tailoring are enough to convince anyone of this fact. But the conservative outrage that followed? Less so.

After all, there is nothing
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Couture Culture: Kaia Gerber

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. Quite a long time ago, people said it was home to the Gods and Goddesses, a place of worship; of moral and mythical strife with each of the Twelve Gods the victims of anthropopathy, vulnerable to the same failings of their devoted worshippers – jealousy, vanity, pride. The myths, of course, stack these human failings on top of each other, wrapping them up in a golden trench coat. Carnage and debauchery are the fastenings, chaos the seam running th
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Couture Culture: Zendaya

Often, when someone has style, is stylish, and generally knows fashion, we call them a fashion chameleon. It is seen as a compliment. I think both of these things are wrong. Chameleons are the masters of camouflage. Blending in is their best feature, so why would any fashion-forward person want to be described as a chameleon? If we were to choose another animal, surely it would be a platypus; with the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, and the body of an otter, they push the boundaries in a w
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The Music That Made Me: Red Hot Chili Peppers

To start, I want you to know where I am. I am sitting, currently alone, at a beach in Barcelona. It is 20 degrees Celsius – Winter apparently – the sun is beating down on me, my freckles flourishing, and the sound of the waves is lulling me into a sun-drunk haze. A year abroad was a good idea.

Now, I need you to know that I am not really here. Under the sultry sun, the temptation to sink into the realm of possibility is too rich – my dreams are never stronger than in the daytime, and right now,
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Couture Culture

On rainy afternoons, when raindrops trickle into the rivers that run along the windowpane, and we fear we will never see the sun again, I turn to fashion. Tearing open my wardrobe with the lunacy of a surrealist painter, I place pieces together: a blue-and-white button-down shirt, a satin forest-green maxi skirt, brown boots, and bug-eyed tortoiseshell sunglasses. After some time composing and re-composing such looks, I flick through my Vogue collection, acting as both the editor and the intern
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Biden promises to cancel incoming student loan debt

The Biden-Harris Administration has announced a new student loan forgiveness plan that targets borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.

The initiative, set to launch in February, shall erase the debt of borrowers enrolled on the SAVE plan, who have made 10 years of monthly payments and have an original balance of $12,000 or less in federal loans. While 6.9 million borrowers are currently enrolled in the SAVE plan, 30 million people are eligible for debt relief.

Bor
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Tuning out climate news: is inevitable death becoming boring to hear about?

We like to think we’re enlightened, don’t we? No question is too big that the internet cannot provide us with some skeleton of an answer. We’re no longer relying on news outlets for information. We have taken out our deckchairs, sat down, and set up shop. Why bother standing when the knowledge of every discovery, from the pseudo to the scientific, is just a click away?

Climate news is in its own crisis. It seems that in taking out our deckchairs, we may have taken to relaxing a little too much.
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Nirvana's seminal album, In Utero, turns 30: a retrospective

Adverbially, to be in utero is to be in a woman’s uterus. Adjectivally, it means happening before birth. This perhaps leaves In Utero, the raw and seminal third, and final studio album from Nirvana suspended in limbo. Far from the protective space between woman and baby, or rather band and album, In Utero has sold over 15 million copies worldwide since its release in 1993, leaving it vulnerable to the critique of the certified, and the less-than-certified, critics. Adverbially, then, it fails. A
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The cosmic clock: a look back at the biggest events of the last 50 years

It was David Bowie who asked: ‘Is there life on Mars?’ back in 1973. While the answer still eludes us today, in 2023, (although it is not for the want of trying, given the five rovers NASA has sent to the Red Planet) let us imagine for a moment that there is life out there. Not necessarily on Mars, but further away. A precise 50 lightyears away from Earth. That life, in whatever form it may be, could look back at Earth and – given the physical laws that contain the speed of light – effectively w
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In conversation with Alien Chicks: 'We want to bring energy, fun, and also the best quality of music we can'

Starting out as a band in the music industry is not a particularly alien feat. Daunting yes, but uncommon? Certainly not. Like stargazing on a cloudless night, if you keep looking, new bands seem to be appearing everywhere. But to really be impressed by a singular star in such an overcrowded night sky, there must be something particularly vibrant about it. It must either shoot across the sky at staggering speed or dazzle you with some natural brilliance. The same is true of bands starting out –
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The Boar's albums of the year (2022) - Unlimited Love by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Unlimited Love by Red Hot Chili Peppers – Katie Bevan

Unlimited Love sees the Peppers re-emerge in full peacock plumage. Iridescent and vivacious, this record is a fully-fledged flex of the funky force that they have been creating since their initial explosion out of the Californian college rock trenches. With the homecoming of the ‘son of Hendrix,’ John Frusciante, Unlimited Love unlocks RHCP’s full potential, with wailing solos that kiss the sky while Flea’s earthy bass lines embrace the poetic lunacy of Anthony Kiedis. But this isn’t simply a return to form to be celebrated by diehard fans – Unlimited Love is sonically bewitching even to the unassuming listener. With an opening track as visionary as ‘Black Summer,’ the Peppers captured new funky monks within seconds, fortifying their rule over rock’n’roll and ushering in a new dawn for themselves and rock music. Neon-drenched and red-hot, Unlimited Love is yet another star on the boulevard of this band’s iconic discography.
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'Your dad works for my dad': Testimonies from working-class students at Warwick

Dreams manifest themselves simultaneously as the spyglass, map, and compass for the achievement of a future goal. Such is the strength of dreams that we are transformed into avid chasers, marching purposefully along the intangible trail we spied ahead of us. One particular trail sees thousands of young people descend upon university campuses every autumn.

Not only an enclave of academic rigour, but also the setting of a steep cultural exchange; university is sold to prospective students as a ut
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World Migratory Bird Day: The perils of man-made hazards

The changing seasons have long been the herald of formidable journeys. While for Persephone, in Ancient Greek mythology, they proclaimed her return from the Underworld to the peaks of Olympus, for birds, the changing seasons herald the instinctive urge to migrate. This natural phenomenon, which sees birds facing countless challenges on their global expeditions across diverse terrains and political boundaries, means that these modest creatures are some of the world’s mightiest travellers.

But it
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'Elvis' is all shook up in Luhrmann's blistering biopic of the King

Elvis Presley- The wiggling, slick, and suave singing sensation from the Southern heartlands of America. But beyond the flashing lights and screams of adoring fans, behind the curtain, and under the garish layers of rhinestone-encrusted capes, who is Elvis Presley? You’d be forgiven for expecting to find out in Australian director, Baz Luhrmann’s, new biopic on the King. While this whistle-stop dramatisation of Elvis’ life provides yet more embellishment to the romantic mystery of rockabilly Pre
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SKKY Partners: Kim Kardashian's private equity bid

Reality TV star, celebrity influencer, fashion icon, billionaire, and business owner. Kim Kardashian certainly isn’t lacking in job titles. Nor, it would seem, in her ability to surprise. In 2019, for example, the celebrity announced that she would be pursuing a qualification in law via apprenticeship, and in 2021 she passed California’s ‘baby bar’ law exam. But considering that her late father, Robert Kardashian, was a lawyer (participating in OJ Simpson’s legal team for his high-profile murder
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