Reflexes Sparks Halloween Creativity

This semester, Reflexes Magazine held a Halloween Creative Arts contest. This was a chance for students to merge their creative talents and Halloween spirit into prose, visual art, or even poetry works to compete to win a $25 gift card for Moe’s Restaurant and Cafe.

    This contest encouraged students to submit anything that they could consider Halloween themed. It was completely free to send a submission, and anything that can be put into a computer file was accepted. Since the revival of Reflexes in the fall of 2014, the magazine has accepted artwork, creative writing, videos, and even music, which was something Reflexes did not previously accept. With the availability of many different formats for art, everyone involved with Reflexes is excited about what the students have submitted for the contest.

    Submissions from students will be up to view on Oct. 26, just in time for people to read or view around Halloween. All submissions will be published on the Reflexes page. To find the page, you can go to the Concord home page menu, click on the Academics tab, then click on the Department of Humanities tab where you will find the Reflexes in the menu. Past submissions from students are uploaded to this area of the website.

    If this contest is successful, the magazine editors will consider  a similar contest to take place next semester. One proposed idea for a theme was Valentine’s Day. James Trent, Editor-in-Chief of Reflexes, feels that this contest is a great way to make students aware of the magazine. “The contest is really great to reward that creativity with notoriety and food. Also the more people who know about Reflexes the better,” says Trent. Dr. Delilah O’Haynes, professor of English, has good hopes about the submissions as well. Dr. O’Haynes feels giving the Halloween theme as something to write about helps students get their creative juices flowing. She adds how this contest is also good because it is helping to promote a local restaurant that has not only been extremely positively reviewed but whose owner has given back to the community.

    Some of the material submitted has been considered spooky and possibly gory. It shows how much of the students’ creativity the Halloween theme really did inspire. Dr. O’Haynes says, “People like creepy stuff. We know that because horror is one of the biggest sellers in novels, movies, and the like.” According to Dr. O’Haynes, there have also been a few poems submitted that seem to go well with the “spooky” mood of Halloween. Trent explains, “Things that normally make people too uncomfortable or are [considered] ‘bad taste’ are given a free pass, [which means] so many limits are lifted for a whole month.” He also feels that Halloween is a special time for creativity.

    This contest can be Reflexes’ unique way of getting students to show their Halloween spirit. So for anybody who feels the urge to see some spooky artwork or read some spine-chilling stories for Halloween, they can look to the creativity of fellow students. Trent adds, “It encourages costumes and decorations for everyone to enjoy, and any creative work is another expression of that same feeling everyone gets during the season.”