Autumn 2009: Of Note

Cover of Black Star Magazine

Courtesy Ian McCall

News Makers

Minority voices speak in Black Star magazine

By Mary J. Loftus

From a hard look at the concept of “self-segregation” to an essay about working with middle school students outside the “Emory bubble,” Black Star magazine doesn’t shy away from straight talk.

“I felt like the voice on campus still existed, but the microphone was gone,” says editor-in-chief Ian McCall 11C, who helped to create Black Star as a successor to Emory’s black student newspaper, The Fire This Time (which was founded by Emory alumnus, journalist, and novelist Touré and ceased publication in 2003).

McCall, an international studies and sociology major, says the publication is the product of passion and activism. Funds were secured from diverse sources, including the administration and community partners, and the staff has grown from three to twenty. “Emory’s minority population is exploding, and it’s more important now than ever to have a place for different voices to express ideas,” he says.

The magazine’s staff, including McCall, former editor-in-chief Torie Anderson 09C, cofounder Hamzat Sani 07C, and managing editor Treasure Arthur 12C, has produced three issues, which were distributed around the Emory, Morehouse, and Spelman campuses. McCall says Black Star plans to extend its reach beyond the pages of the magazine: staff members will be working with the King Center, the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Metropolitan Atlanta Violence Prevention Partnership, and literacy programs that produce magazines for teens at Turner Middle School and Griffin High School in Fulton County. “We won’t just be telling the news,” McCall says. “We’ll be making it.”