We can't believe we are currently writing this, the editorial for the first ever issue of Abaporu. We (Manu and Tina) have been on a seemingly never ending journey to create Avenues São Paulo's first ever student publication since the beginning of the 10th grade. Now, more than two years and several attempts later, we have finally done it! 

 

In September 2018, a small group of students and teachers met for the first time with the common goal of founding Avenues São Paulo's official student-led publication. It was a turbulent year. Just picture it: a small classroom at 4:30pm on a Tuesday, Manu and Tina seated next to each other, another student seated on the other side of the room, and our club advisor Ms. Castro seated in the middle as we passive aggressively discuss what our publication name should be. As the meetings went on, attendance went down and the only people meeting each week were Manu, Tina, and Ms. Castro. These meetings turned into weekly ideation sessions creating a sense of discouragement from moving forward with no support from our peers. 

 

We got members every now and then, but no one seemed to stick, daunted by the scale of the task and the underwhelming size of the group set to undertake it. Despite our own passion, we began to feel discouraged. The meetings became a chore, the excitement of creating something new, something ours, faded as we realized creating a magazine between two people was just too far fetched. Still, we never gave up. Even our friends got tired of hearing us asking them for art pieces, photographs, articles on whatever they thought was interesting. But we didn't stop. Abaporu felt like something that simply had to happen, no matter how or when.

 

When we least expected, however, we were contacted by two Avenues NY students (Isabele and Jaden, who have since graduated) who were looking to create an international Avenues publication and/or platform. We were so excited about this collaboration: we finally had something to put out there and share with our school community. This project turned into Agora, a digital platform that mostly consisted of articles from students who took part in the Sampa Seminar class in early 2020. This class came before the pandemic, meaning we could welcome our co-founders from New York into our campus! This project culminated in a Sampa Seminar Zine, and helped raise interest in the São Paulo campus. Agora didn't take off like we intended; maintaining a platform for both campuses while also keeping our campus-exclusive publications afloat was no easy feat. In New York, Agora had only its two founding members, while in São Paulo Agora had all members and Abaporu remained stagnant.

 

Thankfully, Agora helped us get the word out for student journalism and the need for an outlet of student expression. This movement helped launch the Communications Senior Seminar we are taking right now! Having the structure of a class, a set team of people, and time allotted to us every day for work made all the difference in the world. Knowing other people shared our passion and wanted to get this thing off the ground was amazing. With all that hard work and patience, we were able to create something we can truly call ours. 

 

So, here we are! We hope you enjoy this small collective of pieces we believe represent Avenues SP's upper graders' 2020 vision!

If you like what you see (or don't and want to change it) we are always open for submissions and questions. 

Thank you so much!
M(anuela)&M(artina)
Special thanks to: Ms. Yergens, Mr. Cooper, Luiza, Maria, Michele, Thomas, and Zoe.